MS Help 3 testing

[TimoVJL]

Have anyone done MS Help 3 file testing ?
Are those suitable for local help.
Anyone analyzed .mshi files ?

[jj2007]

You mean e.g. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary\catalogs\VS\100\EN-US\VS_100_EN-US_Cat_635839648792475984.1.mshi ?

I have managed to integrate the offline Visual Studio help library into my editor (Your opinion on external references in CHM files); but it was not straightforward, and it relies on somewhat undocumented features. It works fine, though, and having offline access to a GigaByte of Windows help is nice.

But you mean the newest version, apparently. What is better in MS Help 3?

P.S.: This is how my implementation works. Select a word, click Help/VS Help, see the browser open:

[TimoVJL]

I am after install free, local usage. Not with that MS Help server.
I like to create help index in local SQLite database and cut crap off.
.mshi is funny file. Total mess and bad design and bad documentation;)

MS Help 3 is that you are using in that picture?
Are those help pages good?

[jj2007]

MS Help 3 is that you are using in that picture?
Are those help pages good?

I guess it's the previous version. I have the free Visual C++ 2010 Express installed, which has under Help/Manage help settings an option to download the whole MSDN database.

It is free, and the help pages are really good - the original MSDN help pages but offline. The tricky thing was to convince the help library to work without launching that ugly behemoth of Visual Crap 

[TimoVJL]

2010 -> 2012 -> index-file differs. So moving target It so M$
Their work is not finished

Code: [Select]

R9900.htm VS|winui|~\winui\windowsuserinterface\userinput\mouseinput\mouseinputreference\mouseinputmessages\wm_ncxbuttondblclk.htm WM_NCXBUTTONDBLCLK XBUTTON2
R9901.htm 683c3ad8-0236-474e-a16d-6164c2244cfb IAnalysisRegion::IntersectsWith
WinUI is not converted yet, still using long refs
Newer stuff use that short form.
Think how much space are saved in files after that and refs are constant length

Help 3 2010 have less metadata in .mshi than newer ones
For example Help.F1 and language are not in first section.

[jj2007]

2010 -> 2012 -> index-file differs. So moving target It so M$

They make it difficult on purpose

[Grincheux]

use SumatraPdf it reads all help files. That's what I do now.

[TimoVJL]

It was MS Help 3 .mshi format, what i was looking for.

EDIT: 2018-09-26

Code: [Select]

#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
// Fabrikam_SouthPark_Example.mshi

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
HANDLE hFrom;
BYTE *pMem, *pP1, *pP2;
DWORD nMax, nRead;
char szTmp[512];

hFrom = CreateFile(argv[1]
, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ,
NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL_SCAN, NULL);
if (hFrom == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
printf("error file open\n");
return 1;
}

nMax = GetFileSize(hFrom, NULL);
pMem = LocalAlloc(LPTR, nMax + 1);
ReadFile(hFrom, pMem, nMax, &nRead, NULL);
CloseHandle(hFrom);
*(pMem+nMax)=0;

printf("KeyWds: %Xh\n", *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-148));
printf("KeyWds: %Xh\n", *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-184));
printf("Files:  %Xh\n", *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-400));
BYTE *pP3 = pMem + *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-148);
//BYTE *pP3 = pMem + nPosKw;
//BYTE *pP3 = pMem + *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-184);
//BYTE *pP3 = pMem + *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-400);
int nCount = 0;
do {
pP2 = pP3 + 1;
if (!*pP2 || *pP2 > *pP3) break; // error
lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pP2 + 1, *pP2+1);
printf("%4Xh ", *(WORD*)(pP3+*pP2+2)); // data after string
printf("%s\n", szTmp);
pP3 += *pP3 + 1;
nCount++;
} while (*pP3);
printf("%d\n", nCount);
/* pP1 = pMem+nMax-424;
for (int i=0; i<106; i++) {
printf("%08X %08X\n", pP1-pMem, *(DWORD*)pP1);
pP1 += 4;
}*/
return 0;
}EDIT 2018-09-29

Code: [Select]

#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
// Fabrikam_SouthPark_Example.mshi
// Visual_Studio_20219249_VS_100_en-us_1.mshi
// v2Help_on_Help_B837_VS_110_en-us_1.mshi
char *Mem2HexS(char *pMem, char *pBuf, int nLen);
void ShowFileInfo(BYTE *pMem, BYTE *pPtr, int nCntMax, int nVer);
void ShowInfo(BYTE *pMem, BYTE *pPtr, int nCntMax, int nVer);
char *aName1[],*aName2[];
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
HANDLE hFrom;
BYTE *pMem, *pP1, *pP2;
DWORD nMax, nRead;
char szTmp[512];

hFrom = CreateFile(argv[1]
, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ,
NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL_SCAN, NULL);
if (hFrom == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
printf("error file open\n");
return 1;
}

nMax = GetFileSize(hFrom, NULL);
pMem = LocalAlloc(LPTR, nMax + 1);
ReadFile(hFrom, pMem, nMax, &nRead, NULL);
CloseHandle(hFrom);
*(pMem+nMax)=0;

int nHdrSize = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-4);
int nHdrOfs = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-8);
pP1 = pMem+nHdrOfs;
lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pP1 + 1, *pP1+1);
printf("Tool  version: %s\n", szTmp);
pP1 += *pP1+1;
lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pP1 + 1, *pP1+1);
printf("Index version: %s\n", szTmp);
// version v1 -400 == 60000000h v2 -424 == 66000000h
int nVer = *(BYTE*)(pMem+nMax-32); // var size
if (nVer > 2) nVer = 1;
// print help file name
if (nVer == 1) lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pMem + 1, *pMem+1);
else lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pMem + 2, *(pMem+1)+1);
printf("%s\nVersion: %d\n", szTmp, nVer);
printf("HdrSize: %8X\n", nHdrSize);
printf("HdrOfs:  %8X\n", nHdrOfs);
printf("MaxSize: %8X\n", nMax);

