Pathmaker Programming Guide

Adding Help Text
Maintaining Pathmaker Applications
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Adding Help Text The Pathmaker product helps you make your application easy to use by allowing you
to provide help text throughout the interface. You can enter help text for function
keys, screens, and data fields:
Function key help text is entered through the Display Text screen in the
Pathmaker full screen interface.
Help text for the entire requester is entered through the Requester Description
screen in the Pathmaker full screen interface.
Data field help text is added through the HELP clause in Enscribe or NonStop SQL
DDL, or by using the Display Detail screen.
When you install your application, the Pathmaker product provides a requester and
corresponding server that together fetch and display the online help text you create.
As in the Pathmaker product itself, help text is stored in database files and is displayed
when the CALL HELP function key (by default, F3 in the generated application) is
pressed. The specific online help that is displayed depends on the position of the
cursor when the end user presses the help function key.
Tandem supplies a set of Enform queries that report on help text. Query PM12 lists
the help text stored for all function keys, listed by requester name. Query PM13 lists
each requester in the project catalog and the help text from the Display Detail screen
for each field of each screen. Query PM14 lists the help text from the Requester
Description screen stored for all requesters.
If you need to modify the online help text for your application, use the HELPUTIL
utility program. Refer to the Pathmaker Reference Manual for a description and details
on how to use this utility.
If you need to add online help text for the first time for a screen, function key, or data
field, use the following procedure.
1. Run the Pathmaker full screen interface. The Pathmaker Main Menu appears.
2. Add help text for the requester screen.
3. Add help text for the function keys.
4. Add help text for a field.
5. Regenerate the requester.