How to package and run Windows Help (.chm) file in a Java Swing application

Question

I'm making a Swing application that will only run on Windows and I want to package everything into a single .jar file. I want to include a .chm help file in the JAR and be able to launch it from clicking a JMenuItem marked "Help" or "Contents" (I already have a working understanding of creating AbstractAction subclasses). How can I programmatically open a .chm file from a JAR file?

Answer 1

Desktop provides an open() method. You'll probably have to retrieve the .chm as an embedded-resource and park it at a known location in the file system.