int nCount = 0;
if (nVer == 1) {
nCount = 0x60 / 3;
pP1 = pMem+nMax-396;
} else if (nVer == 2) {
nCount = 0x66 / 3;
pP1 = pMem+nMax-420;
} else return 2;
printf(" offset    count    size     value  bytes\n");
for (int i=0; i<nCount; i++) {
printf("%08X %8X ", pP1-pMem, *(DWORD*)pP1);
pP1 += 4;
printf("%8X ", *(DWORD*)pP1);
int nSize = *(DWORD*)pP1;
pP1 += 4;
printf("%8X|", *(DWORD*)pP1);
if (nSize) {
pP2 = pMem+*(DWORD*)pP1;
//for (int j=0; j<nSize && j<8; j++)
// printf(" %02X", *pP2++);
printf(Mem2HexS(pP2, szTmp, nSize>8?8:nSize));
}
pP1 += 4;
if (nVer == 1) printf("\t%s\n", aName1[i]);
else printf("\t%s\n", aName2[i]);
}
printf("Chksum:  %8X\n", *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-12));
printf("Offset:  %8X\n", *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-8));
printf("Size:    %8X\n", *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-4));

int nCntMax;
// nMax - nOfs => pCnt
nCntMax = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-48); // ?32fileinfo
pP1 = pMem+*(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-40);
//ShowFileInfo(pMem, pP1, nCntMax, nVer);

nCntMax = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-400-8); // ?2filenames v2
pP1 = pMem+*(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-400);
//ShowInfo(pMem, pP1, nCntMax, nVer);
nCntMax = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-228); // ?17HelpId
pP1 = pMem+*(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-220);
//ShowInfo(pMem, pP1, nCntMax, nVer);
nCntMax = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-192); // ?20keywords
pP1 = pMem+*(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-184);
//ShowInfo(pMem, pP1, nCntMax, nVer);
nCntMax = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-156); // ?23keywords
pP1 = pMem+*(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-148);
//ShowInfo(pMem, pP1, nCntMax, nVer);
nCntMax = *(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-84); // ?29HelpId
pP1 = pMem+*(DWORD*)(pMem+nMax-76);
//ShowInfo(pMem, pP1, nCntMax, nVer);
return 0;
}
char *aName1[] = {"?","?2","?3","?4","?5","?6","?7","?8","?9","?10"
,"?11","?12","?13","?14","?15","?16","?17","?18","?19","?20"
,"?21","?22","?23","?24","?25","?26","?27Help.Id","?28","?29","?30"
,"?31","?helpfile"};

char *aName2[] = {"?","?2filenames","?3","?4","?5","?6","?7","?8","?9","?10"
,"?11","?12","?13","?14Category","?15Category","?16"
,"?17HelpId","?18HelpIdIdx","?19","?20keywords"
,"?21kwinfo","?22","?23keywords","?24kwinfo","?25","?26F1","?27F1idx"
,"?28","?29HelpId","?30HelpIdIdx"
,"?31","?32fileinfo","?33","?helpfile"};

char *Mem2HexS(char *pMem, char *pBuf, int nLen)
{
char *p = pMem;
nLen *= 3;
for (int i=0; i<nLen; i+=3) {
unsigned char c = *p;
unsigned char b, cnt;
cnt = 2;
do {
cnt--;
b = c & 0xF;
if (b >= 10)
pBuf[i+cnt] = (char)('A' + (b - 10));
else
pBuf[i+cnt] = (char)('0' + (b));
c = c >> 4;
pBuf[i+2] = ' ';
} while (cnt);
p++;
}
*(pBuf+nLen-1) = 0; // remove last space
return pBuf;
}

void ShowFileInfo(BYTE *pMem, BYTE *pPtr, int nCntMax, int nVer)
{
char szTmp[512];
BYTE *pP1, *pP2;
pP1 = pPtr;
int nCount = 0;
printf("\nOfs\n");
while (nCount<nCntMax) {
printf("%4X ", pP1-pMem);
pP2 = pP1 + 1; // past size
if (*pP2) pP2 += *pP2;
pP2++;
if (!*pP2) break; // error
lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pP2 + 1, *pP2+1);
//printf("%4Xh ", *(WORD*)(pP1+*pP2+2)); // data after string
printf("%s\n", szTmp);
pP1 += *pP1+2; // rec size + ?
nCount++;
}
}

void ShowInfo(BYTE *pMem, BYTE *pPtr, int nCntMax, int nVer)
{
char szTmp[512];
BYTE *pP1, *pP2;
pP1 = pPtr;
int nCount = 0;
printf("\nInfo\n");
while (nCount<nCntMax) {
pP2 = pP1 + 1;
if (!*pP2 || *pP2 > *pP1) break; // error
lstrcpyn(szTmp, (char*)pP2 + 1, *pP2+1);
printf("%4Xh ", *(WORD*)(pP1+*pP2+2)); // data after string
printf("%s\n", szTmp);
pP1 += *pP1 + 1;
nCount++;
}
}To collect info:

Code: [Select]

@SET INFO=test_hdr.txt
@ECHO mshi info > %INFO%
@FOR %%f IN (*.mshi) DO (
@ECHO. >> %INFO%
@ECHO %%f >> %INFO%
@TestMSHI_hdr.exe "%%f" >> %INFO%
)Fabrikam_SouthPark_Example.mshc