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What is a Dynamic Help System?

A dynamic help system is a centralized help system that runs on an internal web server or on your website. A dynamic help system is made up of .ASPX pages and requires Microsoft IIS and .NET Framework to be installed on the web server. A dynamic help system cannot be run from your harddrive, on a network, or from a CD. Software developers normally host the dynamic help system on their website and include help links from their software directly to pages within the help system. Click here to view an example dynamic help system


Advantages:

• Create new help systems on the fly
• Track page views and 'most popular pages'
• If hosted on the Internet, authors can access from anywhere
• Authors can quickly make updates or add content
• Can integrate with other web-based applications

Disadvantages:

• Does not run on non-IIS web servers
• Cannot be distributed on a CD or within a setup file

When to Publish a dynamic help system?

• If you want to be able to quickly update your help system
• If your help system will be hosted on your website
• If your help system will be hosted on an internal web server

A dynamic help system will look exactly the same as a static help system published from the same project. The main difference is that the dynamic help system can be modified on the fly, whereas a Static help system must be re-published whenever changes are made.

Static Help System

Dynamic Help System