Context Sensitive Help (CSH) - Flare 2017

[djrussell]

I read over the Flare CSH guide and am rereading parts of it again. But I'm not understanding it or something. What I need is CSH to certain topics in a Webhelp help system that gets installed on the user's local computer. The help system is for a desktop application. Will I need a header file, alias file, and topic IDs? Can someone help a newbie Flare user whose starting to work with Flare's CSH feature? I've done this sort of thing before, but I was using FrameMaker and WebWorks ePublisher at that time. And I have to admit...it was a bit more straight forward with what I needed to prepare for CSH.

[RamonS]

Will I need a header file, alias file, and topic IDs?

No, but you should not dismiss aliases / IDs entirely. But first the "No" part:
You can reference topics by path and file name. You call the start topic as you always have to for CSH and pass as parameter the path within the project and the file name. That is surely the easiest way, but it comes with drawbacks. You have to change calls in the application when you rename a topic or change the structure, even if it is only a typo.
The fix for that is to assign aliases to topics. An alias is a text string and as long as it stays associated with a topic it does not matter what the path to the topic is or what the topic's file name ends up to be.
A map ID is a 1:1 match of an alias with an integer, at times that is easier to handle from a programming side. The header files are basically lists of the aliases or map IDs in a format that a developer can use in program code.

All three approaches work. Flare can generate alias strings automatically and assign map IDs as well, although I prefer to use a numbering scheme for area/topic/bookmark rather than random semi-consecutive numbers.
I suggest you put the work in to craft aliases (and might as well do IDs then in one go), it is a lot of effort for an existing project, but little effort as you go. It will save you and others the way bigger effort that you face when the help project needs the structure changed.
I have only little experience with FM/WW ePub, but know that they use aliases and IDs as well for CSH. It may be that these programs simply created something that is unique rather than give the option of more flexibility.

[djrussell]

Thank you Ramon. It sounds like the better path to take is the one using aliases - less work in the long run for me and the developer when the help system is updated/regenerated. I'll start working with the aliases and hopefully can get those going. Thank you so much Ramon for your help.

[djrussell]

Hi Ramon- hope you're still watching this thread...or someone who can help. So, I assigned an Alias identifier to a handful of topics. They also have "Values" that increment automatically. But when I test if CSH is pointing to the correct topics, none of my "Topic Identifiers" are listed in the CSH API Tester that's available when I right-click my target in the project Target folder. What would cause the API Tester to not list any of the CSH Identifiers? I rebuilt the project thinking that was it - but that didn't make a difference. I'm stumped.

[NorthEast]

On the target's Advanced tab, check that the Alias file is selected.

[djrussell]

Thank you Dave. I'll check that target setting.

[djrussell]

That was it Dave I'm able to test the CSH links now. Thank you very much!

[djrussell]

Is it the header file that gets passed to the developer? There's a command in the Tools menu labeled "Export Header File(s)" that I'm guessing I need to generate for the developer but I'm not sure.

[RamonS]

Yes, header files are mainly used for developers. Ask the developer what they need and go from there. The developer might even prefer to provide you with a header file that contains aliases / IDs. You can import that into Flare and the wire things up to the topics.

[cayennep]

We have a javascript file with help mappings, that shows the GUI ID : value/topic pair

Is there a way to get that into Flare? I tried importing it as a header but even after changing the file suffix to .h, Flare doesn't even show it in the folder.

Since we already have this, would it be easy for the developer to provide a header file, either from this or from the program?

Alternately, I'm thinking of doing copy/paste to excel and then copy/paste as tab/comma-delimited.

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

[cayennep]

update - there is no way to get both the GUI ID and the topic name in to Flare

It will have to be manual - a couple of feature requests have been entered to make this easier