Where to put your help files? Support

There seems to be some confusion, and lack of documentation from Macromedia as to where to place extension help files. Hopefully this will help!

For extensions to be allowed into the Macromedia exchange, and ultimately for approval, all help files have to be placed into the ExtensionsHelp directory and not under the Shared directory.

If 'Bob' has his help files for his 'mega-extension' he would include the following in his MXI file:

<file source="mega-extension.gif" destination="$dreamweaver/configuration/ExtensionsHelp/Bob/MegaExtension/" />
<file source="index.htm" destination="$dreamweaver/configuration/ExtensionsHelp/Bob/MegaExtension/" />

Do not add a 'help' directory underneath the 'ExtensionsHelp' directory like this:

<file source="index.htm" destination="$dreamweaver/configuration/ExtensionsHelp/Bob/MegaExtension/help/" />

......as this causes un-needed replication

Also, don't forgot to add the javascript help function code to the UI of your extension (it goes in the head!):

function displayHelp(){
  var pathToConfig = dw.getConfigurationPath();
  var helpdoc = "/ExtensionsHelp/Bob/MegaExtension/index.htm";
  var fullPath = pathToConfig + helpdoc;
        dw.browseDocument(fullPath);
}

If the help is going to be on a remote server you can use this function instead of the one above to dislpay it:

function displayHelp(){
        dw.browseDocument("http://www.yourwebsite.com/yourextension/help");
}

Hope this help - Jason