Implementing a help system

Question

Questions: is there any default way of presenting a help feature in Android? AFAIK, no. So, it follows: is there such a library or component to help (or trying to) standardize this? There is also that green tutorial when you first turn on the device. How's that done? Is it reusable?

Question context if you care: I developed my own help system to use in Android apps: the usual frontpage -> topics, using reusable Fragments and layouts. It performs "well enough" for my needs, but it grew from ad hoc needs, and it's starting to become a burden (requiring rework, and I already see a need to start from scratch with proper abstraction this time). I see mobile apps are almost always simple enough to not require help at all, or almost no help. Contextual help is also being implemented very well in those cases lately, for what I can see. However, there are apps that, for the natural complexity of the subject, requires a traditional help system (my case). And that's where my question comes from.

Please take a moment to see that this is not an argumentative question, although it certainly has room for such a discussion (in case answer is "no" to both).

Thank you for your time.

ps.: Google is of no use, of course, since "help" as in "help platform" is ambiguous with "help" as in "I need help for (whatever)". I tried and gave up.

Answer 1

is there any default way of presenting a help feature in Android?

Not at this time.

So, it follows: is there such a library or component to help (or trying to) standardize this?

Not that I am aware of, beyond simply linking to a Web page, YouTube video, etc. I've long campaigned for somebody to write something, probably based on WebView. And, if nobody beats me to it, I might do it in the next 6-12 months.

There is also that green tutorial when you first turn on the device. How's that done?

Using widgets, presumably. Button, TextView, etc.

Is it reusable?

I don't think the setup wizard is part of the Android open source project.