Still necessary for developers to delete all existing WebHelp files before updating?

If you don’t clear it out, then you’re going to be left with orphaned files if you’ve made a change in your current project & got rid of some topics. It’s always safer to wipe & then copy, especially if you don’t pay attention to names & date stamps on files.

Hi there

Aside from the fact that there may be a bit of unwanted clutter on the server, there should be no operational issue whatsoever that you find with the developer just copying over the files.

While I do agree it will appear "cleaner", it's not going to harm anything. And really, if that's the case, I'd probably advise you to avoid any confrontations over it. If it makes him or her happier to just copy the files over, go with the flow and allow it. You never will know how that simple action may "grease the wheels" for future interactions where you need the support of the developer!

Cheers... Rick

True, but if you’ve got a sloppy developer who says – “I’ve already got a whwhatever.js in this folder, I don’t need to replace it” & Adobe’s updated that file for some important security patch – who’s going to be blamed? (LOL)

LOL, nice try, Jeff.

I say that because if a developer is "sloppy", that likely also means lazy. And by that, it's most likely (at least to me) that they are simply looking for the simple approach of just copying the total swarm of output files over to the server.

The fact the thread seems to initially ask about the need for deleting the files first seems the developer is wanting to avoid that unnecessary step because it's extra work. And it would be tons of extra work to try and isolate the files that never change or whatever. No?

Cheers... Rick