KDHelp

KDHelp is a simple help utility installed on Koding VMs for the purpose of helping users. It occupies the help and kdhelp namespaces and exposes all of the content found within the ./help directory as a series of commands.

The help content provided is specific to Koding VMs.

Installation

npm -g install kdhelp

Note that you shouldn't need to install this.. it comes with the Koding VMs.

How to Contribute

Each file in the ./help directory is mapped to a "command" for the help bin. Subcommands can be achieved by creating a directory and providing an index file for the main folder command, and named modules within that directory for subcommands.

Internally, each file is a CoffeeScript module. It exports a string, as the export object, and this is used as the contents for the help command.

Logic can be executed to provide dynamic help before the export, such as finding the current user name to display the user directory or the login details for FTP.

Userdata

A global object userdata is exposed to all Help documents when being imported. Below is an example object.

{
  "home"        : "/home/exampleuser",
  "username"    : "exampleuser",
  "hostname"    : "vm-0.exampleuser.koding.kd.io",
  "vm"          : "vm-0",
  "userDomain"  : "exampleuser.kd.io",
  "vmDomain"    : "vm-0.exampleuser.kd.io"
}

With the CoffeeScript "#{userdata.hostname}" you can access the data. An example usage of this is below:

module.exports = """
Hello #{userdata.username}!
 
To view the contents of your #{userdata.home}/Web directory
visit: #{userdata.vmDomain}
"""

Disclaimer

Remember that we are installing this on all user VMs, so the help provided must relate to all users, as well as be presented in a way that all users will understand.

Too much information is bad information, so this project must stay on scope.