Different Versions, Same Web Help File

[AlScott9028001]

Good Moring.
I've found a topic which applies to this, however I'm having no joy in implementing it - thus a new Topic.
Again I have a project with 500+ topics. Now I have sucessfully created documentation for each Dept. eg Finance, Operations etc...ising the
Topic Summary I want to simultaneously generate a version for each conditional build tag, and the SSL. However if I choose Finance, and go through the same procedure I'm ending up with a Helpfile showing ALL the Departments on the Title page, but none of the 'Buttons' work, and the Topic list is also missing. However doing the same with no SSL obviosly I get the Web version complete.
Now a while ago I managed to create a version for each Dept, so that if you changed the "Master" then the changes would be applied to all the Deptments, but you'd still have the Departmantal versions.
Also - say you had a page with buttons for all the Departments, and you did a Finance version only that 'button would be changed
Now I know I should've scribbled down how I did it, but I didn't and I'm sure I found a topic that explained exactly 'How To" , I can't find it on Peter G's website either.
So could someone out there point me in the right direction?
Thanks
Al.
IT Technician,
Muckleshoot Indian Casino

[Peter Grainge]

Al

I'm sorry but I have read that a couple of times and I don't understand what you are asking. I think it is the terminology so let me make some points and see if you can express the problem again.

You have "successfully created documentation" - I take that to mean a printed output.

You want to "generate a version for each conditional build tag" - You want different printed outputs each with a different build expression. Tags are what you apply to text and topics, expressions are how the build process is to work with those tags.

You say "and the SSL" - Egh? That's a folder into which you generate as many outputs of various types, each in its own subfolder.

"If I choose Finance" - Is that a layout or build tag?

What buttons? What topic list - do you mean the TOC?

"Doing the same with no SSL" - again I don't know what you mean and why obviously you get the web version.

Please read your post again and then see if you can make it clearer. Want to help if I can.

[AlScott9028001]

Sorry 'bout that.
OK - The main site works perfectly. However I want to tailor it so only the Dept concerned (ie Book/Folder) can view the topics within that section (web output). And possible break it down so that - for example Books within the Departments can be viewed by certain groups of people. Let's take an IT Dept as an example:
The IT Director can see everything
The IT Administrator cannot see all of those that are accessible but the director.
and so down the chain of command.
Does that make sense??

No, what I meant about the generation of the Word docs - and using conditional build tags - everything came out perfectly - all 800+ pages, and I could print it off by Dept (top level Books, and their 'sub-books').
Thanks
Al

[Peter Grainge]

Ah! What you are talking about is different users having different access rights but all the help emanating from one project. There are some threads on the forum about that but I think it is something that can only be done effectively by the developers as it all relates to logins.

[MergeThis]

Al:

Sidebar: What is not apparent to newbies from the RH Help is this: RH provides a default path to a !SSL! folder, with sub-folders named according to type of output.

You can direct your output to an entirely different path (directory and file name) on your machine. And, of course, you can publish to multiple server locations.

As to Peter's suggestion, he makes a good point about having the developers tie permissions to the topics to mirror permissions to the application's windows. If they're using other methods, you need to agree with them how your help topics can be mapped to sections of the app (Finance, Personnel, etc.). You might need to create a merged project, as we did here, which is the most foolproof way of structuring the help by folders. We then provide a formpath.txt file (similar to an alias file), which the developers use to identify the folder that contains a particular topic.

Sample formpath.txt entries (the "Frm" denotes an app form, or window):
UserIconFrm, mergedProjects\crdhelp
SSMMainFrm, mergedProjects\modeling


Good luck,
Leon

[AlScott9028001]

OK - one of the probs was that I needed to re-do all the Conditional Build tags. Now I've done that only the dept required is being built. So that's one prob fixed.
Now I can compile each Dept. into separate folders eg. C:\facilities, c:\security etc etc.
It's not really a Windows 'security' issue.
What i want to be able to do is have a parent/child situation (lets call all the Depts a child section, and the parent is the Main build ie with everything ie the entire project.
Now it works fine if it's all split up into separate folders, however now we run into the situation where if I change something in the Parent, this won't be carried down the chain to the "child' versions as they're in their own folders, thus effectively separate stand-alone projects Not really what I want, as I'll have to change each one in turn, and you can't compile them into the same folder, even if I rename each 'title'html file RH seems to over write it...
Here's the general idea:

So the "Master Dept" screen has a row of buttons that looks like:
Book/Topic A - for Engineering
Book/Topic B - for IT
Book/Topic C - for Marketing
Book/Topic D - for Inventory

Now, if we have a Group of Users, let's take Marketing, when they go to that particular
'page', the only button they'll have available (and shown) is the button for:

Book/Topic C - for Marketing

The IT Dept might have:
Book/Topic A - for Engineering
Book/Topic B - for IT

Book/Topic D - for Inventory

Here the button for Marketing is not displayed, but there is a 'blank' line between B & D.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious!
Al

[Peter Grainge]

Hi Al.

I am still struggling to follow this. Can we step back to some basics.

In a merge you have a parent and any number of children. The parent can have content but if you look at the merged webhelp topic on my site, I recommend that contain is just another child project, a sort of big brother if you like. The parent is then just a shell. However that's not essential if you don't have many parent / child links and can live with the false broken link reports you will get in the parent.

That's the source material. Now let's look at how you output it.

You point the parent to a folder we will call WebHelp. It can be within the !SSL! folder where it is by default but as Leon pointed out, it can be anywhere. When you generate the parent to that it also creates folders for each child project.

You then output each child to its folder and end up with a complete output. At that point you can copy that to a server and everyone sees everything. However you can also put on the server a setup with the parent and just some of the children and it will work fine.

Are you perhaps using conditional tags to create different mixes rather than just not delivering one or more children?

Also you are talking about buttons. What buttons? These are something you have added?

It sounds like you are providing some buttons to access different things whereas you could allow access via the TOC and that would only contain whichever children you have assembled for that build.