What benefits are you getting from Feedback Server?

This forum is for general questions about Feedback Explorer and Feedback Server.
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EmilyM
Propeller Head
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:40 pm

What benefits are you getting from Feedback Server?

Post by EmilyM »

Hi guys and gals,

What are your thoughts on the Feedback Server? I have installed a trial version and think the stats etc that we could get from it are great!
My manager would like me to find out if other people are using it and what benefits they are getting from it. From this he will be able to put together the justifciation to purchase it.
Also, are you using Server or Service?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Emily
Eric Lachance
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 127
Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 11:51 am
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Re: What benefits are you getting from Feedback Server?

Post by Eric Lachance »

We've just recently installed Feedback Server. The main reason we wanted it was to know what searches were done and which ones gave (or didn't give) results. The fact of knowing which CSH calls are made from our software is fairly interesting also.

Beyond that, Feedback fails to meet expectations in terms of the data it gives. For example, if I start a linux machine at home, open Opera, access our online webhelp, find the more useless topic and refresh about a hundred times, I've just completely skewed all the stats you could possibly get, because Feedback doesn't use any sort of "session" system - each hit is calculated as if it was a single visitor. Anyone could also completely flood my inbox by doing the same search with no result over and over again.

If I could get Feedback to actually tell me which of our documentation it's sending notifications from (knowing someone searched for "overlay" without telling me which of my 5 manuals the search comes from is fairly useless), I'd simply stop using Feedback Explorer and get a script to read the incoming CSH and Search notifications and give me a report instead. Then I'd rely on Google Analytics to give me stats that are actually useful.

To be very honest, Feedback is yet another tool from Madcap that sells specifically because it "integrates with Flare", but beyond that is overwhelmingly crushed by the features of any number of other tools out there. SnagIT > Capture, Adobe Captivate > Mimic, Any Audio Editor > Echo, etc etc. Other than Flare, the only actually useful tool is Analyzer.
Eric Lachance
Technical Trainer
Objectif Lune Inc.
sjaworski
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:36 pm

Re: What benefits are you getting from Feedback Server?

Post by sjaworski »

We installed Feedback in December 2012 and are noticing big discrepancies in "number of visits" to each topic, as compared to Google Analytics. Google Analytics is reporting 8 to 10 times as many visits in any time period, but when I test my personal visits to a WebHelp output, the numbers agree betwwen the two tools. After reporting Google Analytics' numbers for years, we cannot use Feedback numbers for reporting online help use. I hope that future versions will allow flexible tracking options and also track links that are on pages, so that we can avoid adding Google Analytics code to each link.

We do like the Comments, Ratings, and Search reports that we get from Feedback.
chunkee
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:52 pm

Re: What benefits are you getting from Feedback Server?

Post by chunkee »

The real benefit for my usage was to provide a staging (dev environment) for our agile teams to review content as it occurs. This helps in the SDLC for documentation not to be a last minute item that is rushed.

JC
rob hollinger
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 661
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:40 am

Re: What benefits are you getting from Feedback Server?

Post by rob hollinger »

sjaworski wrote:We installed Feedback in December 2012 and are noticing big discrepancies in "number of visits" to each topic, as compared to Google Analytics. Google Analytics is reporting 8 to 10 times as many visits in any time period, but when I test my personal visits to a WebHelp output, the numbers agree betwwen the two tools. After reporting Google Analytics' numbers for years, we cannot use Feedback numbers for reporting online help use. I hope that future versions will allow flexible tracking options and also track links that are on pages, so that we can avoid adding Google Analytics code to each link.

We do like the Comments, Ratings, and Search reports that we get from Feedback.
This was resolved by setting the date and time filters the same for both Google Analytics and Feedback.
Rob Hollinger
MadCap Software
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