HelpTag Alternatives?

HelpTag is broken:
<https://xojo.com/issue/31888>
<https://xojo.com/issue/50846>
<https://xojo.com/issue/49283>
<https://xojo.com/issue/47604>

I’ve waited as long as I can for it to be fixed, and now I have to come up with a useable workaround / alternative. Short of rolling my own solution involving a bunch of timers and a very small plain window that I show/hide/resize as needed, are there any other solutions anyone has come up with yet? I’m happy to use plugins if they flat work.

I target 32 bit Windows and 64 bit Mac Desktop only.

Have you simply tried showing a tooltip ?

From the docs: “NOTE: ToolTips do not appear on 64-bit macOS builds.”

I recently removed my workaround for ToolTips on 64-bit macOS since they now seem to work built with Xojo 2018. The workaround involved a timer and small canvas with HelpTag on it, but this never really worked as well as the ToolTip. I’m glad it’s working again.

Strange. In Check Writer III+ compiled with 2017R2.1 64 bit for Mac, help tags show impeccably.

I just verified in 2018R1, and they work as clockwork as well…

[quote=386948:@Michel Bujardet]Strange. In Check Writer III+ compiled with 2017R2.1 64 bit for Mac, help tags show impeccably.

I just verified in 2018R1, and they work as clockwork as well…[/quote]

Are you using controls with HelpTags on Tab or Page panels? Or inside container controls?

I just tested ToolTips on OS X. I added a ToolTip to the mouseDown event of a canvas, and it appeared the first 3 times I clicked on the canvas, but once I let it disappear (on OS X, it auto-disappears, regardless of whether you ask it to or not) it will not show up again.

I’ll try to free up some time this afternoon to create a test project to demonstrate and file a feedback - but I need a working solution much more quickly than Xojo will get either ToolTip or HelpTag fixed.

So, getting back to the original question: has anyone rolled their own reliable solution?

If you need better tooltips on Mac OS, you can look into my NSViewTooltipMBS class.

I never use page or tabpanels. But I do use a lot of container controls, and no problem whatsoever. I am talking about helptags. Not tooltips.

That said, creating a plain window subclass that mimics tootips is far from being difficult. I had to do it on Windows because the Xojo’s style did not conform to current UWP design standard.

I would really love to just use HelpTags as you are, Michel, but unfortunately they are completely broken on OS X when the control is in a page or tab panel (which I use heavily).

Christian - I’ll look at your plugin, but I really am looking for something that is a cross-platform solution so I don’t have to do things specific to each OS.

Most likely I’ll have to roll my own. :frowning:

MouseEnter to show texts,
MouseExit to clear the texts,
Label as a help text displayer…

When the Mouse is above a Control, a text is displayed in the Label.

Think at how the help is done in Xojo IDE as an example.

Hi Emile - that’s generally they way I’ve been thinking about it… but I want a delay so that the tips are not ALWAYS showing immediately… just if you hover for a brief time (say, 2 seconds or something) over a control).

Luckily I’ve created a lot of custom controls subclassed from Canvas, so I can build this into my custom controls pretty easily. Was just hoping someone else had already done it.

For anyone keeping score, I’ve just updated the ToolTips Not Working On OS X 64 Bit feedback report with an example project and screencast of how it fails: <https://xojo.com/issue/50846>

I am compiling with 2018r2 and help tags are not showing. Documentation shows they do not appear on 64bit builds but comments above suggest they came back with 2018r1. Does anyone know the current situation and when they are likely to become available?

My app is heavily dependent on help tags to provide online info to users about the more obscure features and I moved to 64bit to comply with Apple’s requirements but cannot release a new version until help tags are working again.

My problem does not seems to be associated with 64bit builds as the help tags are not working in a 32bit build. My current release with all the help tabs operational in under RB2012r2.1 pre-cocoa, so it may be the switch to Xojo or that to Cocoa that is the problem. It may come under one of the Feedback cases that Kimball lists since the controls are in a tabpanel.

I don’t have old projects to test.

I created a sample with 2018r2, put a Button, PopupMenu and Label, set the HelpTag for each one, compiled macOS 64bit and it works.

Downloaded Kimball sample from case 50846, build with 2018r2 64bit and ToolTips also works. Tried again with 2018r1.1 (the one he used) and I can replicate the issue, once the ToolTip disappear it will not show again.

I think ToolTips and HelpTags are not the same thing.

Sorry I can’t reproduce your problem.

I modified Kimballs project, added other controls with HelpTag (added a HelpTag to the Canvas that has the ToolTip) and this is what I get with 2018r2 64bit macOS 10.12.6:

For me the Tab control still have some HelpTag issue or not what I expected. I expected to show the HelpTag only when the mouse was over the actual tabs (Tab 0 and Tab 1) and not the ‘body’ or panel. It will be great if it only show over the Tab and I can set a HelpTag for each Tab Button.

I noticed the original report, 31888, was verified but unrated which may mean it never gets any attention. I ranked it number 1 and it has moved to 817 — maybe if a few other expressed concern by ranking it high in feedback it would get some attention.

I am surprised so few Xojo developers are using helptags/tooltips, or maybe only using them outside page panels if that is the problem.

I was able to reproduce the issue running the sample from case 31888 and removing TabPanel1 - Change code (that code ‘fix’ the issue)

It looks like with that workaround you can make it work until this bug is fixed.