You need Help for your Dexterity customization

A bit late to the party I am, but I now have a complete help system to accompany my Dexterity customization for GP.  I'd like to document the process for anyone else who might need to follow this course.

Of course there are references around the web for this.  I will try to include those where relevant.  My approach here is to outline the basics you will need to create your help system.

The Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Guide for Dexterity (Help > Online Manuals) contains the seeds of this.  In typical brief (to being almost useless) style there is some important information in that manual.  Hopefully this post will make sense of that.

There are two components you will need for this venture:

1. Microsoft HTML Help Workshop.  This is currently noted at version 1.4.  This tool compiles your help files into a CHM file that you will distribute with your Dexterity CNK file.

2. A good HTML editor.  Your help files need to be in HTML format.  I'm agnostic on what editor you choose.  Just don't think about using Word for this.  I don't know which editor is best.  I am currently using a product called Macromedia HomeSite+, but there are many you can choose from.  If you are an HTML wiz you can just use Notepad (and you don't need me to tell you that.)

An important connecting dot in this exists in your Dexterity customization.  Every object you create, and this may be true for every Dexterity object, has a property called HelpContextID.  This is a unique number assigned by Dexterity to every object that is passed to the help system.  In essence this delivers the Context Sensitive help people expect in applications today.

My guess at what happens is when the user hits F1 Dexterity evaluates the context of this event and, if it's your screen or a field thereon, navigates from the HelpContextID to the pointer in the CHM file that gets them to the relevant help text.

Of course if you have customized an existing GP window (i.e. an Alternate Window) then you have fewer options.  GP will always launch it's own help files by default.  But a trick I learned from the documentation is to use Local fields on these windows, not Global fields, so that you get a unique HelpContextID.  Lesson learned the hard way.

In a future post I will go over the building blocks and essential elements.  For now read the Dex GP IG and download the components you will use.  The best is yet to come!