Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

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chuck_agari
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Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by chuck_agari »

I have to select a documentation development tool, being the first tech writer at this company. After doing a bunch of research on tools both familiar and not so familiar, my top two candidates are Flare (with Central) and Paligo, with two more, Adobe Technical Communication Suite and ProProfs Knowledge Base in the next tier. My company make web apps and has a partner who white labels and sells out products. The latter needs to have its own branding and naming for product documentation.

Starting POCs with the 4 products yesterday, I really want to make Flare my choice, especially because my initial impressions of Paligo's user experience is pretty awful. (I really expect that an extremely experienced tech writer who has used many tools over the course of a long career shouldn't be confused by how content development tools work.) But I'm finding really early on that Madcap really seems to have not improved the quality of its product over the years, and it's really frustrating.

Let me make it clear that some of what I have done has worked out really well. The source files that I am using for the POC is a FrameMaker book. The import went smoothly, although I was a bit disappointed that everything was imported flat. That is, I had a sub-folder that held the book's image files, but Flare did not keep that structure. Worse, once I created an images folder, I was not able to multi-select the image files and drag them into that folder. I had to do it one-by-one. And of course, I had to confirm that I wanted to update the links to the image file for each one. This process took a few seconds each time, and all the flickering of the Content Explorer pane when a file is being moved is certainly not something I expect to see in 2018.

The good part is that I made just a few changes to the CSS (the book styles had content indented 2 inches) and output HTML5 that looked quite nice. I added a PDF target and made no other changes, and the PDF file looks very much like what was output from Frame. (I can see I'd have to make just a few tweaks, like where to start new pages and adding headers and footers.) This makes me quite happy.

Unfortunately, MadCap's documentation is still pretty damn poor. The information on how to connect a Flare project to Central is buried in a hidden panel, of which there are very, very many in MadCap's help topics. Overall, this really isn't a very good content design for online content, but hiding task content is particularly egregious.

And it is here where I really hit a wall. During the process of binding/uploading the project to Central, I got an "unreferenced object" error. Again, I remind you that this is 2018, so a development team that's just allowing a software library's default error message to bubble up to users demonstrates a sloppiness and inattention to detail that is very discouraging. But I soldiered on, and got a success message.

My plan was to make a small change in a topic, and then assign the change to one of my co-workers for review in Central to test out the workflow. I could not find the topic among all the graphics, so I though I'd try moving a few more into the images folder. AS soon as I agreed to update the links, I got another "unreferenced object" error. Uh oh. Not at all good. Once it seemed to finish successfully, I did what most people would do here: shut down the program and re-open in. I wasn't asked to save anything when I closed Flare, so I assumed everything was saved OK.

When I re-opened Flare, I got several messages in a row, all in Git-speak. One about something not done in master, I think (and the files mentioned seemed to reference the graphic I had moved and the file in which the graphic was linked), then about needing a commit, and I gave the OK to all of these, at which point I'm stuck on a wery-much non-progressing "Progress" bar with no information about what it's trying to do. I'm assuming it's trying to do something with Central and failing.

Never mind all the Git-speak, which is just a terrible content experience, these bugs I'm encountering when trying to do basic tasks is maddening. I remember the last time I used Flare at a job, and its connector to different source control was buggy as hell, and it seemed MadCap had little interest in getting it right. From what I'm seeing, it seems as Central is an application of Git, and once I connected a project to it, the bugs started flying.

Central is the primary reason I'm even considering Flare. Like almost all software development shops these days, we're a Mac shop, and like many, we develop SaaS products. To use Flare, I have to run Parallels, which is minorly annoying because almost none of the documentation development tool companies seem to have noticed what tech writers in modern companies are writing for and with. Still, using Flare is kind of like putting on and old, comfortable shoe. Using Flare with Central is like stepping into a muddy puddle, ruining those shoes. Am I wrong to expect better from a mature company and a mature product?
Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
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Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by Nita Beck »

chuck_agari wrote:...Worse, once I created an images folder, I was not able to multi-select the image files and drag them into that folder. I had to do it one-by-one. And of course, I had to confirm that I wanted to update the links to the image file for each one. This process took a few seconds each time, and all the flickering of the Content Explorer pane when a file is being moved is certainly not something I expect to see in 2018.
It's easy to multi-select files but you first have to put the Content Explorer into its "Show Files" view. On the Content Explorer's toolbar, click the second button from the left, which is "Show Files". (I'm pretty sure it's the second one; I'm going on memory.) That'll split the Content Explorer into two panes. You can then select multiple files from the right pane and drag them to a different folder in the left pane. Personally, I'd move files in batches, maybe 20 at a time. I sometimes actually select and cut and then navigate to the destination folder and paste. Functions exactly the same as a drag to move.
chuck_agari wrote:...And it is here where I really hit a wall. During the process of binding/uploading the project to Central, I got an "unreferenced object" error...
I haven't had any of the issues with Flare + Central that you go on to describe and so can't suggest anything specific. I wonder if something got corrupted with the very first bind, which is certainly unfortunate. Hate to say it, but you might need to abandon your first attempt and try again. Also, because you are trialing Central, you've got platinum support so can contact MadCap as much as you need. They were very responsive to me with the couple of questions I had as I was trialing, even setting up an online demonstration with a client of mine and myself, so that we could ask questions together about both sides of the new review functionality.
Nita
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RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
alsarg72
Propeller Head
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:50 pm

