Oracle Help

Oracle Help is a help "system" consisting of a common format, and software for two modes of playback: Oracle Java Help, a help viewer embedded in a Java program; and Oracle Web Help, a help viewer that serves pages over HTTP. Oracle Help's format appears to have been, from its early days, based on that of JavaHelp, though curiously it was released long before Sun (the creator of JavaHelp) was bought by Oracle.

The formats a single "HelpSet" uses include:
 * HelpSet file, extension ".hs", which provides metadata about the whole help set, and the names of other files;
 * map files, XML files (with the extension .xml ) that map topic IDs (strings identifying individual help topics) to HTML content files;
 * table of contents files, extension .xml, though and "old [relative to 2011] version" had extension .toc , which give tables of contents;
 * index files, extension .xml, .tok for the "old version" , which give (human-readable) indexes;
 * search index files, in "a proprietary binary format" with extension ".idx" that stores a text search index, and is generated by a program distributed with Oracle Help ;
 * link files, similar to map files, but which map link IDs (aliases used in the targets of links on content pages, in lieu of actual destination file names) to topic IDs (which are in turn mapped to content files)
 * the "topic files", HTML files that hold the actual content of the help.

Specifications

 * Format specification in the v. 12.1.3 manual

Links

 * Website (2010-2018)
 * Manual for v. 12.1.3
 * Website (Current, as of 2020)