Difference between revisions of "Features/Activity Help"

Revision as of 11:48, 7 November 2013

Summary

Provides a mechanism to view help about the activity in the current locale within the activity itself.

Owner

Name: Kalpa Welivitigoda
Email: callkalpa [AT] gmail.com

Current status

Targeted release: (0.102)
Last updated: (10 October 2013)
Percentage of completion: 100%

Detailed Description

This enables the user to view the help for current activity in the current locale within the activity itself. The user doesn't need to go to Help activity and find the help page for the current activity. He/she can press Ctrl+Shift+H and if there is help content for the current activity, it will pop up a window with the help content in it. This is similar to the view source pop up window in activities. If there is not help content for that particular activity, it will write an error message in the log. If help content in current locale is not available and if they are available in English, it will display the help content in English.

Benefit to Sugar

This feature was developed as my Google Summer of Code project in 2013. The feature will enhance the platform by providing a way to view in activity help and in the current locale.

Scope

Impact to existing sugar code: extensions/globalkey/Makefile.am src/jarabe/view/Makefile.am New code: extensions/globalkey/viewhelp.py src/jarabe/view/viewhelp.py

UI Design

There is the pop up window similar to that of the view source window.

How To Test

I have already sent a pull requets (https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/pull/114). This feature needs some modifications to be made in Help activity as well. Those modifications will be available from Help 17 onwards which is to be released soon. Once you have Help 17 and the diff is applied to sugar,

1) Open an activity like Browse, Read 2) Press ctrl+shift+h, a window should pop up with the help content for that particular activity (only if the help content for that activity is already there in Help activity)

User Experience

It will be convenient for the users to have the ability to view the help of the current activity within the activity itself. Otherwise the user has to load Help activity and search for help for that particular activity. Since help/support is something that is spread system wide, it is better we make it available wherever possible rather than keeping it as a separate activity. Since this feature enables to view in the current locale (only if the content is available in the current locale in Help activity), it will be more helpful for the users to read and unsderstand the content in a language that is more convenient to them.

Dependencies

This feature needs some modifications to be made to Help activity. The modifications required are to be due to be included in Help 17.

Contingency Plan

None. The code is complete and waiting to be reviewed.

Documentation

[[1]]

Release Notes

Supports viewing help for the current activity in the current locale inside the activity itself.

Comments and Discussion

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 == How To Test ==
-Apply the code at https://github.com/callkalpa/sugar/tree/activity_help
+I have already sent a pull requets (https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/pull/114). This feature needs some modifications to be made in Help activity as well. Those modifications will be available from Help 17 onwards which is to be released soon. Once you have Help 17 and the diff is applied to sugar,
+) Open an activity like Browse, Read
+) Press ctrl+shift+h, a window should pop up with the help content for that particular activity (only if the help content for that activity is already there in Help activity)
 == User Experience ==
-''If this feature is noticeable by its target audience, how will their experiences change as a result?  Describe what they will see or notice.''
+It will be convenient for the users to have the ability to view the help of the current activity within the activity itself. Otherwise the user has to load Help activity and search for help for that particular activity. Since help/support is something that is spread system wide, it is better we make it available wherever possible rather than keeping it as a separate activity. Since this feature enables to view in the current locale (only if the content is available in the current locale in Help activity), it will be more helpful for the users to read and unsderstand the content in a language that is more convenient to them.
 == Dependencies ==
-''What other packages (RPMs) depend on this package?  Are there changes outside the developers' control on which completion of this feature depends?  In other words, does your feature depend on completion of another feature owned by someone else or that you would need to coordinate, which might cause you to be unable to finish on time?  Other upstream projects like Python?''
+This feature needs some modifications to be made to Help activity. The modifications required are to be due to be included in Help 17.
 == Contingency Plan ==
-''If you cannot complete your feature by the final development freeze, what is the backup plan?  This might be as simple as "None necessary, revert to previous release behaviour."  Or it might not.  If your feature is not completed in time, we want to assure others that other parts of Sugar will not be in jeopardy.''
+None. The code is complete and waiting to be reviewed.
 == Documentation ==
-''Is there upstream documentation on this feature, or notes you have written yourself?  Has this topic been discussed in the mailing list or during a meeting? Link to that material here so other interested developers can get involved.''
+[[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/GSoC/2013/ActivityHelp]]
 == Release Notes ==
-''The Sugar Release Notes inform end-users about what is new in the release. An Example is [[0.84/Notes]]. The release notes also help users know how to deal with platform changes such as ABIs/APIs, configuration or data file formats, or upgrade concerns.  If there are any such changes involved in this feature, indicate them here.  You can also link to upstream documentation if it satisfies this need.  This information forms the basis of the release notes edited by the release team and shipped with the release.''
+Supports viewing help for the current activity in the current locale inside the activity itself.
 == Comments and Discussion ==
-* ''Link to the discussion of this feature on lists.sugarlabs.org''
-* See [[{{TALKPAGENAME}}|discussion tab for this feature]] <!-- This adds a link to the "discussion" tab associated with your page.  This provides the ability to have ongoing comments or conversation without bogging down the main feature page. -->