Localization and MapIDs

[Larry4557]

Do I have to have a new map id for each page in a new language? If I  have 3 context sensitive help files in english (map ids 1, 2 and 3), and  I create 3 files for the spanish translations, do I need to create map ids for the Spanish pages? It seems that I should be able to use the same map id, and let the source path determine the language. Help please!

[RoboColum_n_]

As you may know there are two files related to mapids. The mapid and alias file. The mapid is just an list of identifiers but the alias points to those identifiers to the relevant topics. It does this by pointing to the specific topic file name. So provided neither the mapids or topic file names are changed, you'll be able to keep the same map files for your localisation.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Larry4557]

Thanks Colum. I think I understand. But I still don't know how to fix this. I've done a bit more delving into this. As a bit of background I followed this dev article in terms of setting up my files...

http://www.adobe.com/devnet-archive/robohelp/articles/localized_projects.html

I took my english files (already mapped to the appropriate mapIDs) and put them in a directory called 'en'. Then I copied the entire folder into a new folder called 'es', ect. Tagged the content etc. Then published the files.

This creates a file structure like below...

help\en\en

help\es\es

The first and second directories are dynamically assembled by the application. The last directory is there, I assume, because I put my content in those folders in RoboHelp as recommended by the above article.

Everything works fine for the english files.

But when I try to call a spanish file roboHelp wants to look in the help\es\en folder.

This is the part I can't figure out. Did I do something wrong? It should be looking in the help\es\es folder.

Hmmm...

[RoboColum_n_]

Hmmm indeed! If you are following Ben's advice (i.e. having separate folders for the languages) it would follow that the translation agency would almost certainly be creating new topics and therefore having new file names. You'd need to check this with them to be 100% sure. If they have, you would need a separate map file for each language so as the relevant alias is picked up to display the appropriate languages topic.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Larry4557]

Nope, no new topics.

Colum, you mentioned an alias file in your earlier reply. Where can I find out more about this?

Thanks.

[Larry4557]

I should have searched before I asked. I understand how the alias file works now. Including the fact that an alias can only point to one topic.

So as I understand it, if I copy a topic into a different folder, it essentially becomes a new topic in RoboHelp's eyes. Which means I need a new map ID/alias for that topic, even though it is the same content for the same screen, just with a different language.

This is a pain, because now the developers have to use a different set of mapIDs for each language, even though each screen is the same screen it just utilizes a different properties file to populate the lables and text on the screen.

The only way to keep this simple for the developers is to make it complicated for the person that creates the RoboHelp files. If I create a copy of the alias file and rename the 'en\' to 'es\', then everything works fine. I just have to now remember to do this manually before I publish each language version of the help.

My suggestion for a future release of RoboHelp, allow author to select the alias file or directory, the same way I can select the TOC, Glossary, etc. for that layout.

Problem solved, for now.

[RoboColum_n_]

Your suggestion to be able to pick an map file at compile time is an excellent one and well worth submitting to Adobe. You can do so here. They are always open to good suggestions.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Robo_Solar]

We ran into the same issue on localized projects.

Another solutions (we haven' tried yet) is calling context-help using TopicID instead of MapId (Peter described how to do that: http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/calling_webhelp/using_topic_ids.htm)

You can set your TopicID to be something like

e.g Topic1-en, Topic1-es

Then instruct your developer to build the proper TopicId, based on the language of user.

Regards,

RoboSolar