Redirect dialog help button

[fehrsZBFB9]

Hallo guys,

is there a way to redirect the help of a dialog help button like in the window below? I want to show a different web page. I hope for a way to alter the help path or a way to to catch the event.

[WCrihfield]

Hi @fehrsZBFB9.  Unfortunately if you did not design &/or write the code behind the dialog, you most likely don't have access to change the built-in functionality of how that help button works, or what web page it will launch.  There is an event defined under the the Inventor InteractionEvents object called OnHelp.  I'm not sure if you can use that to intercept the action of you clicking on that help button on that dialog, and stop its normal website from launching, to then launch your own web site, but I suppose you could try.  Are you familiar with writing event handler codes?

[fehrsZBFB9]

Thanks for your response. I already tried to react to this  event. But it isn't triggered for these buttons. Only for the main help buttons inside the ribbons and the titlebar. I need this intervention for our Inventor OEM based product, to redirect to a rebranded online help based on the inventor help.

[JelteDeJong]

I did have some luck manipulating the following file:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2022\Bin\Bin32\helpids.xml

or

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2022\Bin\helpids.xml

"This XML file contains the strings used to build URL's for online and offline help."

[fehrsZBFB9]

This sounds interesting. Sadly I had no success redirecting it. I've set up a https server providing the inventor help and reconfigured helpids.xml using my local server address instead of the standard server address. I looks like this:

<URL
UseOnline="1"
Redirect="REDIRECT_"

OnlinePrefix="https://"
OnlineWIKI_Internal="localhost/"
OnlineWIKI_Production="localhost/"
OnlineWIKI_Beta="localhost/"
OnlineContextSuffix="?contextId="
OnlineQuerySuffix="?query="

OfflinePrefix="http://"
OfflineHelp="localhost\"
OfflineContext="contexthelp\"
ErrorPage="HELP_INFORMATION"
OfflineSuffix=".htm"
/>

But my address isn't accepted. It works perfectly if directly used inside the browser. But Inventor does not opend the help directly but has a redirection in between, which doesn't accept my address. I get:

xoauth_problem=parameter_rejected&xoauth_parameters_absent=oauth_redirect_url&oauth_error_message=Invalid%20value%20for%20parameter%3Aoauth_redirect_url

This Open Authorization redirection as I understand it correctly does only accept known URLs. Is there a way to make inventor accept my site?

I also tried to redirect the local help. But this isn't working at all, because inventor always prepends the %ProgramData% directory.

[JelteDeJong]

if i use the following the user gets redirected to my personal site. (There is no help content there so it will not show any thing but as proof of concept it works

	<URL
		UseOnline="1"
		Redirect="REDIRECT_"
		
		OnlinePrefix="http://www.hjalte.nl/"
		OnlineWIKI_Internal=""
		OnlineWIKI_Production=""
		OnlineWIKI_Beta=""
		OnlineContextSuffix="?contextId="
		OnlineQuerySuffix="?query="
		
		OfflinePrefix="file:///"
		OfflineHelp="Local Help\" 
		OfflineContext="contexthelp\" 
		ErrorPage="HELP_INFORMATION"
		OfflineSuffix=".htm"
		/>

[fehrsZBFB9]

Sadly this is not working for the OEM Version of Inventor. It always refers to the local help ignoring my settings.

UseOnline="1"

Do you know where the setting is stored? Maybe I can change it by hand inside the registry or a config file. I haven't found anything so far.

[JelteDeJong]

the only thing I found is this:

that is the last thing I can think of