Measure the number of times the chm was downloaded?

[doster0404]

I'm almost certain I know the answer to this, but need to confirm once and for all. We're on RH 9 and we're planning on generating HTML Help (and create a link in CQ5 to the chm). Is there any way possible that we could measure the number of times the chm was accessed/downloaded? Or is all this just available in RoboServer?

[Peter Grainge]

RoboServer is just for WebHelp.

If you are generating help that is to be accessed from the web, you should not be using CHMs. CHM Files Not Working explains why. The way to go is either WebHelp or HTML5, for which you will need an upgrade.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[doster0404]

PeterGrainge: I read your page on this issue--we were able to successfully download and view the help in Chrome and IE, provided we "Unblock" content the first time we view it (by right-clicking on the chm file after it downloads and going to Properties, then clicking Unblock). It opens up fine and we are easily able to navigate to our topics via the TOC. We are unable to do this in Firefox though. Unfortunately, we don't have the option to upgrade RH and our company won't partitiona server for the WebHelp to reside, so this is our only option. From my understanding, CQ5 doesn't support WebHelp, so we can't house the files on there. I was thinking of just advising users to only download the help from Chrome or IE. Since we're able to successfully launch it from these two browsers, do you see any other issue of storing our CHM on our intranet/extranet?

[Peter Grainge]

I wouldn't be happy with help that required me to download it every time I needed it. IE and Chrome may well work for now but that could change. FF has been a problem for a long time.

I have no working knowledge of CQ5 but it appears to be for managing web content. I am not understanding why that cannot include webhelp. WebHelp is rather like a mini website so all your main content needs is a link to it. I am also not seeing why the server would need to be partitioned. All you need is a dedicated folder.

It seems odd that a company such as yours and using something like CQ5 cannot find a way to make WebHelp available. Maybe IT need a bit more prodding?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[doster0404]

PeterGrainge Realized that this post should be classified under WebHelp, so I will just add this post to the WebHelp site. If we did go the chm route, they would only need to download it once - not every time to view it. That route was easy enough, though not our #1 choice with the issues you mention. What I meant about partitioning us a server, it was assuming (with the knowledge I have so far) that CQ5 could not house WebHelp itself and we would have to link to a server that WebHelp would sit on. We have other clients that will be able to access the help directly from the program (those are our hosted clients that access the program from one of our servers), but developers won't allow me to link from that server to CQ5, so our locally-installed clients need to be able to access the help elsewhere. Hence, we were thinking they could house the help on CQ5 and have locally-installed clients access it from CQ5 - our extranet. Which brings me to my current issue. I was able to upload the WebHelp contents just fine and the help opens up beautifully to the start page, HOWEVER, when clicking on every other topic, we get this on our pages:

All the files and folders are present in the DAM (Digital Assets Manager in CQ5). Is it the way CQ5 reads the help the reason we're getting this error? Can you think of a workaround/solution to this?

[Peter Grainge]

That has to be either the upload or the environment, assuming the local version is working OK.

Users only have to download once if they remember where they stored it. Can't the developers install it to avoid the problem?

Sorry but CQ5 is not something I am familiar with so I cannot help on that front.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[doster0404]

Thanks for your help, Peter - I appreciate it. Developers could possibly install it, however, the help will be updated on average every 6 weeks, so that's where the problem lies with our locally-installed clients. We're having a call with the CQ5 developers today, so hopefully we can come up with a viable solution.