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+<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN"
+"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
+]>
+<article id="index">
+ <title>Help System Specification</title>
+
+ <articleinfo>
+ <title>Help System Specification</title>
+ <date>2010-04-30</date>
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Shaun</firstname>
+ <surname>McCance</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>shaunm@gnome.org</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+ </articleinfo>
+
+ <section id="overview">
+ <title>Overview</title>
+ <para>This specification provides a common directory layout and URI
+ scheme for locally installed help documents. Documents installed and
+ referenced using this system will have better interoperability between
+ different desktop environments and help applications.</para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="layout">
+ <title>Directory Layout</title>
+
+ <para>A document is a collection of files, possibly from multiple
+ directories in a path. Documents may be in any format, or even in
+ multiple formats; see <xref linkend="formats"/> for details. A
+ document has a <emphasis>document identifier</emphasis> that
+ identifies it uniquely and specifies where it can be found on
+ the file system. A document identifier consists of one or more
+ characters from the following: digits (U+0030-U+0039), letters
+ (U+0041-U+005A and U+0061-U+007A), hyphen (U+002D), underscore
+ (U+005F), period (U+002E), and percent (U+0025).</para>
+
+ <para>Document identifiers are not explicitly namespaced. To
+ avoid conflicts, document identifiers should start with the name
+ of the application or package that provides the document. In many
+ cases, the name of the application or package alone may be used.
+ Otherwise, the document identifier should start with the name
+ of the package or application followed by a hyphen.</para>
+
+ <para>Documents are installed under the <filename>help</filename>
+ subdirectory in <envar>$XDG_DATA_HOME</envar> or in the
+ <envar>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</envar> path. See the
+ <ulink url="http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/">XDG
+ Base Directory Specification</ulink> for details on <envar>$XDG_DATA_HOME</envar>
+ and <envar>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</envar>. Each <filename>help</filename>
+ directory in the path contains subdirectories for languages. Each
+ language subdirectory contains subdirectories for documents, where
+ the name of each subdirectory matches the document identifier of
+ a document.</para>
+
+ <para>The <emphasis>document path</emphasis> for a given document
+ is the list of directories of the following form:</para>
+
+ <programlisting><replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/help/<replaceable>lang</replaceable>/<replaceable>document</replaceable></programlisting>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><filename><replaceable>datadir</replaceable></filename></term>
+ <listitem><para>Either <envar>$XDG_DATA_HOME</envar> or a directory in
+ the <envar>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</envar> path.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><filename><replaceable>lang</replaceable></filename></term>
+ <listitem><para>The language code of a language in the user's
+ list of preferred languages.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><filename><replaceable>document</replaceable></filename></term>
+ <listitem><para>The document identifier of the document.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>The document path is ordered first according to the position of
+ <filename><replaceable>datadir</replaceable></filename> in the path, then
+ by the position of <filename><replaceable>lang</replaceable></filename>
+ in the user's preferred list of languages. So, for example, if the
+ user's preferred language list is <systemitem>pt_BT:pt:C</systemitem>,
+ then <filename>~/.local/share/help/pt/beanstalk</filename> would take
+ precedence over <filename>/usr/share/help/pt_BR/beanstalk</filename>.</para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="uri-scheme">
+ <title>URI Scheme</title>
+
+ <para>Documents are referenced using the <systemitem>help:</systemitem>
+ URI scheme. The <systemitem>help:</systemitem> URI scheme has the
+ following form:</para>
+
+ <programlisting>help:<replaceable>document</replaceable>/<replaceable>page</replaceable>?<replaceable>options</replaceable>#<replaceable>anchor</replaceable></programlisting>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><replaceable>document</replaceable></term>
+ <listitem><para>The document identifier.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><replaceable>page</replaceable></term>
+ <listitem><para>An identifier for a page within the document. Documents
+ often consist of multiple logical pages, which may not be reflected in
+ the actual files on the system. The page identifier is optional. If it
+ is not present, the preceding <systemitem>/</systemitem> character
+ should be omitted.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><replaceable>options</replaceable></term>
+ <listitem><para>Additional options that can influence how applications
+ present a document. Options are optional. If they are not present, the
+ preceding <systemitem>?</systemitem> character should be omitted. If
+ they are present, they must conform to the
+ <systemitem>application/x-www-form-urlencoded</systemitem> MIME type.
+ Options may be used, for example, to override language settings or to
+ provide keys for conditional processing. This specification makes no
+ specific recommendations for the options.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><replaceable>anchor</replaceable></term>
+ <listitem><para>An anchor point within a page. Applications should
+ scroll to an appropriate point whenever possible. The anchor is
+ optional. If it is not present, the preceding <systemitem>#</systemitem>
+ character should be omitted.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>Page identifiers and anchors may contain any character that is
+ valid in a document identifier. Some document types may have further
+ restrictions on page identifiers or anchors.</para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="formats">
+ <title>Help Formats</title>
+
+ <para>Documents may be installed in any format. Not all help applications
+ may recognize and handle the same types of documents. Whenever possible,
+ help applications should support HTML. Documents may be installed in
+ multiple formats. Help applications choose which format to use when
+ multiple formats are present.</para>
+
+ <para>For any format, a help application must map the information found
+ in the <systemitem>help:</systemitem> URI scheme to the information in
+ that format. This specification contains recommendations for finding
+ and handling documents in DocBook, Mallard, HTML, and XHTML.</para>
+
+ <section id="docbook">
+ <title>DocBook</title>
+ <para>DocBook documents have a file named <filename>index.docbook</filename>
+ in the document path. Any files referenced from the DocBook file, including
+ XML fragments included through XInclude, should be looked up according to
+ the document path.</para>
+ <para>When a help application displays a DocBook document, it will often
+ display it in multiple pages or chunks, rather than as a single long page.
+ The page identifier specifies which chunk to display. Not all applications
+ will split a DocBook document into chunks in the same way, so the page
+ identifier may not map exactly to the <sgmltag>id</sgmltag> attribute
+ of an element that is chunked. In this case, the applicaiton displays
+ the nearest enclosing chunk and treats the page identifier as an anchor
+ if no anchor was explicitly provided.</para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="mallard">
+ <title>Mallard</title>
+ <para>Mallard documents have a file named <filename>index.page</filename>
+ in the document path. Other page files may be different directories in
+ the document path. Any files referenced in any page file, including XML
+ fragments included through XInclude, should be looked up according to
+ the document path.</para>
+ <para>The page identifier specifies the id of a Mallard page file. The
+ anchor specifies the id of a section within a Mallard page file.</para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="html">
+ <title>HTML and XHTML</title>
+ <para>HTML documents have a file named <filename>index.html</filename>
+ in the document path. XHTML documents have a file named <filename>index.xhtml</filename>
+ in the document path. Other HTML or XHTML files in the document may
+ be in different directories in the document path. Any files referenced
+ in any HTML or XHTML page, including XML fragments included through
+ XInclude in XHTML, should be looked up according to the document path.</para>
+ <para>The page identifier specifies the base file name, without the
+ <filename>.html</filename> or <filename>.xhtml</filename> extension,
+ of an HTML or XHTML file in the document. The anchor specifies a named
+ anchor within the HTML or XHTML file.</para>
+ </section>
+ </section>
+</article>