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When a core IDE window or dialog box is used by a module (such as Solaris Native Languages Support) and the contents of the window or dialog are different than those for the core IDE, a different help topic needs to be displayed by the Help button and/or F1 key. But even though the module assigns a different help map ID to the window or dialog, the help map ID assigned by the core IDE always takes precedence, and the help topic associated with that help map ID is always displayed. For example, even though the SNLS code assigns its own help map ID to the Add Breakpoints dialog box (which has completely different contents when the dbx Debugger is active), clicking the Help button displays the online help topic for the core IDE contents of the Add Breakpoints window. So the user is seeing online help that is incorrect for the implementation of the dialog that he is currently using.
=> core team
Can't rule out a core bug yet, but I see no evidence of it. So far all I see is that some dialog in the debugger module has the wrong help ID. I know nothing about the interaction between the different debugger modules, so please do not reassign to core without complete details of what dialog this is (class name please!), where in code the base debugger module assigns the help ID, where the extension module tries to override it. Nicer would be a standalone test case not using the debugger module at all, so the problem can be demonstrated without going through a lot of unrelated code. Remember that the core NbPresenter first looks for a direct DialogDescriptor.helpCtx, and if there is none it will also check the contained component for a helpID JComponent client property. Setting the help context directly on the descriptor is better. Maybe the debuggercore use the descriptor's helpCtx property, and the extension module does something else that has no effect?
After consultation with John-Jullion Ceccarelli and Patrick Keegan (documentation writers), I changed code of the Add Breakpoint dialog in the following way: - HelpCtx is taken from a customizer of a selected breakpoint type. - If the customizer does not provide any HelpCtx, a default help is used (In NB 3.4, the page describing Java breakpoint types is the default. The restriction was that new help pages cannot be added - it is too late.)
fixed in main trunk
Fixed also in branches 'release33' and 'orion_fcs'.
This bug is fixed in NetBeans but not in Orion. Why? Here is the story: When I fixed the bug in NetBeans (the fix allowed other modules to specify their own Help IDs), I called to Ann Rice to ask her, which developer working on SNLS should I contact in order to make the bug fixed also in Orion. She told be that Tor Norbye is the right person - so I e-mailed to Tor Norbye. But Tor Norbye was on vacation that time. When Tor returned from vacation, he told me that George Hernandez was working on help topic issues. So I sent an e-mail to George Hernandez. George Hernandez was on vacation that time. When he returned, he read my e-mail and tried to make necessary changes in Orion code - but it was too late, the change of code (although very simple and without risk) was refused.
Verified
Resolved for 3.3.x or earlier, no new info since then -> closing.