Re: Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by alsarg72 »

There are so many different examples of null reference exceptions that come out of Flare constantly, at least once a day, why doesn't MadCap respond with some kind troubleshooting advice? The latest one I'm getting is that building word targets fails half way through, with of course no useful information whatsoever to go on. Non-devs reply to threads on null reference exceptions with completely unrelated solutions, not knowing how generic the error is. It is bad exception handling, and given how often it happens should be a constant embarrassment to the company.
Scotty
Propeller Head
Posts: 98
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:56 pm
Location: Europe

Re: Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by Scotty »

Nita Beck wrote:
chuck_agari wrote:...Worse, once I created an images folder, I was not able to multi-select the image files and drag them into that folder. I had to do it one-by-one. And of course, I had to confirm that I wanted to update the links to the image file for each one. This process took a few seconds each time, and all the flickering of the Content Explorer pane when a file is being moved is certainly not something I expect to see in 2018.
It's easy to multi-select files but you first have to put the Content Explorer into its "Show Files" view. On the Content Explorer's toolbar, click the second button from the left, which is "Show Files". (I'm pretty sure it's the second one; I'm going on memory.) That'll split the Content Explorer into two panes. You can then select multiple files from the right pane and drag them to a different folder in the left pane. Personally, I'd move files in batches, maybe 20 at a time. I sometimes actually select and cut and then navigate to the destination folder and paste. Functions exactly the same as a drag to move.
Five years I've been using Flare and didn't know this existed. Troubling this isn't more obvious (or a default setting/feature of some kind), but thanks a lot for this tip!
The newest noob in town.
Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by Nita Beck »

alsarg72 wrote:Non-devs reply to threads on null reference exceptions with completely unrelated solutions, not knowing how generic the error is.
Take all the swipes you want at MadCap, but I sincerely hope that you’re not deliberately trying to insult the community here that tries to provide help to our fellows, perhaps only by sparking an idea.
Nita
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RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
Feebeegeebee
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:38 am
Location: UK

Re: Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by Feebeegeebee »

Scotty wrote:
Nita Beck wrote:
chuck_agari wrote:...Worse, once I created an images folder, I was not able to multi-select the image files and drag them into that folder. I had to do it one-by-one. And of course, I had to confirm that I wanted to update the links to the image file for each one. This process took a few seconds each time, and all the flickering of the Content Explorer pane when a file is being moved is certainly not something I expect to see in 2018.
It's easy to multi-select files but you first have to put the Content Explorer into its "Show Files" view. On the Content Explorer's toolbar, click the second button from the left, which is "Show Files". (I'm pretty sure it's the second one; I'm going on memory.) That'll split the Content Explorer into two panes. You can then select multiple files from the right pane and drag them to a different folder in the left pane. Personally, I'd move files in batches, maybe 20 at a time. I sometimes actually select and cut and then navigate to the destination folder and paste. Functions exactly the same as a drag to move.
Five years I've been using Flare and didn't know this existed. Troubling this isn't more obvious (or a default setting/feature of some kind), but thanks a lot for this tip!
Never knew you could do this either. Why isn't this more obvious?? It has to be the most inconspicuous toolbar icon ever!
Thanks Nita. Such a useful, time-saving tip!
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Using Flare 2022 on Windows 11 (64-bit)
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alsarg72
Propeller Head
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:50 pm

Re: Madcap is making it hard to recommend Flare & Central

Post by alsarg72 »

Nita Beck wrote:
alsarg72 wrote:Non-devs reply to threads on null reference exceptions with completely unrelated solutions, not knowing how generic the error is.
Take all the swipes you want at MadCap, but I sincerely hope that you’re not deliberately trying to insult the community here that tries to provide help to our fellows, perhaps only by sparking an idea.
Not at all. Why would you even draw that conclusion from that sentence? The post was about how bad the exception handling was in Flare - it seems to have improved greatly in recent updates. It was the community that suffered and had their time wasted.
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