Simple help guide for new installs

Please post all questions and comments regarding Help & Manual 7 here.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Our application is often installed on a virgin operating system. The first button on our install manager (the first download) is intended to open our on-line help for the installation process. But in practice the browser either complains that it cannot open our website, or shows a partial display, without Javascript-needed items, after adding the URL to a 'trusted' list. If we manage to install our e-book, it also comes up blank, after having first had to be told that 127.0.0.1 is a good URL. And if we are lucky enough to find a browser later than IE8 (which still appears on 2008R2), much the same steps are usually needed. Sometimes enabling scripting and/or javascript is not sufficent to display all the help buttons and variables.

What I am looking for is a set of simple steps which we could display in advance of trying to open a browser (for obvious reasons, putting it in our help is not helpful). Has anyone solved this problem? Does EC Software have a definitive list of what is needed to open Internet web help or an e-book on a pristine Windows system? This needs to work in a corporate server room, as well as on a desktop, and should preferably not involve anything scary like selecting a 'not recommended' option, or installing a different browser.

In the worst case we might have to try to develop a CHM file which we could drop into a local folder with full details and screen shots of what to do, but if anyone can come up with a simple checklist I could adapt, I would be most grateful. I imagine everyone here already has a browser which can open their own help files, and a machine which allows their e-books to be opened; but Windows seems to dream up ever more obstacles as the defaults on a new machine.
User avatar
Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Tim,

If you still have HM6 (or from: http://download.ec-software.com/hm6setup.exe ), the old Windows EBook format creates a simple exe file (no javascript) which doesn't require a browser or internet connection and will run anywhere.

Alternatively, I have written my own very basic equivalent (needed for use under Wine on Linux) which I could send you?

regards,

Martin.
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Re: Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Thanks, that's a good idea for creating a prettier guide - I still have H&M6 installed in an archive VM. But I am still interested in building a list of exactly what needs to be done in a new browser to get the help (and H&M7 e-book) to display correctly. Most recently, I found in 2008R2 + IE8 that I needed to enable 'active scripting' and 'scripting of java applets' to get anything but a blank sceen in the H&M7 e-book, which now works correctly. But this was still insufficient to correct the display of our on-line web help, which displayed with only the left and right panels: the buttons along the top and the search was missing. My remote connection to the customer's machine dropped before I could finish working on this, but I will try again later today. So what I still need is a definitive list of what IE non-default features are needed to display H&M help - I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to know the innards of the PP skins and what exactly they need, so each new browser and OS combination involves trial and error. Our H&M7 help may look fantastic, but not so good if it entirely fails to appear in an out-of-the-box IE browser.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Tim,
Tim Frost wrote:So what I still need is a definitive list of what IE non-default features are needed to display H&M help - I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to know the innards of the PP skins and what exactly they need, so each new browser and OS combination involves trial and error. Our H&M7 help may look fantastic, but not so good if it entirely fails to appear in an out-of-the-box IE browser.
There are no "non-default" features required. You just need JavaScript support to be active, that is all. However, you also need a current browser. If you're targeting obsolete systems running obsolete browsers you need to use obsolete skins -- then choose one of the "classic dual mode" skins from the Premium Pack or one of the "classic" standard skins from Help & Manual. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Simon Dismore
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 1:29 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

Tim Green wrote:you also need a current browser
Does that include IE9? I'm not saying it should, just wondering.

I see that Microsoft's IE Lifecycle FAQ says that after January 12, 2016 they will only support IE9 on Vista and Server 2008, which are both in extended support now. And the current Office365 requirement is "The current or immediately previous version of Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge." So supporting IE9 in future is probably unnecessary. However, it might be nice to have a feature detection script that runs automatically when the webhelp/ebook starts and can alert the user with relevant advice if their browser needs updating.
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Re: Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Supporting IE9, and IE8 as long as possible, is absolutely necessary. We have users whose machines are not connected to the internet and need to access our e-book from XP/2003 today, as well as Server 2008. That the v7 e-book still supports IE8 and works well there was a factor in our decision to use it instead of CHM. Of course this does not need to last for ever, but it is good for now.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Simple help guide for new installs

Unread post by Tim Green »

Simon Dismore wrote:Does that include IE9? I'm not saying it should, just wondering.
The current skins also support IE9, although that is an anachronism. Premium Pack 3 will not support older versions at all, it is simply not worth the effort -- there we will simply offer a redirect option that will send users of obsolete browsers to a bare-bones copy of the WebHelp with no features.

The situation today is different from what it was when companies were stuck on IE6. Back then they could be excused for developing for IE6 because that was effectively all there was on Windows. However, after the lessons of that horrific experience, anyone who continued to develop exclusively for IE instead of to general web standards is 100% responsible for all the problems they get. They can no longer expect web developers to clean up their self-inflicted problems for them free of charge -- the free pass they had during the IE6 era has long since expired. Now they need to do their own work and clean up their own mess. In addition to that, there is now no valid version of Windows that cannot install a current browser. Offline XP installations can use obsolete skins and even older versions of Help & Manual if they want.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Post Reply