Your opinion on external references in CHM files

[GoneFishing]

I'm going to create a small CHM reference from MSDN pages.
How do you think is it okay to leave external references to MSDN in it ?

[jj2007]

Technically or copyright-wise speaking?

[GoneFishing]

So copyright-wise speaking I should not do it at all , yes ?
I won't do it for sure
Now what if we speak about not copyrighted stuff - would you like CHM file having external refs and browsing internet for you ?

[jj2007]

So copyright-wise speaking I should not do it at all , yes ?
I won't do it for sure
Now what if we speak about not copyrighted stuff - would you like CHM file having external refs and browsing internet for you ?

You are asking the wrong person - my own code is full of links... I even wrote a routine to translate them to 'forum language':

            .if edi==100
                  invoke timeBeginPeriod, 10      ; Osterman & MSDN
            .endif

So, yes, hyperlinks please. It would be strange NOT to use them. Even copyright-wise, it shouldn't be a problem. MSDN is a public site, why should you not link to them?

[GoneFishing]

Yes,  hyperlinks are good on the webpage but what  I mean is privacy concerns  - someone may dislike when the CHM help file goes to internet and hosts  webpages .   

[jj2007]

C'mon, we are talking CHM for assembler programmers, not for kids and grandmas. We know what clicking on a link implies ;-)

[GoneFishing]

want to comprehend  this:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc300389 :

3. Microsoft Content.

All Microsoft Content is the copyrighted work of Microsoft or its suppliers, and is governed by the terms of the license agreement that accompanies or is included with the Microsoft Content. If the Microsoft Content does not include a license agreement, then you may make a reasonable number of copies of the Microsoft Content for your internal use in designing, developing, and testing your software, products and services that is made available to you on the Documentation Portals without a license agreement. You must preserve the copyright notice in all copies of the Microsoft Content and ensure that both the copyright notice and this permission notice appear in those copies.

So I may make  a copy of webpage containing function description for internal use in designing , developing and testing ? As soon as those pages don't contain copyright notice and don't require license agreement.

[fearless]

Might be worth checking out this: http://packagethis.codeplex.com/

What It Does

Package This is a GUI tool written in C# for creating help files (.chm and .hxs) from the content obtained from the MSDN Library or the TechNet Library via the MSDN Content Service. You select the content you want from the table of contents, build a help file, and use the content offline. You are making personalized ebooks of MSDN or TechNet content. Both help file formats also give full text search and keyword search.

Might save you some time as packagethis already does what i think you are looking for.

Ive used it in the past to create little chm help files for some of the win32 controls, so i have a treeview.chm, listview.chm etc that contains functions and info on just that control - all sourced from msdn and created by packagethis. Very handy little utility

Some more info on it: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davbosch/archive/2007/04/28/take-parts-of-the-msdn-library-offline-with-packagethis.aspx and here: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/626677ab-c35f-4f3d-9f7c-6b471b1195dd

Edit:

To help people locate most likely sections of interest expand: Windows Desktop App Development->Develop->Desktop App Technologies.
For windows controls expand: Windows Desktop App Development->Develop->Desktop App Technologies->Desktop App UI->Windows Controls->Control Library and select control of interest.
For Menus, Dialogs, Windows Messaging etc: Windows Desktop App Development->Develop->Desktop App Technologies and select whichever interests you.
Others sections of interest might be: Windows Desktop App Development->Develop->Desktop App Technologies->System Services that has Compression, DLL, Memory, Process, Threads etc etc. Hope that helps.

[jj2007]

Might be worth checking out this: http://packagethis.codeplex.com/

Is it working for you?

First it complained that HTML Help Workshop was missing, so I tried to install, but it complains that a newer version was already installed.
Afterwards, PT accepted to work, but the output is ... an empty chm file :(

[hutch--]

I get the same results, seems like the format has changed.

[fearless]

Yeh, just checked that version and an older one i had, neither seem to actually be fetching the pages correctly, ms must have changed some stuff on their webpages on the MSDN, which the packagethis isnt updated to take into account. Ill attach a masm.chm as an example of what it did do, when it worked.

[fearless]

Here is another one regarding listviews

[jj2007]

Very nice, Fearless :t

I would need one on the RichEdit control... it's a pity that this is no longer working :(

[fearless]

Yeh its a shame it hasnt been updated, or perhaps the author meant to but the msdn pages changed over time and it became irrelevant or more difficult to package the 'web' pages together. Just had a look at one of those pages, lots of javascript etc when saving whole web page, and has a ms.assetid where i think it resolves the actual content via the javascript (VS|Controls|~\controls\richedit\richeditcontrols\richeditcontrolreference\richeditcallbackfunctions\editwordbreakprocex.htm)

Unfortunately i never got round to making more chm, the ones i did create are:

COM.chm
Cryptography.chm
DeviceManagement.chm
DynamicLinkLibraries.chm
FileManagement.chm
FileSystems.chm
ListviewControls.chm
MAPI.chm
Masm.chm
ODBC.chm
Processes.chm
ProgressBarControls.chm
psapi.chm
Services.chm
ToolbarControls.chm
TreeviewControls.chm
WinINet.chm
Winsock2.chm

If anyone wants any let me know. Here is the treeview one attached as well.

[GoneFishing]

Fearless, thank you for information and sharing your CHMs  :t
You've done a good amount of work in right time . I'm sure many forum members got interested  with  those CHM's  because it's very handy to have a little offline reference on a certain subject.
I guess it was a nice utility while it was working .  I've made a small test CHM with HTML Help Workshop and am collecting material for my current little project.

... Just had a look at one of those pages, lots of javascript etc when saving whole web page, ...

There's a nice browser-oriented technic to get an area-of interest  ;)
Firefox , for example, has Inspect Element  item in context menu  - move cursor to the area-of interest and right click it -> click Inspect Element -> Browser Debugger will appear highlighting the HTML code for that area -> right click on it -> Copy Inner HTML -> paste it inside <body></body> tags of blank HTML template -> save it. Try it. Sometimes it could happen that you have to copy Inner HTML for a parent node of highlighted HTML . Now you want to find out which CSS file you need to add styles to a page  ;)
You see all is simple