Sphinx AppleHelp Extension

2.0.0 · active · verified Sun Mar 29

sphinxcontrib-applehelp is a Sphinx extension which outputs Apple Help Books. It is maintained by the Sphinx project and has an irregular but generally active release cadence, with version 2.0.0 released in July 2024.

Warnings

breaking sphinxcontrib-applehelp 2.0.0 (and recent 1.x versions) requires Sphinx v5.0 or later. Building with older Sphinx versions will result in a `sphinx.errors.VersionRequirementError`.
Fix: Upgrade your Sphinx installation to version 5.0 or newer (e.g., `pip install -U Sphinx`). If compatibility with older Sphinx versions is required, pin `sphinxcontrib-applehelp` to an older version (e.g., `==1.0.4`).
deprecated Older versions of sphinxcontrib-applehelp (e.g., 1.0.2, 1.0.7) may produce `RemovedInSphinx80Warning` due to deprecated aliases like `sphinx.util.SkipProgressMessage` and `sphinx.util.progress_message`.
Fix: Upgrade sphinxcontrib-applehelp to the latest version (2.0.0 or newer) to resolve these warnings.
gotcha The builder name 'applehelp' was moved from `sphinx.builders` to `sphinxcontrib.applehelp` in Sphinx 2.0. While this is a Sphinx core change, it solidifies the usage pattern for this extension.
Fix: Ensure you are using a compatible Sphinx version (>=2.0) and that the extension is correctly added to `extensions` in `conf.py`.
gotcha Historically, there have been issues with package naming conventions (hyphens vs. dots in `setup_requires` lists) that could lead to build failures with older setuptools versions when Sphinx implicitly depended on `sphinxcontrib-applehelp`.
Fix: Ensure modern packaging practices (e.g., `pyproject.toml`) and up-to-date `setuptools` are used. For older environments, explicitly pin `sphinxcontrib-applehelp` to a compatible version if build issues related to dependency resolution occur.

Install

pip install sphinxcontrib-applehelp Install from PyPI

Imports

applehelp
```
extensions = ['sphinxcontrib.applehelp']
```
To enable the extension in Sphinx, add 'sphinxcontrib.applehelp' to the 'extensions' list in your conf.py.

Quickstart

After installing, enable the extension by adding 'sphinxcontrib.applehelp' to the `extensions` list in your Sphinx `conf.py`. Then, build the documentation using the 'applehelp' builder.

# conf.py
project = 'My Project'
copyright = '2026, My Team'
extensions = [
    'sphinxcontrib.applehelp'
]

# To build from your documentation root:
# sphinx-build -b applehelp . _build/applehelp

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