[Chapter 5] 5.14 PLVhlp: Online Help Architechture

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Chapter 5
PL/Vision Package Specifications

Next: 5.15 PLVio: Input/Output Processing

5.14 PLVhlp: Online Help Architechture

The PLVhlp (PL/Vision HeLP) package provides an architecture with which you can build online help for your own PL/SQL programs. See Chapter 17, PLVhlp: Online Help for PL/SQL Programs for details.

5.14.1 Package constants

c_main CONSTANT CHAR(4) := 'HELP';: The keyword used to designate the main help for a program. This is the default kind of help to be shown.
c_examples CONSTANT VARCHAR2(30) := 'EXAMPLES';: The keyword used to designate the section of help displaying examples for a program. Other keywords can be added to the package to support other kinds of sections.

5.14.2 Setting the page size

PROCEDURE set_pagesize (pagesize_in IN NUMBER);: Sets the number of lines of help text to be displayed before a pause. The default is 25.
FUNCTION pagesize RETURN NUMBER;: Returns the number of lines of help text to be displayed before a pause.

5.14.3 Help text stub generators

FUNCTION help_start (context_in IN VARCHAR2 := NULL)
RETURN VARCHAR2;: Returns the string needed to start a comment to be used as online help text.
FUNCTION help_end (context_in IN VARCHAR2 := NULL)
RETURN VARCHAR2;: Returns the string needed to end a comment to be used as online help text.

5.14.4 Displaying online help

PROCEDURE show (context_in IN VARCHAR2, part_in IN
VARCHAR2 := c_main);: Displays the first page of help for the specified context.
PROCEDURE more;: Displays the next page of help, if there is any.


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