Creating Effective JavaHelp

Ensuring Basic Java Support

Since JavaHelp itself is implemented in Java, the user’s computer must support Java program execution. That is, the computer must have the Java runtime system and class libraries installed. It’s beyond the scope of this book to discuss installation of Java itself, but this section discusses some version-related issues.

If you are deploying a Java application and help system based on Java SDK 1.1, you must install support for Java Swing (GUI components) separately. This support is implemented in file swing.jar . As with the JavaHelp JAR file, users must include file swing.jar on their Java class path. If you are deploying a Java application and help system based on Java 2 (SDK 1.2 and higher), the basic Java distribution includes the Swing classes. Thus, there is no need to provide Swing support separately. Table 8.2 provides more information on version matching.

Table 8-2. Compatible Versions of Java and Java Swing

Java SDK	Java Swing	Notes
1.1	1.1 or 1.1.1	Swing 1.1.1 is included in the JavaHelp distribution. With SDK 1.1, you can’t encapsulate HelpSets in JAR files, and you can’t print help topics.
1.2	1.1	This version is built into the SDK. To use Swing 1.1.1, upgrade to SDK 1.2.2; overlaying Swing 1.1.1 on SDK 1.2 can be difficult.
1.2.2	1.1.1	This version is built into the SDK.
1.3 (currently at “release candidate” stage)	New version	A new, unnumbered version of Swing is built into the SDK. See http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc ...