The Oracle E-Business Suite help system supports a special syntax for hypertext links that keeps them working even when files are renamed or split into parts. The special syntax, which is explained in detail below, looks like this:
For more about widgets, see <A HREF="@widgets#widgets">All About Widgets</A>.
Oracle E-Business Suite help files use this syntax, and you can use it too in your custom help files. Or if you prefer, you can always use conventional hypertext links based on filename.
Linking Help Files includes the following topics:
Links in Oracle E-Business Suite help files point, not at a particular filename, but rather at one of the named anchors contained in the file. The Oracle E-Business Suite help system resolves anchorname to file dynamically, every time a link is negotiated.
Information on which files contain which anchornames is put into the help system automatically on upload. Authors must ensure that anchornames are unique across an application's help files to prevent duplicate links. In return, they need never worry about a change in filename breaking their links.
By named anchor is meant the following kind of HTML tag:
<A NAME="anchorname"></A>
Named anchors can be placed anywhere in the body of an HTML file, and are typically used for links internal to the file in question. A pound sign (#) is placed before the anchorname in the link that points at it.
For example, you would use HTML like the following to allow users to jump forward to a section with the anchorname of "widgets":
For more about widgets, see <A HREF="#widgets">All About Widgets</A> below.
<A NAME="widgets"></A> <H2>All About Widgets</H2>
Oracle E-Business Suite help files extend this conventional HTML syntax to create links not only within, but also between help files. To link to a file that contains a particular named anchor, you simply place an at sign (@) before the anchorname. To link to the precise spot within the file where this anchor appears, you append a pound sign followed by the anchorname, just as you would in conventional HTML. This results in the following special syntax:
<A HREF="@anchorname#anchorname">link text</A>.
For example, to link to the file that contains the "widgets" anchor illustrated above, at the point in the file that this anchor occurs, you would use HTML like the following:
For more about widgets, see <A HREF="@widgets#widgets">All About Widgets</A>.
If you simply want to link to the top of the file that contains this anchor, you can omit the pound-sign segment "#widgets."
Links in Oracle E-Business Suite help files rarely omit the pound-sign segment. This means that however topics are rearranged within or among files, links to these topics from other files always go to the proper file, and to the precise spot within the file where the topic occurs.
Caution: Do not use case to make distinctions between anchornames. Unlike most web browsers, the Oracle E-Business Suite help system treats anchornames in a case-insensitive fashion.
In the Oracle E-Business Suite help system, all help files associated with a particular application exist in the same directory, as far as their URL is concerned. Help files associated with other applications exist in directories named after the application's short name. All these application directories are at the same level in the help system.
To create a link that goes to a help file associated with a different application, you create a relative link that goes up a level to the parent of all help application directories, and then back down through the other application's directory, before concluding with Oracle E-Business Suite's special link syntax. This results in the following cross-application link syntax:
<A HREF="../shortname/@anchorname#anchorname"> link text</A>
For example, if the "All About Widgets" topic illustrated above were an Oracle Payables help topic, and you wanted to link to it from an Oracle General Ledger help file, you would use a link like the following, where AP is Oracle Payables' short name:
For more about widgets in Oracle Payables, see <A HREF="../AP/@widgets#widgets">All About Widgets</A>.
When used in this fashion, application short names are case insensitive.
Note: These application help directories are merely "virtual" directories recognized by the Oracle E-Business Suite help system when used in URLs. All files are actually stored in the database, with application short name being one attribute among many associated with them.
Oracle Payables' official short name is SQLAP. This has been shortened to AP for the virtual directory used in the Oracle E-Business Suite help system. Similarly, Oracle General Ledger's official short name of SQLGL has been shortened to GL, and Oracle Assets short name of OFA has been shortened to FA.
Links are not limited to a single target in the Oracle E-Business Suite help system. You can point your links at multiple topics and files by using the following syntax:
<A HREF = "@anchorname1,anchorname2,anchorname3"> Related Topics</A>
When a user negotiates the link, a page headed "Related Topics" appears, containing a list of the page titles corresponding to these anchornames, with each title linked to the file in question.
To include cross-application links, simply prefix the application short name and a colon to the anchorname:
<A HREF = "@anchorname1,shortname:anchorname2,anchorname3"> Related Topics</A>
When you ask for help in Oracle E-Business Suite, the topic for your current window opens. If you ask for help from a report parameters window, your help file opens to a discussion of that report.
Oracle E-Business Suite help files contain special anchornames to enable these context-sensitive links. When calling help from an Oracle E-Business Suite Forms-based window, Oracle E-Business Suite looks for an anchorname based on the form name and the window name combined as follows:
<A NAME="form_name_window_name"></A>
You can override the form_name portion of the anchorname by specifying a HELP_TARGET parameter in the parameter field of the Form Functions window. Use the syntax HELP_TARGET = "alternative_form_name". See: Form Functions.
When calling help from an Oracle Application Framework (HTML-based) window from the global Help button, the anchorname follows this syntax:
<A NAME="appShortName_packageFunctionalComponent_pageName"></A>
For more information on coding for the global Help button, refer to the documentation listed in the Oracle Application Framework Release Notes, Release 12.1.3, My Oracle Support Knowledge Document 1087332.1.
When calling help from a report parameter window, Oracle E-Business Suite looks for an anchorname constructed as follows:
<A NAME="SRS_concurrent_program_shortname"></A>