What is mk:@MSITStore?

Question

I have a chm file of the Book Java and XML, 3rd Edition and a section looks like this:

With the DOMSerializer class complete, all that's left is to invoke the serializer's serialize( ) method in the test class. To do this, add the following lines to the SerializeTester class:

// code here

I ran this program on a couple of files, most notably an XML version of the DOM Level 3 Load and Save module specification (http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-DOM-Level-3-LS-20040407/xml-source.xml).

The link http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-DOM-Level-3-LS-20040407/xml-source.xml was linked to

mk:@MSITStore:D:\Desktop\McLaughlin%20-%20Java%20and%20XML%203e%20(O'Reilly,%202006).chm::/059610149X/(http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-DOM-Level-3-LS-20040407/xml-source.xml

which obviously gives me:

What is mk:@MSITStore? What does it mean?

Answer 1

mk:@MSITStore is an URI scheme, according to this help page and this document, and used in Windows help files as a protocol handler.

It is used similarly to, let's say, an http link. Help files, which are just HTML pages, are compiled into one CHM file. When doing so, pointers to those internally compiled HTML files use the MSITStore URI scheme.

For example, this link would point to a general copyright page:

mk:@MSITStore:%windir%\Help\ntshared.chm::/copyright.htm

This can also be done using other protocol handlers, as explained here: Using a URL to Open a Page in a Compiled HTML Help File

It seems that in your case, the CHM file was improperly generated.