How to Customize the Windows Azure Pack Management Portal Help for an Extension

Applies To: Windows Azure Pack

The TOCMapping file is responsible for rendering the left navigation pane links. The following diagram illustrates where the left navigation pane exists in the Windows Azure Pack management portal.

Each link has a context which is contained in a <set> element within the TOC Mapping file. The child element <related topic> contains the actual link to the help content and associated attribute information. The following XML example shows the XML Mapping file for the MySQL extension.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<site xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" locale="en-us">
  <set setContextId="mysqlextension.databases" title="mysqlextension.databases">
    <relatedTopic topicContextId="0" title="Change the Password for a MySQL Database" id="jj822102(en-us,azure.100)" />
    <relatedTopic topicContextId="1" title="View MySQL Database Information" id="jj822123(en-us,azure.100)" />
    <relatedTopic topicContextId="2" title="Delete a MySQL Database" id="jj822141(en-us,azure.100)" />
    <relatedTopic topicContextId="3" title="Create a MySQL Database" id="jj822150(en-us,azure.100)" />
    <relatedTopic topicContextId="4" title="Navigate MySQL Databases" id="jj822106(en-us,azure.100)" />
  </set>
</site>

The attributes for <related topic> are as follows

The rendered help content is stored in .xhtml files. The extensions provided in the default Windows Azure Pack installation provide help content .xhtml files that can be used as a guide to creating your own help content.

Custom Help Tasks

How to Modify the Left Navigation Pane Help Links for an Extension

1. Locate the TOCMapping.xml File for the extension left navigation pane you want to update. For more information, see Windows Azure Pack Custom Help Overview.

2. Open TOCMapping.XML in Notepad and locate the context (<set>) for the link that needs updating.

3. Update the required <related topic> element of the link context <set>.

How Modify Existing Help Content for an Extension

1. Locate the TOCMapping.xml file. For more information, see Windows Azure Pack Custom Help Overview.

2. Open TOCMapping.xml in Notepad and identify the help context <set> that contains the required help link<related topic>.

3. Identify the help content .xhtml file by inspecting the <id> attribute of the <related topic> element.

4. Edit and save the .xhtml file to modify the help content.

How to Add New Help Content to an Extension

1. Create the Help Content and save it as a .xhtml file in the appropriate folder for the help content. Typically this will be the same folder as the TOCMapping.xml file for the extension, but this isn’t guaranteed. For information about locating the help content for an extension, see Windows Azure Pack Custom Help Overview.

2. Open TOCMapping.xml for the Extension in Notepad and identify the help context <set> that the new help content is to be added to. For information about locating the TOCMapping.xml for an extension, see Windows Azure Pack Custom Help Overview.

3. Add a <related topic> element to the help context <set>. The Id attribute of the <relatedTopic> should be the help content file name created in the first step without the .xhtml extension.

How to Render Help Images

1. Create the image as either a .PNG or .GIF file

2. Place the image in the same folder as the extension’s help content .xhtml files. For information about locating the help content for an extension, see Windows Azure Pack Custom Help Overview.

3. In the help content .xhtml file that renders the image, use the following format to reference the image in a <img> tag:

   <src="/HelpContent/GetImage/<extensionName>/<FileName>.<extension>" class="mtpsimage" alt="note"  />
   

   For example <img src="/HelpContent/GetImage/websystemadminextension/jj205510.note(en-us,MSDN.10).gif" class="mtpsimage" alt="note" />

See Also

Windows Azure Pack Extension Custom Help