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Help XML Data Island Markup

XML data islands are used to add the following kinds of data to HTML-based Help topics:

  • Keywords

  • Attributes

  • Compiler instructions

  • Data for virtual topics

Each topic can have one data island, enclosed by <xml> and </xml> tags. The data island can appear anywhere between the <head> and </head> tags of an HTML document. Each tag within the data island contains a specific type of data, which is defined by one or more attributes, and preceded by the MSHelp XML namespace prefix. Thus, the MSHelp XML namespace must be declared in the <html> tag for the topic, as follows:

<html xmlns:MSHelp=https://msdn.microsoft.com/mshelp>

Example

The following example shows the basic structure of an XML data island.

<xml>

   <MSHelp:TOCTitle Title Attribute = ""/>

   <MSHelp:RLTitleTitle Attribute= ""/>

   <MSHelp:Include File Attribute = ""/>

   <MSHelp:NoSearch/>

   <MSHelp:KeywordIndex Attribute = "" Term Attribute = ""/>

   <MSHelp:Attr Name Attribute = "" Value Attribute = ""/>

   <MSHelp:Vtopic Name Attribute = ""/>

   <MSHelp:FTSIndex VTopic Attribute = ""/>

      <MSHelp:TOCTitleTitle Attribute= "" VTopic Attribute = ""/>

      <MSHelp:RLTitleTitle Attribute= "" VTopic Attribute = ""/>

      <MSHelp:Keyword Index Attribute = "" Term Attribute= "" VTopic Attribute = ""/>

      <MSHelp:Attr Name = "" Value Attribute = "" VTopic Attribute = ""/>

</xml>

The following table indicates how many times a data island tag can appear per topic.

Tag

Frequency of appearance

<MSHelp:Attr>

Zero or more times

<MSHelp:FTSIndex>

Only once per virtual topic

<MSHelp:Include>

Only once

<MSHelp:Keyword>

Zero or more times

<MSHelp:NoSearch>

Only once

<MSHelp:RLTitle>

Only once per topic or virtual topic

<MSHelp:TOCTitle>

Only once per topic or virtual topic

<MSHelp:Vtopic>

Zero or more times

Note

To define a multilevel index keyword, use the comma character. For example, the following keyword markup: <MSHelp:Keyword Index = "K" Term = "Term 1, Term 2"/> results in the following keywords in the index:

Term 1

   Term 2

Clicking "Terms" would not link to a topic; clicking "Index" would link to all topics containing the keyword "Index".

To include a comma character in an index keyword, use the following escape sequence: %2c. For example, the following keyword markup: <MSHelp:Keyword Index = "K" Term = "Term 1%2c Term 2"/> results in the following keyword in the index:

Term 1, Term 2

See Also

Other Resources

Getting Started with Help Content and Integration