UI components can define the associations between UI controls and help contexts,
either statically or dynamically.
- When defined statically, the effective help context changes only when the user
explicitly requests context-sensitive help, that is, when the context-sensitive
help trigger is activated.
- When defined dynamically, the effective help context changes whenever the user
activates any UI control with a dynamic context association, for example, selecting a
menu option, moving from one page to another in a dialog, and so on.
That distinction is significant when the Help view is visible.
- When the context association is defined statically, context-specific content
shown in the Help view remains unchanged, regardless of the user’s action,
unless the user explicitly requests context-sensitive help, for example, by pressing
F1.
- When the context association is defined dynamically, context-specific content
shown in the Help view is updated automatically, whenever the user activates a
UI control.
All help contexts are defined and subsequently identified by a help context ID.
The Eclipse help system uses help context IDs to locate matching
org.eclipse.help.IContext objects, which represent the context-specific help
content.