# Leveraging the help\_url in a gramplet

**URL:** <https://gramps.discourse.group/t/leveraging-the-help-url-in-a-gramplet/6414>\
**Category:** Beta Testing\
**Created:** [November 9, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/leveraging-the-help-url-in-a-gramplet/6414 "2024-11-09T19:50:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/leveraging-the-help-url-in-a-gramplet/6414/1 "2024-11-09T19:50:46Z")

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In the PlaceCleanup addon gramplet, @prculley implements (2 layers of) Help and “Set Preferences” buttons. The Gramplet does not use the `help-url` from the Gramps Plugin Registration (`.gpr.py`) file. It uses a hard-coded URL instead.

@jmichault adapts this addon to make a [`Lokpurigado`](https://Lokpurigado) version that is more appropriate for France. (It uses OpenStreetMap instead of geonames. Takes INSEE codes instead of the zip codes.)

But the adaptation strips out the hard-coded bit but not the 2 layers of custom Help buttons… one in the _docked_ gramplet nor the one in the spawned Preferences dialog.

How could the gramplet be changed to make the following not hard-coded but self-adapting … by using the `help_url` for the `WIKI_PAGE` and (`help_url` + `"#Preferences"`) for the `PREFS_WIKI` ?

> <https://github.com/gramps-project/addons-source/blob/dbc6718f7ccdd78d05ac082cefbefab193680c92/PlaceCleanup/placecleanup.py#L85-L88>

And, is there way the custom Help button could be suppressed in the _undocked_ gramplet.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/a/aa6bbd0e8698727bd3a77e919a790ac2f281bc1f.png)

Also, the [Preferences](https://github.com/gramps-project/addons-source/blob/dbc6718f7ccdd78d05ac082cefbefab193680c92/PlaceCleanup/placecleanup.py#L984) does not use the View → Configuration GUI. It spawns its own GUI dialog. but that is a separate issue.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/leveraging-the-help-url-in-a-gramplet/6414/2 "2026-08-12T12:28:28Z")

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In [Update help url registrations for built-in reports and tools - PR#1648](https://github.com/gramps-project/gramps/pull/1648#issuecomment-2629084379), @Nick-Hall Added support for full `http://` and `https://` urls.

Is it reasonable to add support for `./` ? Adding a ‘relative’ path — to where the `.gpr.py` (or the module) file lives — would allow documentation to be bundled with an addon in a predictable way. (Local documentation is particularly handy in the beta cycle for an addon.)

In addition, a `media\capture.png` (or `capture.webp` or any other picture format) subfolder/filename be made a standard recognized by Gramps thumbnailers. So that a representative thumbnail image could be shown by the various dialogs in Gramps,

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/7/7581dbea62cb251df227badfaf33357b47b78eee.png)

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/1/119a78a00b052e43c3661649736dd39545cd05d2.jpeg)

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/f/f2e6490a1d4c3550f5c9df2698766f9f2ae90bb2.png)