Adventure Game Studio Help Files

Travis (web):

Appveyor (chm):

Editing the help files

Edit the Help in the Wiki | Revision History

The help files can be edited on the wiki or cloned locally and pushed. Please open an issue if something is wrong.

git clone https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags-manual.wiki.git

Reading the help files

The manual is hosted online on adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/. You can also download the latest release.

Building the help files

The help files are generated using Pandoc and GNU Make!

Getting Pandoc

The build process relies on Lua filter support, which was added in Pandoc version 2, and was further improved in later versions. It is recommended to use the latest version of Pandoc regardless of platform.

For Windows, Pandoc is also available for installation using the Chocolatey package manager which will retrieve the binary and add it to your PATH.

choco install pandoc

Getting GNU Make

If using macOS or Linux it is likely that you already have a version of GNU Make installed. Other Unix platforms may require that GNU Make is installed separately, typically it is packaged under the name 'gmake'.

For Windows, the easiest installation method is using the Chocolatey package manager which will retrieve the binary and add it to your PATH.

choco install make

...or if manual installation is preferred, the same binary can also be downloaded from ezwinports.

Getting curl

If using macOS or Linux it is likely that you already have a version of curl installed, or it will be packaged under the name 'curl'.

For Windows, the easiest installation method is using the Chocolatey package manager which will retrieve the binary and add it to your PATH.

choco install curl

...or if manual installation is preferred, the same binary can also be downloaded from curl.haxx.se.

Note: curl is only required for the html target

Getting the HTML help compiler

As far as we know, the compiler that comes with HTML Help Workshop is the only way to create a CHM file with working and complete indices. Unfortunately this makes the final compilation stage only possible on Windows.

The easiest installation method is using the Chocolatey package manager.

choco install html-help-workshop

Note: HTML Help Workshop is only required for the htmlhelp target

Make variables and targets

variable	function
CHECKOUTDIR	path to checked out wiki source
HHC	path to the HTML Help Compiler
CURL	path to the curl binary (defaults to 'curl')
PANDOC	path to the Pandoc binary (defaults to 'pandoc')

target	function
source	update the source directory from CHECKOUTDIR
html	build the website into 'html/build' (requires curl)
htmlhelp	build an HTML Help Project into 'htmlhelp/build' and call HHC if set (requires HTML Help Workshop)
clean	delete everything listed in .gitignore

Build example (Windows and Chocolatey)

choco install curl html-help-workshop pandoc make
refreshenv
git clone https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags-manual.wiki
git clone https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags-manual
set CHECKOUTDIR=%CD%\ags-manual.wiki
set HHC=%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\HTML Help Workshop\hhc.exe
cd ags-manual
make SHELL=%COMSPEC% source
make SHELL=%COMSPEC% -j html htmlhelp

Build example (macOS/Linux/... and downloaded pandoc binary)

git clone https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags-manual.wiki
git clone https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags-manual
export CHECKOUTDIR=$(pwd)/ags-manual.wiki
export PANDOC=~/bin/pandoc
cd ags-manual
make source
make -j html htmlhelp