One of our developers wrote some initial help content using the JavaHelp 2.0 release and it works reasonably well when accessed from the workstation -- the help browser that appears has expected functionality and the interface buttons and embedded links work as expected.
However the same help set, served from the server, has significant UI issues related to navigation between the navigation frame (where TOC and Index entries appear) and the main content frame. The JSP pages for the help system are basically clones of the JSP Help Demo source that ships with JavaHelp 2.0. The problems I see with our server help and the demo application are identical.
The main usability issue is that the forward and back buttons that appear in a toolbar frame above the content frame to control the content only work every other button click. The first click does nothing and the second click does take you back or forward as expected. Also, each time you use these buttons, I believe the expected behavior is that the corresponding node in the navigation frame should get highlighted to be in sync with the help page showing in the content frame. This refreshed highlighting never happens.
At first I suspected some Javascript issues and I do see Firefox reporting some errors in its Javascript console. But I did some code mods to the demo JSP source that removed these errors (mainly due to frame references to other frames being incorrect). But the wrong behavior remains.
I tried accessing the Java Help Demo app from IE 6.0 as well as Firefox and I see the same behavior. In addition, for IE, I still have some sound-effects turned on so that you hear an audible click when you key on a link. BUT I hear multiple clicks when I click a link in the navigation window as if the same link is being accessed multiple times, perhaps once by my manual click and some hidden Javascript that causes the same browser event to happen again.
I now suspect something is messed up with the basic servlet help broker that provides the basis for the JSP help mechanism -- I may go digging through the source to see if I can spot something.
But, if any reader of this problem has been down this road and can offer experiences or suggestions, I would appreciate hearing.
Jim
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