Missing step in Tutorial?

[jqueen]

I ran through the "Creating a New Help Project" tutorial, and I ran into a possible missing step. When I get to the "Working with TOCs" section, a few new folders have suddenly appeared in the project hierarchy: build-settings, images, and stylesheets. I have no idea where these came from.

The main problem I'm having is that once I've added this plugin to my existing project and I try to run the ANT build, I get the following error:

Code: Select all

java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\ERDCVS\Products\POC\workspace 3.3.1\gov.mt.dli.erd.proofcoverage.help\build-bundle.xml (The system cannot find the file specified)

Where does the "build-bundle.xml" file come from? I can only guess that it has something to do with the step that I mentioned above. Can anyone help me?

-Jamie

[gnebling]

I was not able to reproduce this. Can you recreate the steps you did? Did you do the entire RCP Developer tutorial i.e. creating the Contact Manager project and the Installer project? The build-bundle.xml is generated within your Contact Manager project when you run the build-installer.xml in your installer project.

[jqueen]

I have two plugin projects:
- gov.mt.dli.erd.proofcoverage
- gov.mt.dli.erd.proofcoverage.help

The first project (my application) was developed based on the Contact Manager plugin; it does have a "build-bundle.xml" file. The second project (my help project) was developed exactly according to the tutorial (Help Composer Guide->Getting Started->Creating a New Help Project). At some point between "Creating a new help page" and "Working with TOCs", the build-settings, images, and stylesheets folders appeared in your tutorial hierarchy, but not in my own project's.

I also followed the "Linking Help to the Menu" instructions exactly, substituting my "proofcoverage" project for your "contactmanager" project.

Are you saying that there doesn't need to be a "build-bundle.xml" file in my Help Project? If so, why is the ANT build looking for one?

[gnebling]

Ah, I thought those folders/files appeared in your project. It looks like our screen shots are outdated - I'll work on updating those.

Are you also using our Installer project to do your build?

[jqueen]

Yes, but I haven't yet gotten to the point of having a valid "Install Image" to generate the Installer from. That is, not since I attempted to add the Help Project plug-in. Prior to adding the plug-in, the ANT build would work great, and the installer would be generated w/o a hitch.

Now, I keep getting hung up on the export, with the ANT build trying to find build settings on my Help plug-in.

If this is something that I need to build my app, how do generate the build files?

[gnebling]

Yes, but I haven't yet gotten to the point of having a valid "Install Image" to generate the Installer from. That is, not since I attempted to add the Help Project plug-in. Prior to adding the plug-in, the ANT build would work great, and the installer would be generated w/o a hitch.

Then how are you running your ANT build?

Now, I keep getting hung up on the export, with the ANT build trying to find build settings on my Help plug-in.

How are you doing the export?

If this is something that I need to build my app, how do generate the build files?

The tutorial on Generating a Sample Application and Installer should address that question.
http://downloads.instantiations.com/RCP ... arted.html

[jqueen]

Then how are you running your ANT build?
...
How are you doing the export?

I right-click on my build-product.xml file, then select "Run As->ANT build...". On the JRE tab, I make sure that it's set to run in the same JRE as my workspace, then I run the build. It's always worked before, but now (very near the end of the build) I get an error about the missing file in the Help project. I can't imagine that there's anything wrong with the project pre-Help plug-in; it's got to be something with how the Help plugin is integrated, which is what your tutorial was supposed to show me how to do.

HOW DO I GET THAT FILE IN MY HELP PROJECT?

The tutorial on Generating a Sample Application and Installer should address that question.
http://downloads.instantiations.com/RCP ... arted.html

That tells me how to generate an RCP app, not a Help Composer project. Your tutorial doesn't say anything about exporting or building the Help project, just including it in the main RCP project. That's what I did. Now I'm getting this error. Can't you clarify something for me?

Sorry to sound so frustrated; it's just that this is your product, and you're the only source I have for instructions.

[jqueen]

I just noticed that your tutorial jumps to a completely different project at the point where the file structure changes; at that point, you're not even working with the "ContactManager" project anymore.

I finally got the Help Project to work with my app, but I had to undo all of the plugin.xml and *.product dependency changes required in the tutorial. Instead, I exported the Help Project as a *.jar, then exported my original app like normal, then dropped my new *.jar in the "plugins" directory of my app. Having kept the changes to the ApplicationActionBarAdvisor class, my help topic showed up in the application.

You might consider including these steps to package and add the Help plugin in the user's RCP project. Following the tutorial, a user will end up in exactly the same place as myself, with a functioning runtime Help plugin, but a failing export.