How to attach help to WPF application built in VS 2008

Question

I have one chm for my application which i want to attach with my application that is when user press F1 attached help with the project opens up.

Answer 1

I do not know of any in built support in WPF to display CHM files. What I do is add an InputGesture to connect F1 keystroke to Application.Help command and in the Windows CommandBindings add a handler for Application.Help Command. Here is a sample code:

<Window x:Class="WpfTestApp.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525" >
<Window.InputBindings>
    <KeyBinding Command="Help" Key="F1"/>
</Window.InputBindings>
<Window.CommandBindings>
    <CommandBinding Command="ApplicationCommands.Help" Executed="HelpExecuted" />
</Window.CommandBindings>
<Grid>

</Grid>

Here's the handler code:

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void HelpExecuted(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@"C:\MyProjectPath\HelpFile.chm");
    }


}

Answer 2

Using F1 Help (CHM format) With WPF

Answer 3

Based on this approach, I did the following so I could take advantage of an OnlineHelpViewModel I had that was managing the help through a RelayCommand. When F1 is pressed, with this approach, the RelayCommand on the viewmodel is invoked just as if ia ? button had been pushed. In other words,we bind F1 to the RelayCommand.

This example uses GalaSoft MvvmLight.

DependencyProperty on the MainWindow

public static DependencyProperty HelpCommandProperty =  DependencyProperty.Register("HelpCommand",
        typeof(RelayCommand<string>), typeof(WindowExt),
        new PropertyMetadata(null));

    public RelayCommand<string> HelpCommand
    {
        get
        {
            return (RelayCommand<string>)GetValue(HelpCommandProperty);
        }
        set
        {
            SetValue(HelpCommandProperty, value);
        }
    }

OK that holds the command

Now in the window loaded event or somewhere you like:

...
        Binding b2 = new Binding();
        b2.Source = ViewModelLocator.OnlineHelpViewModelStatic;
        b2.Path = new PropertyPath("ShowApplicationHelpCommand");
        b2.Mode = BindingMode.OneWay;
        this.SetBinding(HelpCommandProperty, b2);


        var kb = new KeyBinding();
        kb.Key = Key.F1;
        kb.Command = HelpCommand;
        this.CommandBindings.Add(new CommandBinding(ApplicationCommands.Help, HelpCommand_Executed));

OK that binds the command on the SOURCE viewmodel to this window.

Then a handler for the command on this window ( perhaps this can be inline somehow)

private void HelpCommand_Executed(object sender, ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        this.HelpCommand.Execute(HelpContextGuid);
    }

and you now can call the single help command on OnlineHelpViewModel from anywhere, and it can be arbitrarily complicated too depending. Note that the DP HelpContextGuid is passed - it is up to the command to decide what to do with it but the RelayCommmand<string> wants an argument

The command itself looks like (on the SOURCE Viewmodel)

 ...
 ShowApplicationHelpCommand = new RelayCommand<string>(
            (h) => { ShowApplicationHelp(h); },
            (h) => CanShowApplicationHelpCommand);

 ...

and method it invokes is whatever it takes to show the help,

In my case, I create a RadWindow and so on and populated it with XamlHelp using the BackSpin Software HelpLoader. The help file is generated from Word with Twister4Word. All of this is particular to my application so you would probably do something else to make a help window. Here is the constructor:

   public MigratorHelpWindow()
    {
        // create local resources for desingn mode, so Blend can see the viewmodels
        if (System.ComponentModel.DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode(this))
        {
            App.CreateStaticResourcesForDesigner(this);
        }

        InitializeComponent();

        if (Application.Current.MainWindow != null)
        {
             var thm =  ThemeManager.FromName(Application.Current.FindResource("TelerikGlobalTheme").ToString() ?? "Office_Blue");
            StyleManager.SetTheme(this, thm);
        }

        // window configuration
        MaxHeight = SystemParameters.WorkArea.Height;
        MaxWidth = SystemParameters.WorkArea.Width;

        Binding b = new Binding();
        b.Source = ViewModelLocator.OnlineHelpViewModelStatic;
        b.Path = new PropertyPath("ApplicationHelpFileName");
        b.Mode = BindingMode.OneWay;

        this.SetBinding(ApplicationHelpFileNameProperty, b);

        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(ApplicationHelpFileName))
        {
            UiHelpers.ShowError("No help file is available", true);
            return;
        }


   // LOAD YOUR HELP HERE OR WHATEVER
   // LOAD YOUR HELP HERE OR WHATEVER
   // LOAD YOUR HELP HERE OR WHATEVER


        HelpLoader.Load(ApplicationHelpFileName);
        HelpLoader.Default.Owner = this;
        HelpLoader.Default.HelpLayout = HelpLayout.Standard;
        HelpLoader.Default.TocContainer = _mTOC;
        HelpLoader.Default.IndexContainer = _mIndex;
        HelpLoader.Default.TopicContainer = _mTopic;
        HelpLoader.Default.SearchContainer = _mSearch;
        HelpLoader.Default.FavoritesContainer = _mFavorites;
    }

You can find the BackSpin Help Authoring tool here

http://www.backspinsoftware.com/site/Default.aspx

It generates compiled help from Word documents.