Interaction Between Condition Tags and Variables Sets

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Daniel Feiglin
Propeller Head
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu May 02, 2013 4:33 am

Interaction Between Condition Tags and Variables Sets

Post by Daniel Feiglin »

Hello folks!

Scenario: I currently use Frame to produce User Manuals (UMs) for n products x m OEMs. Each OEM requires the UM with its own branding. All equipment pictures are OEM "neutral". Screen captures are divided into OEM dependent images and common images. OEM dependency in the text is achieved using variables. The system, as clunky as it is has worked for several years - but with too much duplication of text and graphics.

We are moving to Flare for the usual reasons, not the least of which is the topic based orientation.

I would like to implement the Frame model (without duplication!), but for the moment I cannot see how:

How do we implement a single variable set or choose one of several variable sets to implement the above two dimensional model?
1. There are conditions that must be placed in the topics as distinct from the more usual target conditions. (For the moment, assume PDF. We will get into Web and other targets later.)
2. I note that a single variable set may have multiple values allocated to one variable. The first recorded value is the default. Is there someway to apply a condition to each value (in my case an OEM choice) so that the correct variable value is always selected for topic containing OEM conditions? The classic example, is something like Product_Name. Or, can you condition the choice of a variable set?
3. About conditioning the OEM dependent texts appearing as variables in the relevant images - I have an on-going "romance" with the Capture support people. That may become interesting in the near future.

Rather than burden the list, if anyone has done something like this, or is otherwise interested in constructing a robust solution, I can supply an extract of my System Design Note with more details.

Regards,

Daniel
(MadCap Rusty Turbine Blade)
Daniel Feiglin
Propeller Head
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu May 02, 2013 4:33 am

Re: Interaction Between Condition Tags and Variables Sets

Post by Daniel Feiglin »

One important design detail I overlooked:

In setting up a system of this type, you must nominate a "primary" or "default" OEM around which, all of the development takes place. As soon as both the topics and the target(s) look reasonable, you should then be able to switch to a different OEM to check/adjust topics and confirm that the target(s) are OK.

D
Msquared
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 848
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:19 am
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Interaction Between Condition Tags and Variables Sets

Post by Msquared »

This is all driven by your targets. You will have a target for each output, for example a target for your User Guide for OEM A and a target for your User Guide for OEM B.

You can then define conditions like OEM-A-Only and OEM-B-Only, and apply them as required to your various bits of content.

You can also define variables for OEM-specific words. For example, you could have a variable for the product name. I set the default value to something like _VARProductName_ , so that's the value that I see when I'm writing. I don't worry about setting multiple values for the variable at this stage.

Now, in your target for the User Guide for OEM A, set the condition OEM-A-Only to be included and the condition for OEM-B-Only to be excluded. Also, set the value of the product name variable to "Product A".

This will give you a document with all the product A content and none of the product B content, and the product name will be the correct one. Job done.

In each Flare project, you will have one Primary target. Flare will pick one if you don't set one. That's the one for which you'll see the styles, page layouts etc while you are editing, by default, although there are settings in the Flare editor that allow you to view out your topic would look for your other targets too.
Marjorie

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