Is there a way to get a machine-readable index?

[MBaas]

Hi,

Madcap-newby here, so pls. be patient

We are using MadCap in our organization to build CHM, HTML and PDF. I am currently investigating ways to build useful user-tools to get help - and as part of that excercise it would be most useful to have something like an index.xml which has keyword, file and position. (For example, index.xml for a .CHM-File should contain <keyword>foo</keyword><file>foo.chm</file><location>goo/foo.htm</location>). For a .PDF, it would be nice to get a pagenumber, and for HTML-Pages it would be great to have the name of the file as well as the a-tag.

Is something like this doable already - or if not, what is the best way to get it implemented by mc?

Thanks

Michael

P.S: I've done a little research and noticed that the /Data-directory seems to have all the info I need...but the files seem to require a lot of clever processing before being useful for "simple" purposes as I outlined Anybody ever tried that...? (I'm still hoping there is a simpler way...)

[GeorgeBell]

Considering Madcap extol the virtues and importance of an Index (tell us something we don't know), I very much agree with you that there should be some means of at least reviewing an Index for the entire project. This is not a new request as a search of the Forums will show.

Given that the Index is actually available on screen, surely it would not exactly be rocket science to allow this to be extended to the full height of the screen? Not ideal, but a major step forward.

Others have advised compiling a complete output of every single Topic. That's fine, but with almost 2,000 Topics, I'd need a system with some serious grunt.

I do not believe I'm not looking for anything sophisticated. More the obvious issues which arise when multiple authors contribute. Like things at the top level where there may be a form of duplication, eg "Font" and "Fonts", "Language" and "Languages", etc., which need to be consolidated.

[GeorgeBell]

Just following up here. I discussed the issue of Index Maintenance with one of the support team at Madcap - a very useful discussion as it turned out.

I appreciate everyone's situations vary, but for our purpose, it would be ideal to have an facility to produce a hard copy (or even file) of the Index for the complete project - WITHOUT having to compile. We can then more easily spot errors and highlight them. Issues such as an entry like, "Print:File" - do we have one for "File:Print"? Much easier to flip through a hard copy to check.

Editing then becomes a much simpler and quicker process working from such a list.

The information is already there in Flare, as we can see when viewing the Index entry panel. So what is so difficult about producing such a report?

Unless I'm alone here, perhaps others might like to add to my own Feature Request. URL below.

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback/featurerequest.aspx