How to: Create the Object String File

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The core Help that is provided by Microsoft uses object tokens that are replaced by Help Builder with actual object names that are defined in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

If you use object tokens in the Help for objects that you have created, then you can export the object names and IDs from Microsoft Dynamics NAV and convert the file into the XML format that is used by Help Builder. If you are only using object tokens for objects that are supplied by Microsoft, then you can use the Multilanguage files that are provided in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Help Source download packages.

Creating the Object String File

To export the object name and IDs from Microsoft Dynamics NAV

  1. Open the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment.

  2. On the Tools menu, choose Object Designer, and then choose the All button.

  3. On the Edit menu, choose Select All.

  4. On the Tools menu, point to Translate, and then choose Export.

  5. In the File name box, enter the folder and file name, such as C:\HelpExample\object.txt, and then choose the Save button.

After you have exported the object names and IDs, you can choose to convert the text file into the XML format that is used by Help Builder. This process also removes unnecessary data from the file. Help Builder supports object.txt as a string file and there is no need to convert.

To convert the object name file to XML using the Help Builder command-line tool

  1. At the command prompt, change to the folder where HelpBuilder.exe is installed. For example, on a 32-bit version of Windows 7, type the following command.

    cd "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Help Toolkit"

  2. Convert the text file to XML by typing the following command.

    Help.Builder.EXE -t=c:\HelpExample\object.txt -out=c:\HelpExample\Object.xml -l=1033

    In the example, c:\HelpExample\object.txt represents the folder and file name for the file that you generated in the previous section. The expression l=1033 is the language switch where you add the language ID to make sure that relevant localized captions are exported. You can enter language ID as LCID, 3-letter code, or 4-letter code. Examples are l=1033, l=en-us, or l="ENU".

After Help Builder has completed, you will have an .xml file, such as the Object.xml file in the C:\HelpExample folder. This file is one input file that is used by Help Builder to generate HTML Help files.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Creating and Building a New Help Topic