Help

Managing Help Content

Managing Help Content

Help content is organized into markdown files stored in the privateFiles/helpfiles folder on the server. Each addon collection can install its own help files, and administrators can upload additional articles manually.

Help File Locations

Help files are organized into subfolders by audience role:

  • helpfiles/guests/ — Content available to all visitors, including unauthenticated users.
  • helpfiles/members/ — Content for authenticated users. Also visible to administrators and developers.
  • helpfiles/admin/ — Content for site administrators. Also visible to developers.
  • helpfiles/dev/ — Content for developers only.
  • fieldhelp/ — Database table and field documentation. Visible to administrators and developers.

When a user searches, they only see results from content matching their role level. Administrators see guest, member, and administrator content. Developers see everything, including developer content and field help.

File Naming Convention

Help file names determine how articles appear in the left-side navigation:

  • ArticleName.md — Creates a top-level navigation entry named "ArticleName".
  • TopicName.ArticleName.md — Creates an article "ArticleName" nested under the topic "TopicName" in the navigation.
  • TopicName.default.md — Content displayed when the topic "TopicName" is clicked in the navigation (before selecting a specific article).
  • default.md — Content displayed on the /help root page when no article is selected.

Commas in filenames are automatically converted to periods during collection installation.

Uploading Articles

Administrators can upload help articles directly from the /help page:

  1. Click the Add Article button in the admin tools section.
  2. Select the markdown file to upload.
  3. Choose the addon collection to associate the article with.
  4. Click Add Article.

The article is saved to the helpfiles folder under the selected collection name. Remember to click Re-index Help after uploading so the new article appears in AI search results.

Deleting Articles

To delete an article, navigate to it using the left-side navigation, then click the Delete button at the bottom of the page. The article is removed from the file system. Click Re-index Help afterward to remove it from the search index.

How Collections Install Help Files

Each addon collection can include help files by adding a HelpFiles.zip resource to the collection XML. During installation, the zip is extracted to privateFiles/helpfiles/{collection-name}/. When a collection is updated, its help files are replaced with the new versions.

This means help content stays current with the software. When a feature is updated, its documentation is updated automatically as part of the collection install.

Writing Effective Help Content

Help articles are written in Markdown. For the best search results:

  • Use clear headings (## Heading) to organize content into sections. The search indexer splits content by heading, so each section should cover one topic.
  • Write in plain language. The AI search matches meaning, not exact words, so natural descriptions work better than technical shorthand.
  • Keep sections focused. A heading followed by a few paragraphs about one concept indexes better than a long section covering many topics.

For Markdown syntax help, see the Markdown Cheat Sheet.