How write app help system

There is this old Apple reference. I suppose you saw it ?

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Carbon/Conceptual/ProvidingUserAssitAppleHelp/user_help_intro/user_assistance_intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000903-CH204-CHDIDJFE

It says on that document that it's "no longer being updated." I'm afraid of putting a lot of time into developing for a soon to be deprecated Help system. Are most modern developers just rolling their own? Has there been any guidance from Apple about what the future of Help systems is on macOS?

Apple NEVER gives guidance. Also, if you look closely, you will notice that all Apple in Mojava are using a new private help system.

I have my own system for building help files. I should post it in Github I guess. I build the source in XML and use XSL to generate the pages in the required, but undocumented, format.

I finally gave up the other day in frustration over anchor links never working. I hate using help when it only displays error messages. Not that anyone notices, of course. Real users never use help. It is just something that pedantic Mac programmers do.

But anyway, I have a lot of webciews in my app, so I just built my own help system. It only took a couple of hours. It looks very similar to Apple’s help display, except for being functional. The source pages are still coming from my helpbook. A nice side benefit is that the help in my app only displays my apps help. It does direct the user to something else like Apple’s help does. But since my helpbook is still valid, my help is still available outside my app (not that anyone will ever go looking for it).

I did get tripped up a bit in Mojave. I had planned on using hiutil at runtime to pull the anchors from the helpindex. But hiutil in Mojave is broken and can’t read the files that it creates itself. So I extracted the dictionary using an older OS and stored it in my app as a static plist. It isn’t likely to change anyway.

Hi John,

I'd be very interested in how your XML/XSL system works.

I left you a reply at https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/110649

At that point I was optimistic I could find a solution with hiutil...didn't last.

I can't get help anchors to work on Mojave even by using an old hiutil.

I guess I'm left with writing my own.

Chris,

Look me up on the internet. I'm "etresoft". You can e-mail me at info at etresoft dot com

I'll be happy to send you my help projects. You can download EtreCheck (directly or the MAS) and see how the help works. It is much nicer than Apple's help. You can even do Dark Mode support, which Apple's help can't do.

Excellent, thx John.

I've used EtreCheck many times - good to be in contact with you.

I like the sound of your help system, and I will definitely be in touch. I'll also check out EtreCheck's help.

You may (or may not) be able to guess our app from my username, depending on your working practices...

Needless to say our help anchors broke under Mojave, and I need to fix them.

Our help system has been around for a decade, since the MAS opened.

By the law of averages it was about time Apple broke it.