MyDistrict.Net Develops Homegrown Context-Sensitive Online Help Solution for ASP.Net Applications

MyDistrict.Net (www.mydistrict.net) had a goal that is common of web application publishers... They needed a context-sensitive help system that would provide web users with help content specific to the particular function they are working with.

Having evaluated a number of help, knowledgebase, and FAQ systems (including RoboHelp, Doc-2-Help, and others), MyDistrict.Net decided that none provided the level of context sensitivity that they needed, and couldn't be easily integrated with their ASP.Net application..

So... They decided to write their own solution.

Each page on their flagship website has a prominent "Online Help" button, which is integrated into the application as an ASP.Net control. The only task a developer has to do is place this control onto each webpage. Since most pages in the site are managed with a single template, most pages require no modification by the developer at all to support context-sensitive help.

Hovering over the button causes a drop-down menu to appear with a number of help documents that are relevant to the current page.

Clicking on any of the links takes the user to a user friendly and feature rich hierarchical help system. (http://helpdesk.mydistrict.net) In addition to the obvious, the content pages offer several innovative features:

• Users can download the current topic with all sub topics as a single Word Document that they can save or print.
• The documentation includes "Tip", "Note", and "Warning" blocks that give the document energy and draw attention to important information. (example)
• The online documentation has expandable FAQ sections that render completely when printed or downloaded, but collapsed until clicked when viewed online. These FAQ sections can be included on any page. (example)

Content generation was a significant challenge...

• Content authors were disconnected, in several different cities and not on the same network.
• Content authors needed to be able to update the help system in real time, without any build process.
• Content authors needed an easy way to manage images, copying them to their local clipboard and placing them in the documentation by copy/paste, without the pain of saving each image to a file and manually uploading it.

No existing published product... including RoboHelp, AuthorIt, or Doc-2-Help, addressed all of these issues.

The solution was a custom written content editor that is accessible via the web. The content editor is integrated with Snag-It in such a way that capturing an image and adding it to the documentation can be done in just a couple of clicks.

Images are stored in their original size, and are thumbnailed internally, presenting to the user at the optimum settings for the output media (ie HTML, print, or download).

The online help system that MyDistrict.Net has created is not core to their business, and they are currently seeking a partner to further develop and market it.

MyDistrict.Net has changed the way that newspapers are delivered at 3 major metro publications, dramatically improving service and reducing subscriber complaints.

Fully implemented at The Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Houston Chronicle, MyDistrict.Net provides carriers with a wide range of tools to improve carrier delivery... the most groundbreaking of which are vehicle mount eBook devices that provide turn-by-turn directions with specific delivery instructions, automatically updated each day.