[BAGGAGE] Section

Syntax

[BAGGAGE]

filename
.
.
.

The [BAGGAGE] section lists files (typically multimedia elements) that the Windows Help compiler stores within the .HLP file’s internal file system. Windows Help can access data files stored in the Help file system more efficiently than it can access files stored in the normal MS-DOS file system because it doesn’t have to read the file allocation table from CD-ROM when it accesses the files.

In some circumstances, a Help file may use many DLLs or execute several programs that use external data elements, such as graphics, animations, or audio files. In those situations, the Help file will benefit if it can include all the data elements needed by those programs in one MS-DOS file. To store Help-related data files within the Help file, Help authors can include a [BAGGAGE] section in the Help project file.

Parameter

filename

Specifies the full path of a baggage file. If a file cannot be found, the compiler reports an error.

Comments

The Help compiler stores all files listed in the [BAGGAGE] section exactly as they are typed. In other words, baggage filenames are case sensitive. To retrieve a baggage file, Help uses the MS-DOS filename without the path. This means that the Help author must specify the filename exactly as it appears in the [BAGGAGE] section, as in the following example.

Help does not limit the number of baggage files that you can define; however, adding too many baggage files will waste disk space and decrease performance when building and displaying the Help file. For that reason, you should define no more than 1000 baggage files. If you have more than 1000 files to include, you should store the data outside the .HLP file or concatenate the files into a few baggage files that you list in the [BAGGAGE] section.

To access the data from the Help file’s internal file system, Windows Help provides specialized source code. This source code can be built into an application or custom DLL so that it can retrieve the appropriate data file from the Help file’s [BAGGAGE] section. For more information and the baggage include file, see Appendix C, “Baggage Access Functions.”

To avoid having to specify a full path, use the ROOT option in the [OPTIONS] section to specify the path. Then all filenames that you give in the topic file are relative to the ROOT path.

Example

The following [BAGGAGE] section stores multimedia files in the Help file:

[BAGGAGE]
\.\ANIM\ASTER.AMF
\.\AUDIO\APATO.WAV
\.\AUDIO\PACHY.WAV
\.\AUDIO\STAR.WAV
\.\AUDIO\TREX.WAV
\.\AVI\APATO.AVI
\.\AVI\PACHY.AVI
\.\AVI\TREX.AVI

See Also

ROOT Option