help_frs Statement—Include the Ingres Help Facility
This statement obtains access to the Ingres help facility.
Syntax
help_frs (subject = subjectname, file = filename)
Description
The help_frs statement enables you to include a help facility in an application. The Ingres help facility provides the user with access to information on the current form, the fields of the form, field validation criteria, and the current function/control/arrow key mappings.
Filename is the name of the file containing the help text for the current form. If the application is to be run by different users specify the full directory specification. The text can be different for each form in the application. The help text is displayed in a table field format. If the file specified by filename does not exist, a message telling the user that no help exists for that subjectname appears on the screen. Both filename and subjectname must be expressed as quoted string literals or program string variables.
During the development of a forms-based system that uses the Ingres help facility, it is often useful to escape to a system text editor to edit the help text while running the application. The logical/environment variable II_HELP_EDIT provides this capability. By setting this name at the operating system level to any value, such as TRUE, you cause an extra menu operation, Edit, to appear under the WhatToDo operation in the help facility. Selecting the Edit operation invokes the default system text editor on the current frame's help file. After you have saved the file the new help file constitutes the help text for the frame. You can also change the default text editor by setting ING_EDIT to the name of your preferred editor.
Example—help_frs statement:
Example 1:
Provide the Ingres help facility in the personnel form, in the current directory.
exec frs activate menuitem 'Help';
exec frs begin;
exec frs help_frs (subject = 'Personnel form',
file = 'personnel.hlp');
exec frs end;
By selecting the menu item Help, the user gains access to the Ingres help facility. The user can obtain information on the current form using the text contained in the named file. If such a file does not exist, a message stating that the help file for Personnel form cannot be opened appears at the top of the screen. In addition, the user can look up field validations and function/control/arrow key mappings.