[Sugar-devel] RFC:Simple Help widget for activities

[Gary Martin]

Hi Gonzalo,

On 7 Mar 2012, at 12:37, Gonzalo Odiard <gonzalo at laptop.org> wrote:

> We receive many times request about adding help in the activities,
> and if is true Sugar propose a exploratory approach, 
> not all the people learn in the same way, 
> and there are people who prefer a little guidance.
> 
> For the development we need a simple api, and easy i18n,
> and a non obtrusive experience for the user.
> 
> Inspired by the DescriptionItem, I was experimenting with a widget to add simple help to activities.
> This is not:
> * A manual
> * Lessons
> * Tips
> Is a short startup help for the activity.
> 
> Use only text and the icons already used by the activity.
> 
> A example can be seen here: http://dev.laptop.org/~gonzalo/images/simple_graph_help.png

+1 for using this help palette design element where appropriate in activities. It's relatively light weight for developers/translators to support and a good place where front line educator feedback can be directly used. Though do lets try to keep an eye on the total number of toolbutton widgets, we don't want Stop falling off the end! ;)

Regards,
--Gary

> In the activity we only need do:
> 
>     helpitem = HelpButton()
>     toolbar.insert(helpitem, -1)
>     helpitem.show()
>     helpitem.add_section(_('Basic usage'))
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('First you need add data to create the graphic'))
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('You can add data with this button'),
>             'row-insert')
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('...or remove data with this button'),
>             'row-remove')
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('To change the graphic title, just change the activity title'))
> ....
> 
> This proposal is late for sugar 0.96, but may be we can try it in one or two activities,
> and start thinking about this topic.
> I really like the help in the Implode activity, but have the following problems:
> * I don't know if apply to other type of activities.
> * Is modal
> * need a lot of code to implement it.
> 
> Comments?
> 
> Gonzalo
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