How to create context sensitive help in a Java application

I don't know if I fully understand your question. I assume you are doing this on a swing. Are you looking for one of those noisy things (sorry it was terrible, I just can't remember what she called) like Google when you type search?

I'm not sure if I can help you with this, but here's the method I used to map objects to a search term based on any of their attribute values ​​using reflection. It might be something you don't need at all, but I thought I could give it to you just in case. Hope this helps!

  /**
  * Returns true if any attribute in the item matches the given constraints
  *
  * @param object the object you want to match
  * @param klass the class to get the fields from (in most cases you'll just call object.getClass())
  * @param iterations how many inherited levels you want to check fields for
  * @param match the String to match fields against
  * @param ignoreField fieldNames you wish to ignore, you can give as many as you like, you can also give an
  * array of strings
  * @return whether the given object contained fields which matched the given string
  */
  public static boolean matches(Object object, Class klass, int iterations, String match, String... ignoreField) {
    if (iterations < 0) {
      return false;
    }
    boolean checkMatch = false;
    try {
      checkMatch = matchFields(klass.getDeclaredFields(), object, match, ignoreField);
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException ex) {
      Logger.getLogger(OtherHelper.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
      Logger.getLogger(OtherHelper.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }
    if (checkMatch) {
      return true;
    } else {
      Class<? extends Object> supersSuperclass = (Class<? extends Object>) klass.getSuperclass();
      if (supersSuperclass != Object.class) {
        boolean matches = matches(object, supersSuperclass, (iterations - 1), match, ignoreField);
        if (matches) {
          return true;
        } else {
          return false;
        }
      } else {
        return false;
      }
    }
  }

  /**
  * Calls matchField(field, bo, match) on each field in the given field array.
  *
  * @param fields the fields array to get the fields from
  * @param object the object to get the field values from
  * @param match the text to match fields to
  * @param ignoreField any number of fieldNames which are to be ignored.
  * @return true on first true field match
  * @throws IllegalArgumentException
  * @throws IllegalArgumentException
  * @throws IllegalAccessException
  */
  private static boolean matchFields(Field[] fields, Object object, String match, String... ignoreField) throws IllegalArgumentException, IllegalArgumentException, IllegalAccessException {
    List<String> ignoreFieldsList = Arrays.asList(ignoreField);
    for (Field field : fields) {
      if (!ignoreFieldsList.contains(field.getName())) {
        if (matchField(field, object, match)) {
          return true;
        }
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

  /**
  * Gets the value of the field and matches the string version of it with the given match
  *
  * @param field the field to match
  * @param object the object to get the field value from
  * @param match the match to match the field value to.
  * @return
  * @throws IllegalArgumentException
  * @throws IllegalArgumentException
  * @throws IllegalAccessException
  */
  private static boolean matchField(Field field, Object object, String match) throws IllegalArgumentException, IllegalArgumentException, IllegalAccessException {
    field.setAccessible(true);
    if (field.get(object) == null) {
      return false;
    }
    Class<?> type = field.getType();
    String value = null;
    if (type == Date.class) {
      SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy");
      Date date = (Date) field.get(object);
      value = sdf.format(date);
    } else if (type == String.class || isPrimitive(type)) {
      value = field.get(object).toString();
    }
    if (value != null
            && Pattern.compile(Pattern.quote(match), Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE).matcher(value).find()) {
      return true;
    } else {
      return false;
    }
  }

  /**
  * Checks first whether it is primitive and then whether it wrapper is a primitive wrapper. Returns true
  * if either is true
  *
  * @param c
  * @return whether it a primitive type itself or it a wrapper for a primitive type
  */
  public static boolean isPrimitive(Class c) {
    if (c.isPrimitive()) {
      return true;
    } else if (c == Byte.class
            || c == Short.class
            || c == Integer.class
            || c == Long.class
            || c == Float.class
            || c == Double.class
            || c == Boolean.class
            || c == Character.class) {
      return true;
    } else {
      return false;
    }
  }