Use Case in RH?

[thayaparani]

Is it possible to create use cases in RoboHelp? If so, can anyone tell me how to do that?

Thanks,

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi thayaparani. I am not sure exactly what you are trying to achieve. Some sort of automatic update of RH topics from an external source perhaps? Can you give us some more detail?

[thayaparani]

I want to create help documents along with Use case diagrams. Is it possible to create Use cases within RH? If it is possible how to do it?

[RoboColum_n_]

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense here but I am still unclear about use case diagrams are. Are these diagrams saved in some image format (e.g. in MS Visio) that can be inserted into a RH topic.

[thayaparani]

That could be one option to import from external file [for eg Visio]. I want to know if there is any inbuilt functionality/feature to create use cases in RH.

[RoboColum_n_]

There is no inbuilt feature. The way to do it is to create the diagram and either import it or link to it.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there thayaparani

Like Colum, I'm very confused about what you are asking.

Could you please expound a bit on how one goes about creating something called a "use case"? Give us some fundamentals. Who knows, we might be able to offer ways you didn't think of to help you accomplish it using RoboHelp. We tend to be pretty creative folk when it comes to thinking outside the HAT.

The answers to the following questions will help tremendously.
What exactly is a "Use Case"? Can you explain what it is in simple terms?
What does a Use Case consist of? Is it a collection of images? Some verbiage? A legal document? A scientific theory? What?
In your mind's eye, forget about any specific tool that may be used. Just tell us how you would expect (in a perfect world) to construct one of these use case beasties. For example, I would like to open something that looks like a Word document. Then begin typing. Then add...

Cheers... Rick

[bawd]

Don't dispair! This may be a simple case of terminology - forum members might know this feature by another name.

Brian

[MergeThis]

From Wikipedia: "A use case is a description of a system’s behaviour as it responds to a request that originates from outside of that system."

Mostly, it's a series of diagrams and accompanying text that describe the effects of outside agents on a well-defined "black box," much like all of us do almost every day. Yes, of course RoboHelp can be used! Just open one of the projects in the Samples folder and see what's possible.


Good luck,
Leon

[thayaparani]

Sorry i was not in my office to respond to you Rick. As mentioned by Leon, use case is a diagrammatic representation of the system's behaviour for a particular request. It details out the action of the user and the response of the system for any action.

So far we have used visio or rational rose for creating use cases. Since now we are using RoboHelp for creating help document for our system, we would like to include use cases as well. As I am new to RH, i am not sure whether we can create use cases in RH. If you could suggest ways that would be helpful.

Thanks,
Thaya.

[MergeThis]

Simply save your Visio diagrams as .gif images in your RH project folder, open your RH project, and at the appropriate place in your topic select Insert > Image.


Good luck,
Leon

[RoboWizard]

Hi again Thaya

Thanks for the explanation. From looking through this thread, I would have to say that Colum correctly answered with the technically correct answer that there is nothing inside RoboHelp that will help you build the use cases. Then Leon added to that by saying you should continue building the Use Cases in Visio, but then organizing and presenting them using RoboHelp.

Cheers... Rick

[dscitechwriter]

Thaya,

I have written use cases many times in my life. Yes, you can write the text as HTML and build your diagrams in any package just so long as you can export it to a format that RH supports (gif, jpeg, png, etc.)

It will be tricky because many times you will have relatively complex decision branches you'll need to make sure you can link to. And as Alistair Cockburn referred to, you never know when you are done. So, that said...and I'm sure you obviously know...you may have a continual update on your hands until the product is decided upon/built. Use cases from my experience are generally living documents.

I am not sure if use cases are good application for RH though. Since they have an extremely limited audience (developers and analysts) and are relatively complex, you may not WISH to do this right out of the starting gate if you are new to RH :)

However, everyone did guide you correctly here. There is no built in feature to build the diagrams or the structured language text that you'll need for use cases. You could build some sort of template though in RH that contains your standardized outline (Goal definition, user input, system response, exceptions, outcome, etc.)