How to integrate an in-app guide created with HelloApp Studio

Our first example would be the integration into the desktop application created in Delphi. You can download Delphi, C++Builder and RAD Studio from Embarcadero web site.

Below is the video of how the integration sample works:

Let's see how we implement this.

This sample displays 2 different in-app guide files, one for every form.

The sample supports Windows and Mac OS as target platforms. So, to launch the .HAPLAY file on the Windows we use ShellExecute() function. And under Mac OS we use _system() function:

// FileName- is the name of the .HAPLAY file to open
procedure ShowGuide(const FileName: string);
begin
{$IFDEF MSWINDOWS}
  ShellExecute(0, 'open', PChar(FileName), nil, '', SW_SHOWNORMAL);
{$ENDIF MSWINDOWS}
{$IFDEF MACOS}
  _system(PAnsiChar('open ' + '"' + AnsiString(FileName) + '"'));
{$ENDIF MACOS}
end;

Once we display the form, we also display the in-app guide. Therefore, we add the code into OnShow event of the form. The code is similar for both application's forms: we check if the guide file exists and open it.

const
  MainGuide = 'mainsample1.haplay';
begin
  if FileExists(MainGuide) then
    ShowGuide(MainGuide);
end;

As you can see, just a couple lines of the code integrated the in-app guide into the desktop application!

You can find the full source code and compiled executable of this sample under Integrations sub-folder of HelloApp Studio Examples installation.

The second example is the integration of an in-app guide into Java desktop application.

Preview of how the sample works:

This sample displays single guide containing two tooltips. To display the guide we use the open() method of the Desktop object:

try {
     File file = new File("sample_java1.haplay");
     if (!Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {
          System.out.println("System not supported!");
          return;
     }
     Desktop desktop = Desktop.getDesktop();
     if (file.exists()) {
          desktop.open(file);
     }
} catch(Exception ex) {
     ex.printStackTrace();
}

We add the code above to the ActionListener for the button Help. As a result, we display the guide when user clicks on the button.

With just a couple lines of the code, we integrate the guide into your application!

You can find the full source code and compiled executable of this sample under Integrations sub-folder of HelloApp Studio Examples installation.

C++Builder application integration code is very similar to the Delphi code. Therefore, in order to display a guide we will use something like the following:

// FileName- is a guide's file name (.HAPLAY)
void ShowGuide(LPWSTR FileName) {
     ShellExecuteW(NULL, L"open", FileName, NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
}

void __fastcall TForm1::Button1Click(TObject *Sender)
{
     ShowGuide(L"guidefilename.haplay");
}