Adding help to the node

Add help information by adding an HTML file to the message flow node that you have created.

1. Create a help.html file in the project to contain the online help that explains what the node does and how you can use it.
   If you have several files, create a separate doc subdirectory in the plug-in project, and store the online help files in that directory.

   You can make the online help for the node look like it is integrated with the product-supplied product documentation, under the leaf node called "User-defined nodes", which you can find in Reference > Message flow development > User-defined extensions > User-defined nodes. To make the online help for your node show at that point:

   1. Modify the plugin.xml file to include the following extension point to the product documentation:

      <extension point="org.eclipse.help.toc">
      <toc file="toc.xml"/>
      </extension>

   2. Create a toc.xml file in your user-defined node project, and modify the link_to attribute to link to the "UDNodes" anchor that is already defined in the information center contents views:

      <toc label="My Plugin Node" topic="my_node.htm"
      	link_to="../com.ibm.etools.mft.doc/toc.xml#UDNodes">
      <topic label="Mytopic 1" href="topic1.htm>
      </toc>

      Your help topic is now displayed in the contents views under Reference > Message flow development > User-defined extensions > User-defined nodes.

      The sample nodes that are provided with the product demonstrate this option.

      For further explanation of extension points and how to use them, see the PDE guide at Eclipse documentation.

2. Add context sensitive (F1) help to the node. Context-sensitive help is displayed when you click a node in the Integration Development perspective and press F1.

   When a node is created, a HelpContexts.xml file is created. This file assigns a context identifier based on the name of the node. Modify the HelpContexts.xml file for your node by changing the text in the description field. The name of the HelpContexts.xml file must be unique within the project, but can contain multiple context entries; for example, if you have several nodes within a single project, each node can have its context-sensitive help in the file.

   Context-sensitive help is limited in length. A useful way of providing more help to the user is to link from the F1 help to an HTML file that contains further information; for example, to the online help for the node, described previously. Use the following code for the link:

   <topic href"../plug-in directory/html file" label="Link title">
   

3. Add hover help (known as ToolTip help on Windows) to the node. When you create a user-defined node, a palette.properties file is created. Modify this file to contain the hover help for your node, which shows the node name when the palette is not wide enough to display it all.