When you create a digital asset, you can put the help in one of two places:

• In the Help tab of the asset’s Type Properties window.

• In a file in the Houdini path.

See the general form of a node help page and the breakdown of the individual pieces below.

Usually pasting the help into an asset’s Help tab is the best and most convenient option. If that’s how you work with help, you can ignore this section.

However, if you want to keep the help in a file, you need to observe the correct naming convention so the help server can find it.

• Create the file in: HOUDINIPATH/help/nodes/‹dir›/, where ‹dir› is a “short” version of the node type category (these directory names are dictated by age-old custom). For example:

  Category	Directory
  Object	obj
  SOP	sop
  DOP	dop
  COP	cop2
  ROP	out

• In the directory, the filename pattern for an unscoped node is:

  [‹namespace›--]‹name›[-‹version›].txt

  For example, the bravo SOP with no namespace and no version would go in:

  bravo.txt

  If the bravo SOP is in the com.corp namespace, the filename would be:

  com.corp--bravo.txt

  Version 2 of the node would go in:

  bravo--foo-2.txt

• For a scoped node, the recursive filename pattern is:

  [‹scope›@]‹filename›.txt

  In building the recursive ‹scope› part, replace any slashes (for example, in Object/alfa) with underscores.

  For example, for the scoped, namespaced SOP node com.corp::Object/alfa::2.0::com.corp::bravo::3.0, the help would go in:

  /nodes/sop/com.corp--Object_alfa-2.0@com.corp--bravo-3.0.txt

  This allows fully encoding any number of recursive scopes.

You can use an opdef: path in a link, and the help system translates it into the equivalent help path. If you have an image as an “extra file” (aka section) in an asset, in the help for that asset you can do this:

[Image:opdef:./test.png]

To access sections in other assets, you can use the full asset name (with category) instead of .:

[Image:opdef:matt::Sop/example::1.0/test.png]

Alternatively, you could write a help system path directly instead of using opdef:. Links are relative to the directory containing the help file (for example, /nodes/sop/ for a SOP asset). You can access extra files in the asset as if the asset help file was a directory with the extra files inside. So, for example, if you have an asset matt::example::1.0 with an extra file called test.png, you can use in the asset’s help like this:

[Image:matt--example-1.0/test.png]

To access files in other installed assets, you just need to craft a path to that file inside the other asset, e.g. /nodes/dop/other_asset/other_file.png or ../dop/other_asset/other_file.png.

(Note, when you craft a a help system path, the help system uses mangled asset names that work better as a filenames. When you view the help for your asset, you can see the “mangled” name in the URL bar.)

See Houdini wiki markup for a general wiki markup reference.

= My Asset =

#icon: path/to/icon

"""A quick summary of what the node does."""

== Overview ==

Explanation of the node's purpose and operation.

@inputs

Label:
    What the input is for.

@parameters

Label:
    #id: internalname

    Explanation of what the parameter does.

Label:
    #id: internalname

    Explanation of what the parameter does.

@related

* [Node:sop/copy]

• See the wiki markup reference for how to make links and include images and other media.

• The help server provides asset sections as sub-URLs of the node’s URL. For example, if your asset is at:

  /nodes/sop/mynamespace--myextrude
  

  …then you can access the sections inside the asset using:

  /nodes/sop/mynamespace--myextrude/section_name
  

  For example, if you have a image file in a section named MainImage.jpg, you can use it in the asset’s help:

  [Image:./MainImage.jpg]
  

  Tip

  Your section names should have extensions (for example .jpg) so the server can guess the file’s type.

• Alternatively, you can use Houdini’s opdef: syntax to refer to sections. For example:

  [Image:opdef:.?MainImage.jpg]
  

• It’s often useful to “include” text from another node. For example, if two nodes have very similar interfaces, or the interface of one node contains parameters promoted from another.

  As long as a parameter has an #id: property, you can include it in other pages. For example, if one asset has the parameters:

  @parameters
  
  Group:
      #id: group
  
      The group or point numbers to move.
  
  Distance:
      #id: dist
  
      How far to move the points.
  

  You can include this parameter in another asset’s help like this:

  @parameters
  
  :include otherasset#group:
  
  :include otherasset#dist:
  

• Sometimes a parameter is duplicated or promoted, but with a different label or internal name. You can include just the content by adding a trailing slash after the #‹id› part in the include path:

  @parameters
  
  Point group:
      #id: ptgroup
  
      :include otherasset#group/: