Tools for online help on PHP, HTML and CSS (etc)

[taco]

Not a question, just FYI

As a developer (mostly) on PHP sites, I often check the PHP manual and search on HTML-tags and CSS reference @ w3schools.

To do this more quickly I have created some easy UE Tools which are based on Google's "I'm feeling lucky". The tools will redirect to the manual or reference. When having selected a word (i.e. a php function, tag, or css selector), it will go directly to the corresponding page (tries it anyway).


Online PHP Manual
Command Line: "D:\Internet\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "http://www.google.nl/search?q=manual+%sel%&sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.php.net&btnI="

Online CSS Reference
Command Line: "D:\Internet\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "http://www.google.nl/search?q=css2+%sel%&sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3schools.com%2Fcss&btnI="

Online HTML Reference
Command Line: "D:\Internet\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "http://www.google.nl/search?q=tag+%sel%&sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3schools.com%2Ftags%2F&btnI="

On the "Input" tab set the type to "Windows program" and you might want to turn of "Save active file". Turn off the "Capture Output" on the "Output" tab, since there's nothing to capture.


NB Of course the path to firefox must be altered to the path of your browser

[jorrasdk]

Good hint, but the following is another way of doing it:

In the Help menu option Add Help Files you can add local Windows Help files (.HLP) or compiled HTML files (.CHM) files to UE. Just search the net and I'm sure you can find help ressources for PHP, HTML, CSS and so on. (The chm files for PHP can be found here: www.php.net/download-docs.php)

When you then select a word, press F1, a small menu appears in the editor where you can choose in which help file to look it up.

But wait, there is more ! If you instead of the path for a local file enters an URL, example:

http://www.google.com/search?q=manual+$K&sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.php.net&btnI=

After choosing this "manual" with F1, UE will load the file in your default browser. $K is substituted with the selected word.

[taco]

Mmm, thanks, that's even better. And the url's are working great. Haven't ever seen the menuitem before. There probably always will be UE features I don't know about...

Well, at least the time spent on getting the right url's is a time spent well.

[deckyon]

I have a ton of CHM files added to my UE. Including some I coded myself with the help of a couple tools by Microsoft's Script Center. It has been invaluable, having these files integrated. Dont have to remember where the sites and such are, I just use the help menu.

[rhapdog]

And for people living in areas where no broadband connection is available, those chm files are an invaluable tool as well.

Speaking of CHM files, I only have the HTML help for the HTML help (no, not repeating myself, I need the compiled chm, but have html pages). Does anyone have that?

I also need local CHM for CSS. Would be handy. I hate getting online for help, because I like it to pop up faster than my dial-up connection allows.

[Mofi]

This page may be interesting for you http://code.google.com/p/htmlhelp/downloads/list?q=label:CHM.

The only problem with the CHM versions of the HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1 specification on this page is that there are some absolute references to online files (images, css). So when the help is opened IE wants to load these files from WWW. That can be blocked with a personal firewall.

But I favor also complete offline versions. Therefore I downloaded the CHM file for the HTML 4.01 Specification, extracted the content file html-4.01.hhc and the index file html-4.01.hhk and recreated the HtmlHelp project file html-4.01.hhp. All other files in this CHM are 100% identical to the files on http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/ which I have had already on my hard disk.

The start page cover.html contains an image reference to http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home.png. I downloaded this image, saved it in the subdirectory images, deleted w3c_home.gif because not referenced by any file, and edited cover.html accordingly.

Next I detected that all HTML files reference the CSS file http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/W3C-REC.css. So I downloaded also this file and saved it in the subdirectory style. In this CSS file the image file http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/logo-REC.png is referenced which I downloaded, saved in the subdirectory images and corrected the url in the CSS file accordingly. Last I changed all stylesheet references to the local version of W3C-REC.css.

After restoring the original file times as much as possible I made the necessary changes on file html-4.01.hhp and some other small modifications - added button to change font size, set initial width for the left pane and defined the initial coordinates of the window. Finally I recompiled the HtmlHelp project.

The new CHM for the HTML 4.01 Specification is now packed into the RAR archive html401.rar. This RAR archive contains also the files html-4.01.hhc, html-4.01.hhk and html-4.01.hhp, if somebody else wants to make further changes, as well as the complete modified HTML version. The HTML version as well as the CHM version in this archive should be usable now completely in offline mode.

[Mofi]

Yesterday I made a real offline version of the CHM for CSS 2.1. The new CHM for the CSS 2.1 Specification is now packed into the RAR archive css2_1.rar (1.693.756 bytes). This RAR archive contains also the files css-2.1.hhc, css-2.1.hhk and css-2.1.hhp, if somebody else wants to make further changes, as well as the complete modified HTML version based on the files from http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/CR-CSS2-20090423/ which is currently the latest version. The HTML version as well as the CHM version in this archive should be usable now completely in offline mode.

[maryv]

Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing the fruits of your labor!