Delivering All the Required Files
This book doesn’t discuss particular software installation tools, but here’s an informal checklist to help you include all the files required for your help system in your software distribution package. For simplicity, assume that you’re deploying a software application and its online documentation, implemented as a single HelpSet.
- The application itself
Obviously, you need to include all the files that make up the software application itself.
- The HelpSet
If you’ve encapsulated the HelpSet as a JAR file, just that one file goes into the distribution package. (Exception: if you’ve excluded the HelpSet file and/or map file from the JAR file, be sure to include those individual files in the distribution package.)
If you’re not JARing the HelpSet, you need to include all its files individually.
- The Java classes that implement the JavaHelp system
At this time, JavaHelp is an extension to Java, not part of Sun Microsystems’ Java software distribution. Thus, you should include the JavaHelp JAR file
jh.jarorjhall.jar, which implements JavaHelp support, in the distribution package. Users must include this JAR fileon their Java class path when starting a Java application or the HelpSet Viewer, in order to make JavaHelp features available.A sophisticated installation program might check the user’s site, to determine whether the JavaHelp JAR file is already installed. (The user might be installing your software on a computer that already has JavaHelp support, ...