ITauthor

I posted the following question on the Content Wrangler forum yesterday, but returning to it today I notice that most of the other posts to the forum get zero responses, so I’m going to repeat this appeal for ideas here, and I’ll try and think of other places I might pose the question.

I'm hoping for some advice on a way to provide server-based online help. The trouble is it can't be Web-based. Does anyone know of something out there that would solve this problem?

We've got a client/server software application that needs user assistance. It can't be traditional client-side HTML Help because this leaves help files on the PC, which not good for us because of the confidential nature of parts of the IT system. For a similar reason (plus some technical reasons) it can't be Web help.

What I'm looking for is a help viewer that will be launched from within a client application but which will fetch it's help topics from the same secure server used by other parts of the application. The help viewer can be located on the client side, but the help topics must be pulled down from the server.

I have had a look at Adobe AIR Help, but this seems to download files to the client and leave them there for use next time, which is no good for our purposes. I have also had a look at Madcap Flare's .NET Help, but I think this is also client-side, plus Madcap supplies very little information about .NET Help which worries me because I'd rather not migrate to a system/method that is poorly documented (unlike HTML Help or Webhelp output from Flare, which is well documented).

So I'm looking for ideas. Am I missing something obvious? Can anyone suggest a solution? Please post a comment below.