Multiple Versions of Same Product

[Nina Esile]

Hi all,

I am working on a help project that will have different numbered versions, for example version 1.0, 2.0, and so on. Within each numbered version, there will also be different levels of help available, depending on the access rights of the user (regular user, admin, sysadmin, and so on.)

My idea is to use conditional text and then associate different conditions with different targets, where necessary. I would have several targets, but just the one project.

Does this sound right or is there a better way?

Nina

[kellyh_hochanadel]

What kinds of output are you producing?

[Nina Esile]

I am producing online help (HTML 5).

[kellyh_hochanadel]

If that's the case, then the way you outlined this should work. Conditional statements, multiple targets. For the role-based access control, would you just have 3 different sets of output?

[Nina Esile]

I'm still figuring out how many role-based targets I'll have. Not sure out many sets of output. Does it make a big difference?

[kellyh_hochanadel]

I say you create as many targets as you need. Flare won't implode if you create umpteen targets, just know that the more you have, the more you'll need to manage.

One thing you might consider is creating one TOC and multiple targets that leverage the same TOC. At the target level, you can include/exclude conditionally and if you conditionalize those topics based on roles in the TOC, this might help you have less to manage.

[Nina Esile]

I'm going to have to sit with this for a bit to be sure I've got the roles/versions organized.

Thanks so much for the suggestions.

[DocuWil]

Hi Nina,

It depends a little bit how you use your projects.
In my case:
Different customers use different versions.
And indeed you can use conditions for that, but keep in mind that it might become complex if you have to condition customers as well as versions in parts of a topic.
For main versions I create a copy of the previous version before editing (I don't use any kind of source control): Project X v1, Project X v2, Project X v3, and so on.