Salesforce - Flare only or Flare with CMS

[iand]

Hi, does anyone know how Salesforce created their developer centre?

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/a ... ecting.htm

I understand they use Flare. Is the Flare output imported into a CMS? I notice there is a waiting icon when changing topics.

Is this the best way to add frameless side navigation and search?

Thanks for your help
Ian

[NorthEast]

Out of interest, how do you know they use Flare? (Just I'm not sniffing anything from their help.)

Anyway, you can do frameless output with side navigation using just Flare. You can use the top nav skin or no skin at all, and include side navigation by using a menu proxy (skin component).
You can use the menu proxy as is, but as it produces a simple HTML list, it's also very easy to style it using navigation controls from Foundation, Bootstrap, or other plugins.

To give you an idea, there are some examples in this post about styling the menu proxy using 3rd party plugins.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21607&#p110267

[iand]

Hi Dave,

They are in the Flare customer showcase (about halfway down). http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/ ... wcase.aspx

I see what you mean though; I wonder if they process the output from Flare and import into another system.

Thanks for the suggestion and useful links. Much appreciated

Ian

[RamonS]

They may not even process the output, but create their own from the Flare project files. MadCap intentionally chose to keep all project files as XML so that any transformations are possible. They will still use Flare to create and manage the content, but then have a custom compiler that crunches through the XML files to create the desired output...which would also explain why there might be no trace of anything MadCap in their help.

[cayennep]

I looked into integrating Flare and SalesForce extensively, and found nobody was doing it (imnsho, because it's not a good idea).

However, the developer site is created using Flare, but then setting up a regular web site/server in force.com to host it.

Or so I understood. I'm getting ready to do that or something similar, so more will be revealed.

[iand]

Hi Ramon,
Interesting idea; I hadn't considered that possibility. Would it not be more work though to create their own parser (re-creating conditional text, variable, etc.) rather than post-processing Flare's build system's output?
Ian

[RamonS]

Maybe, or better to say, probably, but the decision to keep all the project files as XML was made to specifically allow for this. Another avenue might be DITA. The DITA file format is intended to be consumed by different systems. In either case, it is XML transformation at work to crunch out the desired output.

[LeslieT]

I have been investigating this subject because our Product Management team wants documentation to be integrated with the Support and Community experience provided by SalesForce. And as many have expressed here, it is not a matter of simply uploading Flare online outputs into SalesForce. We are actually contracting with an SF integration partner and they are going to build us an application that will take our published output, parse the HTML files to make them compatible with SF, and then push them into the SF knowledge base.

We have not yet taken delivery of this application, but I will keep you all posted on how this actually works (fingers crossed).

[jonathanlolley]

Hi Leslie, I am very interested to hear how your project goes. We have been interested in something similar for a while, but have not yet approached Salesforce for this type of a project. Please do share updates when you are able.

[cfield]

Hi Leslie,

I, too, would be very interested to hear how your project goes with SalesForce. At present we have what amounts to two separate systems with help related information and it would be extremely useful to be able to integrate our Flare output with SF.

[robync]

Salesforce no longer uses Flare. They used to use Flare for their developer documentation. For about the last year, they've used a custom, in-house DITA tool based on oXygen. We're a SF partner too, and I was able to talk to a few of their documentation and training managers.

[iand]

Hi Robnyc thanks for the details about Salesforce

[Shahro24]

I too am very interested. We are evaluation Flare right now and salesforce community integration is a big item on our list. Any information is much appreciated.
Shahrooz