evennia/docs/sphinx/source/wiki/HelpSystem.rst

Evennia's help system

Help system
===========

An important part of Evennia is the online help system. This allows the
players and staff alike to learn how to use the game's commands as well
as other information pertinent to the game. The help system has many
different aspects, from the normal editing of help entries from inside
the game, to auto-generated help entries during code development using
the *auto-help system*.

Viewing the help database
-------------------------

The main command is ``help``.

::

     help [searchstring]

This will show a list of help entries, ordered after categories. You
will find two sections, *Command help entries* and *Other help entries*
(initially you will only have the first one). You can use help to get
more info about an entry; you can also give partial matches to get
suggestions. If you give category names you will only be shown the
topics in that category.

Command Auto-help system
------------------------

One important use of the help system is to teach the use of in-game
commands. Evennia offers a dynamically updated help system for all your
commands, new and old, known simply as the *auto-help system*. Only
commands that you and your character can actually currently use are
picked up by the auto-help system. That means an admin will see a
considerably larger amount of help topics than a normal player when
using the ``help`` command.

The auto-help system uses the ``__doc__`` strings of your command
definitions and formats this to a nice-looking help entry. This makes
for a very easy way to keep the help updated - just document your
commands well abd updating the help file is just a ``@reload`` away.
There is no need to manually create and maintain help database entries
for commands; as long as you keep the docstrings updated your help will
be dynamically updated for you as well.

Example (from a module with command definitions):

::

    class CmdMyCmd(Command):
       """
       mycmd - my very own command

       Usage: 
         mycmd[/switches] <args>

       Switches:
         test - test the command
         run  - do something else

       This is my own command that does things to you when you
       supply it with arguments. 

       """
       ...
       help_category = "Building"
        ...

The text at the very top of the command class definition is the class'
``__doc__``-string and will be shown to users looking for help. Try to
use a consistent format - all default commands are using the structure
shown above. You should also supply the ``help_category`` class property
if you can; this helps to group help entries together for easier finding
(if you don't supply a help\_category, "General" will be assumed).

Other help entries (entries stored in database)
-----------------------------------------------

Not all help entries concern commands. You will also probably need help
entries describing how your particular game is played - its rules, world
descriptions and other types of information not covered by the auto-help
system. Such entries are manually added to the database by staff and
will appear under a heading "Other help" whenever you have any. Instead
of being generated from the code by Evennia, these entries are stored in
the database as a ``HelpEntry``.

A help entry consists of four parts:

-  The *topic*. This is the name of the help entry. This is what players
   search for when they are looking for help. The topic can contain
   spaces and also partual matches will be found.
-  The *help category*. Examples are *Administration*, *Building*,
   *Comms* or *General*. This is an overall grouping of similar help
   topics, used by the engine to give a better overview.
-  The *text* - the help text itself, of any length.
-  locks - a `lock definition <Locks.html>`_. This can be used to limit
   access to this help entry, maybe because it's staff-only or otherwise
   meant to be restricted. Help commands check for ``access_type``\ s
   ``view`` and ``edit``. An example of a lock string would be
   ``view:perm(Builders)``.

You can create new help entries in code by using
``src.utils.create.create_help_entry()``:

::

    from src.utils import create 
    entry = create.create_help_entry("emote", 
                                     "Emoting is important because ...", 
                                     category="Roleplaying", locks="view:all()"):

From inside the game those with the right permissions can use the
``@sethelp`` command to add and modify help entries.

::

    > @sethelp/add emote = The emote command is ...

Using ``@sethelp`` you can add, delete and append text to existing
entries. By default new entries will go in the *General* help category.
You can change this using a different form of the ``@sethelp`` command:

::

    > @sethelp/add emote, Roleplaying = Emoting is important because ...

If the category *Roleplaying* did not already exist, it is created and
will appear in the help index.

You can, finally, define a lock for the help entry by following the
category with a `lock definition <Locks.html>`_:

::

    > @sethelp/add emote, Roleplaying, view:all() = Emoting is important because ...