Linking to Driver Items
In the legacy HTML template system, you link from your help content to a generated driver topic with
an HTML anchor (<a href="...">). Because the generated pages don’t exist until the
help project is built, the href uses a
simple link syntax that Nimbus resolves to the correct page at build time. The syntax depends on the
driver type.
The simplest way to obtain a correct link to any item is the Copy help link to clipboard command on the Driver Designer context menu: right-click the item, choose the command, and paste the resulting anchor into your content (you still supply the display text).
Format for help links
Section titled “Format for help links”Because the type system for IVI.NET drivers is much richer than that of either IVI-COM or IVI-C, it is difficult to use a link format based on type and member names — method overloading and .NET generics make any name-based scheme ambiguous. Nimbus therefore names the generated IVI.NET help files with GUIDs, persisted in the driver design file so they are stable across builds and Visual Studio sessions.
For IVI-COM and IVI-C drivers, Copy help link to clipboard is still the preferred way to create links, but because their type systems are simpler the links use plain type and member names. The example below shows several such links, and the table that follows specifies the syntax for every supported IVI-COM and IVI-C link type.
<!-- Link to the Configure method on the IAcme4321Trigger interface -->This method differs from the <a href="IAcme4321Trigger.Configure">Configure</a> method in that...
<!-- Link to the Acme4321TriggerMode enum -->The <i>Mode</i> parameter can take on any value in the <a href="Acme4321TriggerMode">Acme4321TriggerMode</a> enum.
<!-- Link to the error and warnings page. Note that all errors and warnings appear on a single page. -->If the instrument cannot switch to <i>Mode</i>, the <a href="ErrorsAndWarnings">E_ACME4321_BAD_MODE</a> error is returned.
<!-- Link to an external website -->For more information, see the whitepaper on our <a href="http://www.acme.com/support">website</a>.The following table specifies the URI syntax for all supported IVI-COM and IVI-C link types.
| Link type | URI syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| External link | Standard URI syntax | http://www.acme.com/support |
| Boilerplate page | Page name, including extension (no path) | AcmeDriverBasics.html |
| IVI-COM interface | Full interface name | IAcme4321Trigger |
| IVI-COM method | <interface>.<method> | IAcme4321Trigger.Configure, IIviScopeMeasurement.Fetch |
| IVI-COM property | <interface>.<property> | IAcme4321Trigger.Source, IIviScopeAcquisition.NumberOfAverages |
| IVI-COM enum | Full enum name | Acme4321TriggerSourceEnum, IviScopeAcquisitionTypeEnum |
| IVI-COM error | Special string ErrorsAndWarnings (all IVI-COM errors and warnings for a typelib appear on a single page) | ErrorsAndWarnings, IviScope.ErrorsAndWarnings |
| IVI-COM warning | Special string IviComErrorsAndWarnings (all IVI-COM errors and warnings for a typelib appear on a single page) | IviComErrorsAndWarnings, IviScope.IviComErrorsAndWarnings |
| IVI-C function | Function name (no prefix) | ConfigureTrigger |
| IVI-C attribute | Attribute name (no prefix) | TRIGGER_SOURCE |
| IVI-C error | Special string IviCErrorsAndWarnings (all IVI-C errors and warnings appear on a single page) | IviCErrorsAndWarnings |
| IVI-C warning | Special string IviCErrorsAndWarnings (all IVI-C errors and warnings appear on a single page) | IviCErrorsAndWarnings |