✅ Best practices for WPF context aware documentation
All projects in the company I work at are made in WinForms .NET 4.8 and provide CHM help file documentation.
The new project I'm working on is in WPF .NET 8. And for whatever reason I'm unable to reference the
System.Windows.Forms reference to access the Help class necessary for opening the CHMs.
Yes, I can do process open, but I'd love to be able to open the documentation on a specific page, based on context.
So, I've been thinking whether there is a better alternative for application help documentation.
Is there? What would you recommend26 Replies
CHM is deprecated and has security issues. I use issues and wiki for whatever software lifecycle management tool I'm using to display things like a readme.md other wiki content and track issues.
WinForms bits are by default not enabled in WPF projects, but you can manually change that and then add references, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71374091/is-it-ok-to-enable-both-winforms-and-wpf-for-a-net-6-0-application
Ive managed to enable it, I was adding UseWinForms to the wrong project 
However, one way or another, chm just feels plain wrong.
I'd prefer to have local documentation that is context aware. But I was unable to find anything viable. There's WebHelp which is based on CHM, but that also stinks.
However, one way or another, chm just feels plain wrong.
I'd prefer to have local documentation that is context aware. But I was unable to find anything viable. There's WebHelp which is based on CHM, but that also stinks.chm is deprecated
so yeah it is wrong
what is the official replacement for it then?
microsoft help viewer is the official replacement, but I think it's only for ms products, not sure if it can be customized.
but like I said, online wiki's etc.
And do you have any recommendations for a static web-based wiki that supports querying a page/topic via the url?
That is also easy to use for a very non-technical person
I've found MkDocs, but asking if you have something you'd really recommend
you can query github issues by url at least
yes, but unfortunately, github is out of the question
this is not for an opensource product
what is your current source control system?
oh boy, buckle up
On prem TFS + GIT
closed-source
what version of tfs?
lemmy check
why?
just curious
I think from the azure devops server perspective you have wiki and all that built in
v15
yes indeed, but it is not public
and I need documentation that will be available for customers
oic
so yeah, hosting some static webpages somewhere isn't an issue
just trying to find the right tool
I feel dirty after touching anything related to CHM, I just need the right arguments to push another company "revolution", so that my project can use something modern.
for static pages can you use the file://?
you mean for offline access?
yeah
I mean I hate it
I'd think so
that'd be nice
but I think that's what git-scm does for instance.
or used to anyway
Well, I could potentially even host it in my own WebView window
hey, anything is better than chm, right
I mean, chm isn't bad, it's just dated
though iirc chm has an rce exploit
yes, that's another point
I think it's a big disingenuous to call it an RCE; I think generally for it to work you're already pretty compromised.