Re: [docbook-apps] WebHelp display issue

[David Cramer <david@thingbag.net>]

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Hi Stefan,

> I've thought about this over the weekend, and I'm wondering if the 
> approach I'm taking is the right thing to do. Basically, I've
> copied over the webhelp/templates directory to a "safe" location.
> Of course, that copy will eventually go out of sync with the
> templates folder included in the XSL style sheets, unless I sync
> over changes manually.

In fact, that's what I do and I think it's inevitable. I manage the
delta with a diff tool.

> I've done the "fork" for the following reasons:
> 
> * The images folder contains a set of images that we (and probably
> many others) will want to replace with their own, customized,
> images.
> 
> * The jquery folder contains a certain theme, theme-redmond. Again,
> we will want to customize that by either using a different theme
> from the jQuery UI gallery, or by rolling our own from 
> http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/.
> 
> * We will want to use a different favicon.
> 
> * Regarding files in content/search, we're considering using the
> search improvements made by Peter Desjardins, the most important
> one being the ability to search for "search strings in quotes",
> expanding the one-word search that exists by default.
> 
> Granted, the last item could be done as a contribution to the XSL
> style sheets, rather than as a customization, if Peter or I can
> find the time to extract the changes he made, and provide a patch.
> 
Please post a working example and perhaps Kasun or I can find the time
to incorporate it in. I do have one change in a zip file related to
searching for file names, but I also have another approach to that
which will be more general and relies on some indexer changes
contributed by oxygen.

> But for the rest of the items (images, jQuery theme, favicon), I
> see no viable way of accomplishing customization other than by
> "forking" the templates folder, or by "polluting" the original
> style sheets with customized stuff. Both options don't seem to be
> optimal.
> 
> There's a third option, which would be to make many more things 
> customizable in the webhelp style sheets. Configuration options
> would include:
> 
> * Using a different images folder (with the exact same file names),
> for example "/custom/path/webhelp/ui-images/".
> 
> * Using a different jquery/theme-redmond folder, for example 
> "/custom/path/webhelp/theme-darkside".
> 
> * Using a different favicon.ico file (with the same name), for
> example "/custom/path/webhelp/favicon.ico".
> 
> Not sure how viable this would be, though. What do you think?

I'm happy to provide those options if they will help. I think at least
for the jquery theme we should do it. I suspect for the images most
people will just have the build copy their versions over the stock ones.

The fact that webhelp includes so much extra stuff (css, js, images, a
sample build.xml) raises some special considerations for
customization. I've been curious how people actually use the sample
build.xml (i.e. do they use it as is, importing it into their
build.xml and overriding it xslt-style  or do they just rewrite it to
meet their needs).

Thanks,
David
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