Change Main Site's Help Link 1

[dlongnecker]

Good morning!

After a bit of time digging through the forums and the web, I've managed to change all of the ONET.XML files' Help link from the default to my new, custom link; however, those changes didn't propergate to the main pages and the portal site itself.

The main site homepages still have : javascript:HelpWindowKey("NavBarHelpHome")

The portal site still has:

http://portal/default.aspx#URL#

Is there any way to modify these? For the sites, I can use FrontPage to modify the Link Bar, but... not all of our Site managers will be given or using FrontPage. What about the Portal? For it, it gives me a reference to an apparently compiled source.

While the Help files provided by SPS are nice for myself, our users would click Help and then start to cry by the typically circular help provided by Microsoft applications. Users who cry typically send me hate mail and I don't like hate mail.

Suggestions?

Regards,

David

---
David R. Longnecker
Web Developer
CCNA, MCSA, Network+, A+
Management Information Services
Wichita Public Schools, USD 259

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

If you find a solution for modifying the Help link on the Home pages I would be very thankful if you could post it here. I am looking into the same things and I have not either find a good way of fixing that.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[dlongnecker]

HUZZAH!

Okay... this was actually fun to figure out.

I did an indexed searched of all the .js, .aspx, .asp files on my portal server and found the key.

On your portal box, go to:

DRIVE:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033

In here, you'll find the OWS.JS; the magic file that contains, apparently, the very key and difficult to find JavaScript definitions for your entire portal.

In here, I found several scripts for "help":

HelpWindowHelper
HelpWindowKey
HelpWindowUrl
HelpWindow

Well, they appear to each build off of each other, starting with HelpWindowHelper, that renders the initial URL.

So, I changed the code

from:

function HelpWindowHelper(strParam)
{
    var strHelpUrl;
    if (strParam == "")
        strHelpUrl = "/_layouts/" + L_Language_Text + "/help.aspx" + "?LCID=" + L_Language_Text;
    else
        strHelpUrl = "/_layouts/" + L_Language_Text + "/help.aspx" + strParam + "&LCID=" + L_Language_Text;
    var wndHelp = window.open(strHelpUrl, "STSHELP", "width=270,height=500,menubar,scrollbars,toolbar,resizable");
    wndHelp.focus();
}

to:

function HelpWindowHelper(strParam)
{
    var wndHelp = window.open("[URL unfurl="true"]http://wpsportal1/sites/wpsportalhelp/",[/URL] "STSHELP", "menubar,scrollbars,toolbar,resizable");
    wndHelp.focus();
}

I simply took out the investigatory information and forced it to a specific URL...

Amazingly, this seems to fix both the Portal and the Sites--now everything is going to my customized Help site rather than the built in help.

{/cheer}

The only downside I see to this is that if that file was ever overwritten by updates, etc... that it'd be lost. I'm not too fond of that, but... as with most things I've found on SharePoint Portal, the work arounds are not always too "clean".

Hope this helps!

-David

---
David R. Longnecker
Web Developer
CCNA, MCSA, Network+, A+
Management Information Services
Wichita Public Schools, USD 259

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

Works like a charm! Thanks a lot for that help!

Regards,
Thomas