DelphiDabbler Component Help Installer Release 2

System requirements

Supported operating systems: Windows 9x Platform, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP.

Installation

The following instructions give a step by step guide to installing the program.

Important note: Before proceeding with the installation it is important that any earlier versions of Component Help Installer that have been installed into Delphi as package-based experts are removed. (Remove PJCHIExpert.pas and/or PJCHIExpert.dcu) from the relevant package and recompile.) Once this has been done, please close all instances of Delphi before proceeding.

  1. The program has been provided as a zip file named pjchi.zip. The install program is named chi2inst.exe and should be extracted from the zip file to a folder.
  2. Double click chi2inst.exe to run it. The program is a console application and will be displayed in a text window.
  3. The install program will display some introductory text in the console and will then halt waiting for the installation folder to be entered. By default the program installs into [Program Files]\DelphiDabbler\Experts\CHI2. To accept this folder press return. If you wish to install into a different folder, enter the full path to the folder and press return.
  4. The install program will now display a dialog box showing the program's license. You should read the license and then click the Accept button if you agree to the terms of the license to continue with the installation. Click the Decline button to reject the license terms. This will abort the installation program.
  5. The installation will now proceed, with names of installed files and changes made to the registry being displayed in the console.
  6. An uninstall program named Uninstall.exe will be created by the installer in the main installation folder.
  7. If the installer detects the presence of any help files that were installed by the Beta 1 release of the program it will attempt to re-install them to make the installation compatible with this release. Any changes made will be written to a log file named Convert.log in the main installation folder.
  8. The installer will now display a dialog box asking you to choose whether to install Component Help Installer as an add-in expert with the installed versions of Delphi (recommended). The dialog will display a list of Delphi installations. Place a check mark next to each version of Delphi where you wish to install Component Help Installer as an expert.
  9. When the installation is completed a message will be displayed stating if the installation succeeded or failed. Press return to close the console window.

Uninstalling

Important note: Before uninstalling Component Help Installer please close down any running instance of Delphi.

Open the Control Panel and start the Add/Remove programs applet. Select DelphiDabbler Component Help Installer (2.x) from the list of installed applications and click the Remove button. This will run the uninstaller, which will display progress in a console window. Press return to exit the program when uninstallation is complete. Alternatively, find the file Uninstall.exe in the folder where the program was installed and double click it to run the uninstaller.

The uninstaller may leave some files and subfolders in the original installation folder. These files and folders can be safely deleted manually. Any program specific registry entries will be deleted by the uninstaller.

Getting Started

The first thing you need to get started with Component Help Installer is an OpenHelp compatible help file for an installed component. If you don't have one to hand, a copy DelphiDabbler's Version Information Component and helpfile is included with you Component Help Installer installation (see the Samples sub-folder).

Read the file pjvinf32.htm (installed with the component in the Samples sub-folder) for information on how to install the component into Delphi, but don't manually install the help file - use Component Help Installer to do that!

You can use either the GUI or command line versions of the program to install help for the componet. See the help file for information on how to proceed. (The help file is accessible from the Help button on the GUI application or by starting the command line application with the -h switch).

License

Component Help Installer

License & Copyright

This program is copyright © 2001-2004 - DelphiDabbler (P.D.Johnson), Llanarth, Wales, UK.

The program and its source code (where supplied) are placed in the public domain. It may be freely copied and circulated on a not-for-profit basis providing that the source and executable code is unmodified and this notice, information about the author and the copyright notice remains attached to the source code and the help file.

By not-for-profit I mean that a reasonable charge can be be to defray expenses incurred in distribution - i.e. cost of disks and postage, but no profit must be made.

Where source code has been provided it my be modified for personal use, but the modified code may not be redistributed without permission. I'd be appreciate it if you will e-mail me any useful modifications so that I may include them in future updates. Modifications to the source code must not be re-distributed without the author's express permission.

No warranty is made about the suitability of this software for any application. It is provided "as-is" and is used at your own risk.

Please register the program to let me know if you are using the software. I'd also like to hear your comments, bug reports and suggestions for improvements to the program -- which can either be made via the DelphiDabbler website or by selecting the EMail Your Comments option (accessed via the Help button).

This program has license information contained in the source code and has copyright and license information embedded in the executable file. This is usually displayed in the program's About Box.