class KHelpMenu

Public Types

• enum MenuId { menuHelpContents = 0, menuWhatsThis = 1, menuAboutApp = 2, menuAboutKDE = 3, menuReportBug = 4 }

Public Methods

•  KHelpMenu ( QWidget *parent=0, const QString &aboutAppText=QString::null, bool showWhatsThis=true )
•  KHelpMenu ( QWidget *parent, const KAboutData *aboutData, bool showWhatsThis=true, KActionCollection *actions = 0 )
•  ~KHelpMenu ()
• KPopupMenu * menu ()

Public Slots

• void  appHelpActivated ()
• void  contextHelpActivated ()
• void  aboutApplication ()
• void  aboutKDE ()
• void  reportBug ()

Signals

• void  showAboutApplication ()

Detailed Description

This class provides the standard KDE help menu with the default "about" dialog boxes and help entry.

This class is used in KMainWindow so normally you don't need to use this class yourself. However, if you need the help menu or any of its dialog boxes in your code that is not subclassed from KMainWindow you should use this class.

The usage is simple:

 mHelpMenu = new KHelpMenu( this,  );
 kmenubar->insertItem(i18n("&Help"), mHelpMenu->menu() );

or if you just want to open a dialog box:

 mHelpMenu = new KHelpMenu( this,  );
 connect( this, SIGNAL(someSignal()), mHelpMenu,SLOT(mHelpMenu->aboutKDE()));

IMPORTANT: The first time you use mHelpMenu->menu(), a KPopupMenu object is allocated. Only one object is created by the class so if you call mHelpMenu->menu() twice or more, the same pointer is returned. The class will destroy the popupmenu in the destructor so do not delete this pointer yourself.

The KHelpMenu object will be deleted when its parent is destroyed but you can delete it yourself if you want. The code below will always work.

 MyClass::~MyClass()
 {
   delete mHelpMenu;
 }

Using your own "about application" dialog box:

The standard "about application" dialog box is quite simple. If you need a dialog box with more functionality you must design that one yourself. When you want to display the dialog you can choose one of two methods. Common for both is that you must make a help menu object with no text argument If the text is missing the default dialog box will not be displayed:

Example 1 Using showAboutApplication signal (preferred)

 void MyClass::myFunc()
 {
   ..
   KHelpMenu *helpMenu = new KHelpMenu( this );
   connect( helpMenu, SIGNAL(showAboutApplication()),
          this, SLOT(myDialogSlot()));
   ..
 }

 void MyClass::myDialogSlot()
 {
   
 }

Example 2 Old style - connecting directly to the menu entry.

 void MyClass::myFunc()
 {
   KHelpMenu *helpMenu = new KHelpMenu( this );
   KPopupMenu *help = mHelpMenu->menu();
   help->connectItem( KHelpMenu::menuAboutApp, this, SLOT(myDialogSlot()) );
 }

 void MyClass::myDialogSlot()
 {
   
 }

Constructor.

Parameters:

parent	The parent of the dialog boxes. The boxes are modeless and will be centered with respect to the parent.
aboutAppText	User definable string that is used in the application specific dialog box. Note: The help menu will not open this dialog box if you don't define a string. See showAboutApplication() for more information.
showWhatsThis	Decides whether a "Whats this" entry will be added to the dialog.

Constructor.

Parameters:

parent	The parent of the dialog boxes. The boxes are modeless and will be centered with respect to the parent.
aboutData	User and app data used in the About app dialog
showWhatsThis	Decides whether a "Whats this" entry will be added to the dialog.

Destructor

Destroys dialogs and the menu pointer retuned by menu

Returns a popup menu you can use in the menu bar or where you need it.

Note: This method will only create one instance of the menu. If you call this method twice or more the same pointer is returned

[slot]

Opens the help page for the application. The application name is used as a key to determine what to display and the system will attempt to open /index.html.

[slot]

Activates What's This help for the application.

[slot]

Opens an application specific dialog box. The dialog box will display the string that was defined in the constructor. If that string was empty the showAboutApplication() is emitted instead.

[slot]

Opens the standard "About KDE" dialog box.

[slot]

Opens the standard "Report Bugs" dialog box.

[signal]

This signal is emitted from aboutApplication() if no "about application" string has been defined. The standard application specific dialog box that is normally activated in aboutApplication() will not be displayed when this signal is emitted.

• Version: $Id: KHelpMenu.html 132191 2002-01-17 21:32:13Z dfaure $
• Author: Espen Sand (espen@kde.org)
• Generated: dfaure on kde.faure.org on Thu Jan 17 22:16:05 2002, using kdoc 2.0a53.