Randy Smith

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had lived with their ColdFusion-based, accomplishment-reporting Web site for about a year. The application allowed employees to report field accomplishments to area managers who then edited and released the reports for internal-only or public review on their Web site, or via e-mail or fax to the media or Congress.

I had used a fairly standard frame layout with a header, logo corner, left menu, and main area. Additionally, there was a narrow strip under the title where a drop-down selector and a user identifier were loaded when field reps signed in. I added a small panel at the bottom where help information would be displayed whenever a help icon was clicked.

The help table is simple, consisting primarily of a short, text-based, key-term field and a longer memo field that holds the help information.

Can't See the Trees
Even with six frames, the main viewing area was adequate on a 17-inch or larger monitor, but smaller screens were a tangled confusion of scroll bars and mini-panels. Employees (field reps) might be using the latest computer equipment or antiquated computers with 14-inch monitors. The field reps with the smaller monitors found it difficult to view the tiny main panel, and the vertical and horizontal scroll bars made even more of a mess (see Figure 1).

My client gave me free reign to do anything to provide more room for the main display area. I tightened the frames and moved the menu onto the user information strip by using smaller buttons (see Figure 2).

I had removed the narrow help strip at the bottom, but still wanted the ability to display help information to users without causing them to lose their place on the web site - especially if they were in the middle of filling out a form. I could have used the <A title="help text here" > </a> approach, but the help information is pulled from a database to allow it to be updated over time. I didn't want to add to the page-load overhead by querying the help table on every page that had a help button. I could have used a target= "_blank" anchor to display help information in a new browser window, but I wouldn't have had control over its size or location. I felt it would confuse users if some or all of the main window was hidden when the new browser window was spawned.

JavaScript Limitations?
JavaScript seemed to be the way to go, but I hadn't taken the time to learn it yet. I picked up a beginner's book and began to read in earnest. My first attempt at solving the problem was to write a function that would dynamically load the results of a ColdFusion query and display it in an alert box. My theory was that I could use the <IMG> tags' OnClick() function with a parameter to initiate a query, load the information into the alert box, and display the help information to the user. Very clean, very professional looking, and I get to keep my newfound screen real estate.

JavaScript refused to cooperate. I tried several methods, but couldn't get the information into the alert box unless I queried the help table every time I loaded the page.

One Step Forward...
Back to square one. I found an example where JavaScript was used to create a new window and dynamically write an HTML page. I created a working CF script and copied it into a JavaScript function. Clicking the button was supposed to execute the function that was, in turn, to write the code into the new window.

Still no go. JavaScript executed the embedded ColdFusion instructions as soon as I loaded the parent page. Trying to fool it with """ or any other workaround didn't get me anywhere because the resulting dynamically written file was an HTML page, not a CF script.

Never Say Die
I'm not easily deterred by a few minor setbacks, but this problem was looking an awful lot like my JavaScript Waterloo. Suddenly, I had a revelation: what if the program I wrote called a static ColdFusion script that then handled the query and generated the results?

Even better, I discovered that the first parameter of the JavaScript "open" function would call a URL. The solution was simple! Use OnClick() to call a function with a parameter. The function would create a new window and call a ColdFusion script with the help query parameter. The results of the CF program would populate the new JavaScript box.

First I needed a ColdFusion program that would search the help table for a parameter and display the results of the query. HelpLine.cfm (see Listing 1) searches for the key term and outputs the query results (see Figure 3). The Close button (also JavaScript) provides a clean method of exiting, and the topic is displayed in light gray at the bottom of the screen. Displaying the topic name helps you find that specific item later when you need to update the help text.

To make this help-display capability available to all the CF programs in that application, I loaded the HelpWindow() into the Application.cfm file. This function is to be called with a parameter. HelpWindow() creates a new, nicely formatted browser window, then executes HelpLine.cfm, which populates the window:

<script language="JavaScript"> function HelpWindow(TheTopic) { window1=window.open("helpline.cfm?topic="+TheTopic, "NewWindow1","toolbar=no,directories=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes, width=600,height=300,left=200,top=100"); } </script>

The final piece of this puzzle is to enable a call to HelpWindow() with the appropriate parameter when the user clicks on a help button; we do this by placing the function name in the OnClick method of the <IMG> tag. Note the location of the parameter GEOREGION. We'll pass it through HelpWindow() to Help-Line.cfm where it can be used in the query to find the appropriate help information:

<img src="../images/btnHelp.gif" width=15 height=15 alt="Click on the question mark to display information about this item. It will appear in a new window in the middle of your screen." border=0 align="middle" onclick="HelpWindow('GEOREGION')">

Recyclable
This code can easily be reused, enabling you to quickly provide professional-looking help displays with minimal effort. To recap, here are the four elements necessary:

• HelpLine.cfm
• HelpWindow() in Application. cfm file or the CF script it's called from
• Help database, populated with data, and a datasource link
• OnClick() functions of <IMG> tags programmed with the ap-propriate help parameter, as in OnClick="HelpWindow ('GEOREGION')"

Summary
Dynamic help screens are an excellent use of a temporary Java-Script window. Application users can quickly and easily get the information they need, close the window with little fuss, and return to exactly where they left off. This is especially beneficial on forms, where taking users away can cause problems and confusion.

Related Links

• Figure 1
• Figure 2
• Figure 3
• Source Code