RE: [docbook-apps] New Branch: website5

["David Cramer" <dcramer@motive.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Bradford [mailto:denis.bradford@verizon.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 4:32 PM
To: DocBook Apps Mailing-List
Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] New Branch: website5

<snip>

> The benefits just might be worth the effort. Making Website a DocBook 
> output option, instead of a separate dialect, would increase its value

> for technical documentation -- a low-tech, frameless alternative to 
> Eclipse infocenters and HTML-based help browsers.

Hi Denis,
Sorry, just catching up on this thread.

You might be interested in Kasun Gajasinghe's WebHelp GSOC project: 
http://docbook.xmlpress.net/tiki-index.php?page=webhelp_proj

This project is turns standard DocBook into user assistance for webapps
and in other situations where you need a crossplatform/crossbrowser help
solution, but is similar to what you want. The index tab is currently a
low-priority item relative to the other features, but is definitely in
the scope. If you've already got some code that creates the content for
an index tab (similar to an the Eclipse or HTML Help index), I'm sure
Kasun would love to see it. 

The project will improve on the prototype here:
http://www.thingbag.net/docbook/docbook-webhelp/index.html

The goal is to do it without a frameset, improve the toc, and improve
the search. Kasun and I have currently deprioritized an index tab in
favor of search highlighting, but if you've already done the work,
perhaps the index tab would make it back in.

David