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ContextHelp

Provides contextual help for Vaadin applications.

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ContextHelp is a component allowing you to provide contextual help for your forms and/or fields in an application. ContextHelp shows a bubble containing your specified help text when the user presses F1 (or a configurable hotkey). The bubble opens right next to your field, with a small arrow pointing at the field.

ContextHelp also supports opening the help bubble programmatically and follow focus.

Sample code

ContextHelp contextHelp = new ContextHelp();
layout.addComponent(contextHelp);

TextField foo = new TextField("foo");
TextField bar = new TextField("bar");
layout.addComponent(foo);
layout.addComponent(bar);

contextHelp.addHelpForComponent(bar, "The text field allows you to write many, many, many, many, many things.");
contextHelp.addHelpForComponent(foo, "<b>foo</b> can be <i>formatted</i> using standard <b style='font-size: 20px; color: red;'>HTML</b> and inline <b>CSS</b>.");

ContextHelp contextHelp = new ContextHelp();
contextHelp.extend(UI.getCurrent());    // only needed once for each UI

TextField foo = new TextField("foo");
TextField bar = new TextField("bar");
layout.addComponent(foo);
layout.addComponent(bar);

contextHelp.addHelpForComponent(bar, "The text field allows you to write many, many, many, many, many things.");
contextHelp.addHelpForComponent(foo, "<b>foo</b> can be <i>formatted</i> using standard <b style='font-size: 20px; color: red;'>HTML</b> and inline <b>CSS</b>.");

Compatibility

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Last updated: 2017-04-06

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Version

  • It's now possible to define which key opens the help bubbles
  • The help bubble can be positioned above/below or to the right or left of fields on a per-field basis
  • And bugfixes of course
Released
2011-03-25
Maturity
STABLE
License
Apache License 2.0

Compatibility

Framework
Vaadin 6.0+
Vaadin 8.0+ in 3.0.0
Vaadin 7.3+ in 2.0.1
Vaadin 7.0+ in 2.0.0.beta1
Vaadin 6.2+ in 0.8
Browser
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Safari

ContextHelp - Vaadin Add-on Directory

Provides contextual help for Vaadin applications. ContextHelp - Vaadin Add-on Directory
ContextHelp is a component allowing you to provide contextual help for your forms and/or fields in an application. ContextHelp shows a bubble containing your specified help text when the user presses F1 (or a configurable hotkey). The bubble opens right next to your field, with a small arrow pointing at the field. ContextHelp also supports opening the help bubble programmatically and follow focus.
Discussion
Documentation
Issue Tracker
Source Code
Live demo

ContextHelp version 0.0.4
The only changes in this version is in the packaging of the add-on.

ContextHelp version 0.8
Bugs fixed include the elusive internal NPE when changing "follow focus" state. This version can be considered feature complete (for 1.0) and reasonably stable, but I will keep it in beta for a while in case new bugs are found.

ContextHelp version 1.0
- It's now possible to define which key opens the help bubbles - The help bubble can be positioned above/below or to the right or left of fields on a per-field basis - And bugfixes of course

ContextHelp version 1.1.0
- You can now provide your own help text provider for retrieving help texts based on the components debug id. - Unload handling fixed, so you can now add and remove the component at will without causing errors. - Small UI tweaks.

ContextHelp version 1.2.0
- Added the HelpFieldWrapper class to easily add a help icon beside fields in forms. Just wrap the fields in the HelpFieldWrapper in your field factory.

ContextHelp version 1.2.1
- Fixed a bug where the help text might be rendered before the component to show it for, causing an exception and crashing the rendering. - Made DefaultHelpProvider serializable

ContextHelp version 1.3.0
- Added fully programmatic control. - setStyleName now works correctly - Added setter/getter for the help provider

ContextHelp version 1.3.1
- The help bubble is no longer closed if you click within the component it is bound to or in the bubble itself. This allows you to copy text from the bubble, keep a general help bubble open while navigating fields in a form, etc. - Added a null check to fix issue #11

ContextHelp version 2.0.0.beta1
ContextHelp is now compatible with Vaadin 7 and is now a UI extension. See the demo sourcecode on github for an example.

ContextHelp version 2.0.1
No longer shows incorrect help text for fields with no help text when follow focus is enabled (Mark Vlems)

ContextHelp version 3.0.0
Support for Vaadin Framework 8

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