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Help Links Addon

Addon Author: Dale Ray
Version: 1.0
Last Release Date: February 1, 2007
License: Public Domain
Works with: Tested with Coranto v1.24 and V1.31.5
Available at: Coranto Demo

What It Does

This is a simple addon to allow you to create a custom page with links to help files to use with Coranto.

The addon creates a HELP link on Coranto's main page and on the menu at the bottom Coranto's administration pages. When this links is clicked a page of links to help files is displayed.

How It Works

This addon reads a text file of links and displays it from within the Coranto interface.

To make the list of links accessible a link is added on Coranto's main page and in the menu at the bottom of each admin screen.

The addon then reads the file one and displays it.

Making It Work as Advertised

Upload the files cra_help.pl and help_links.txt to your Coranto directory.

Enable the addon in the Coranto Addon interface.

Go to the Main Page in Coranto. You should now see a Help option on that page and a help link in the menu at the bottom of the page. Click on the link and you a page with a list of links I think are helpful to Coranto users will load.

Customizing the Links Page

If you like the list of links provided with the addon you don't have to do anything else. Use the addon and enjoy.

If you want to modify the list for appearance or content you don't have to touch the addon file itself (cra_help.pl). You can edit the help_links.txt file to add, delete, or modify links with any basic text editor. If you want the links in another format modify the html as you like.

If you build sites that others use you can write help files and include them in the help page. This might save you some support headaches.

Using Coranto to Manage the Help Links File

You can use Coranto to create the help files and also use coranto to build the data file (help_links.txt) if you want. What follows is a general guideline to implementing this - NOT a step by step description.

The help_links.txt file is a simple text file with one link per line. It also includes any html formatting you want to use for presenting the list of links. I chose a table because it was easier. You can format the links any way you want. To create and manage this file with Coranto you will need:

• a field for the link (URL) to the help file.
• a field for the text you want displayed to describe the link.
• a style that takes these two fields and adds the needed html for presentation.
• a profile the uses this style to build the data file.

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