Flare output access on Confluence wiki?

[headcannon]

To use my Flare HTML5 output with Confluence, I did the following:
a. Had my company purchase the HMTL-Include-Replace widget (the other versions won’t work). This widget operates as an iFrame on a Confluence page.
b. Set up an internal server that whitelists only the Confluence server (so you can only access the content from Confluence). This means that the server’s security piggy-backs on the Confluence security.
In my case, we use Git as a repository and I post the documentation to a special repository and the webserver polls it for changes every hour. All the HTML5 outputs are posted to subdirectories in that repository.
c. I created a separate Confluence space for each HTML5 document. The space has a single page to which I posted the widget on that page. The widget streams the HTML5 content.
The Confluence skin hides Confluence’s navigation pane.
d. The only stipulation (and if there is a better method, let me know) is that if I need to link to a single page in the HTML5 document, I copy the link from Flare output’s navigation pane. Obviously, I can’t use Conflence’s or Jira’s integrated linking.

[Benboy]

Headcannon, i am also trying to get to a similar solution.

We create content in Flare, but want to distribute the documents online (internally) for SME's to comment. We currently publish automatically all documents in a draft form internally ( html ) in a read only format for everyone to be up to date with the latest documentation although not complete. We also use confluence, and would like to output from Flare into confluence so SME's can comment on the fly.

We want to retain the documents look and feel, links and images. We would like it to be as automated as possible.

My questions are:

a) The solution you outlined, how have you found it? Has it been improved in anyway
b) is it possible to guide me (offline) on exactly how you achieved your solution.

Thanks for your help, and anyone else who can assist.

[pdambrosio]

Hi!

We are looking into using a wiki and would like to retain Flare.
If you publish into Confluence, do you have a way to pull these pages back into Flare?
Currently we also output to Word and SMEs use the Word Doc to edit, comment.

We are primarily looking for a way to get edited text back into Flare.
Thanks!

[sdcinvan]

Hi!

We are looking into using a wiki and would like to retain Flare.
If you publish into Confluence, do you have a way to pull these pages back into Flare?
Currently we also output to Word and SMEs use the Word Doc to edit, comment.

We are primarily looking for a way to get edited text back into Flare.
Thanks!

I experimented with the Confluence option a few years ago and I found it to cumbersome and formatting draft content was difficult or impossible. Besides, since this solution did not allow easy content migration to/from MadCap Flare, I decided that the cheaper/easier solution was to just use Google Docs for collaborative draft work.

With Google Docs, I still need to manually copy/paste to/from MadCap Flare <> Google Docs but, at least, Google Docs offered more flexibility with formatting content. :]

This story just ends the same way... MadCap needs to offer a web-based Collaborator tool. I am becoming increasingly fed up about this, especially considering that MadCap "promised" such an option over two years ago.

--
Shawn

[Robotman]

Hi Shawn,

I have followed your rants about a web-based collaboration tool for a while now and we are in need of this as well. I keep hoping the next version of Flare will address it in some way but that has not happened yet. The question upper management continues to ask is "how do we collaborate with SMEs?" and rolling out Contributor is not the 'right' option for us for a variety of reasons. As you note, frequently, OS agnostic (web-based), real-time, and centralised. We don't need contributors to be able to fully edit the content (that would be a bonus) but they need to be able to comment on specific areas (and add images) and other contributors need to be able to see those suggestions in real-time. We need to be then able to sync, edit, and re-publish, as required.

My current suggestion would be Google Docs but that will create its own issues. The company just bought Confluence/Jira and I know there will be a push to make all of our content wiki-based (which will require us to spend precious resources investigating the pros and cons of tech docs on Wikis - and I don't like what I've currently seen).

Was Madcap in the process of re-working things like Contributor and Pulse/Feedback Server? I certainly hope so. As a Flare user since v1 I love it but Madcap's secondary products have only ever been developed half-arsed (or haven't been fully realised).

I feel multiple headaches coming on as well as enjoying the upcoming challenge.

[sdcinvan]

Hi Shawn,

I have followed your rants about a web-based collaboration tool for a while now and we are in need of this as well. I keep hoping the next version of Flare will address it in some way but that has not happened yet. The question upper management continues to ask is "how do we collaborate with SMEs?" and rolling out Contributor is not the 'right' option for us for a variety of reasons. As you note, frequently, OS agnostic (web-based), real-time, and centralised. We don't need contributors to be able to fully edit the content (that would be a bonus) but they need to be able to comment on specific areas (and add images) and other contributors need to be able to see those suggestions in real-time. We need to be then able to sync, edit, and re-publish, as required.

My current suggestion would be Google Docs but that will create its own issues. The company just bought Confluence/Jira and I know there will be a push to make all of our content wiki-based (which will require us to spend precious resources investigating the pros and cons of tech docs on Wikis - and I don't like what I've currently seen).

Was Madcap in the process of re-working things like Contributor and Pulse/Feedback Server? I certainly hope so. As a Flare user since v1 I love it but Madcap's secondary products have only ever been developed half-arsed (or haven't been fully realised).

I feel multiple headaches coming on as well as enjoying the upcoming challenge.

I'm still using Google Docs for collaborative draft editing using this method solves the problem of OS-agnostic collaborative document editing but it also doubles my workload and creates other issues, especially when synchronizing between Google Docs drafts and the final MadCap Flare edit.

My best practices for using Google Docs for collaborative draft work:
- Highlight (in yellow) any new content (not in Flare) and/or mark with a label. The problem with labels is that they if you copy a Google doc, the labels are removed.
- Make your documents comment only. Tracking direct edits is difficult in Google Docs (revision history is horrible!).
- Include instructions to SMEs at the beginning of every Google draft doc that makes it clear that this is a draft and that it doesn't represent the final output.
- Use comments liberally for addressing possible knowledge gaps or other questions you may have for SMEs. But remember that they are removed in the Google Docs copies.

Please be sure to submit a feature request to MadCap: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx

[devangee]

Hi, I'm hoping for some help.
We user Flare to make our outputs (PDF, CHM, HTML5). We are moving to JIRA service desk and are using Confluence for knowledge base articles.
However, management wants us to publish all the Help systems (HTML5) in Confluence.

We've been trying to figure out how to do this, but there are no good options, and I reviewed the original post in this stream, and we can't get it to work.
Can someone post more explicit steps on how to get HTML5 help to work in Confluence - using an iframe or other?

Need help fast please!

[amyobenhaus]

Did you find a solution?!