Architecture of a Flare Skin?

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ArdisRamey
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Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

I'm trying to learn where all the different elements of a style/format are housed in a Flare project so that I can begin generating content that is organized and styled, and one of the things I really can't get my head around is Skins.

I've watched some videos and read some articles about how to make some specific changes in some specific Skins, but can't find any documentation at all about the architecture of a Skin from top to bottom, or how to build one to do what you need. Is that kind of resource out there? Other than "trial and error for as long as it takes" (which is a valid path, I happily admit), how do people learn the web of Skins, Stylesheets, Layouts, Targets, and more, that all have to be mastered to generate content with Flare?

I am grateful for any guidance you can offer on this topic.
NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

Firstly, you probably want to read what's in the help - if you haven't already.
https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... -Skins.htm

The skin is a bit like the container that your help topics will sit inside - so a skin would have things like the navigation menu, search, and header logo.
Skins are customisable using the skin editor. The editor lets you change some aspects of the skin's appearance - colours, logo, left/right layouts, menu levels.
However, you are restricted to editing what the skin editor allows you to - for example, you can't just put extra items in the header area, the editor only allows a logo, menu and search bar.
So you can't build a skin "top-to-bottom" as such - you're limited to what the skin editor lets you do.

In HTML5 outputs, you have 3 different skin types/layouts - side navigation, top navigation, tripane.
Side navigation is new (2018), and I'd consider this a replacement for Tripane, so you probably want to avoid Tripane for new projects.

The main skin has some key elements rolled into one container - a header with navigation, search, and a logo.
You also have skin components like the menu (menu proxy) and search bar (search proxy). These components can be inserted anywhere, so it gives you a bit more flexibility in your design. You can also use these skin components as well as the main skin, or effectively use them instead of a the main skin - although the menu proxy doesn't quite offer exactly the same functionality as the navigation component of the top nav and side nav skins.

When Flare builds the output, it'll generate an awful lot of HTML/CSS/JS for the skin - compare your topic's HTML and what you get in the output.
For top nav and side nav skins, some of the underlying code uses components of the Foundation framework.

Some people (like myself) have modified skins by adding additional CSS/JS, so that we style them in ways that are not available in the skin editor. That's more for people who are comfortable fiddling with CSS/JS though.
devjoe
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by devjoe »

ArdisRamey wrote:Other than "trial and error for as long as it takes" (which is a valid path, I happily admit), how do people learn the web of Skins, Stylesheets, Layouts, Targets, and more, that all have to be mastered to generate content with Flare?
You might want to read through the entire Get Started section of the help, which explains this to some extent. But I give a summary below.

Throughout working with Flare, keep in mind this duality: Source vs. Output. Each of these things has a representation in the source, and a representation in the output, and these are closely tied together, but the same word is usually used to describe both things, and this can sometimes be confusing while you are learning. For instance, a topic is an XHTML file in both the source and the output, but the output has been processed to replace variables with their values, remove conditional text that is excluded from a target, add content from a master page if you have one, etc. For some objects the processing is a bit more extreme.
  • The source for the skin is an XML document defining the general appearance of the parts of the help outside of topics. Skins have a detailed editor built into Flare that shows you a mockup of the output as you edit it. In HTML5 outputs, a skin is a kind of a shell page which contains the navigation elements and a content frame into which topics are loaded. In CHM output, the skin is just a set of settings controlling the characteristics of the HH program from Windows used to display the help.
  • A stylesheet is document defining formatting for elements of a web page (for our purposes, a topic) written in CSS language in both the source AND the output (for all web-based outputs), and for the most part is passed through as you have written it in the source. An exception is for the special MadCap elements, which get transformed into actual HTML elements in the output, and styles defined for them in the stylesheet get transformed appropriately. Stylesheets are referenced within topics, in the output; when referenced, their style definitions apply to the topic. In the source, stylesheets can be specified in project properties, overridden in individual targets, and overridden yet again within individual topics.
  • A page layout is something similar to the skin for PDF outputs. It defines the page headers, footers, title page, etc. and contains a body frame into which content is loaded. Unlike skins and help, where one topic is loaded at a time into the content frame of the skin, scrolling or leaving empty space depending on the length of the topic, in PDF, topics are strung together one after the other within a fixed size frame, and this is repeated over multiple pages (which may include different first, left, and right pages which are alternated as appropriate). A Flare TOC (the same source document which defines the appearance of the Contents from in help output) determines the sequence of topics in the PDF, and properties you can set on individual TOC entries can specify page breaks, chapter breaks, and page layout breaks, the last of these allowing you to switch to a different page layout beginning at a particular topic).
  • A target defines an output. You may have one or multiple targets in your project, allowing you to build one or more HTML5, CHM, PDF, Word, and/or several other forms of output from the same source. In addition to specifying which type of output, it also defines all global characteristics of the output, including which skin (for help output) or page layout (for PDF - at least at the start of the PDF, since the TOC can change that later!).
  • Conditional tag sets define flags you can attach to various elements of your project - to elements within topics, to whole topics, to TOC entries, and to most types of whole files and folders within the project. Within each target there is a section which lets you specify that specific conditional tags are included or excluded from the output. Things are included by default, so usually you want to exclude specific tags and apply tags to your content in that way. The same element can have multiple tags specified; if a tag is explicitly included in the target, this overrides the element being excluded by the presence of another excluded tag on the same element. But tags are processed hierarchically. If an element is excluded, all elements contained within it are excluded, even if one of those has an explicitly included tag. If a topic is excluded, it's out, regardless of its content. And if you exclude a whole folder in Flare, all the files in it are excluded for that output. However, when you apply conditional tags to elements within topics, you can specify the exclude action, which is normally Remove, to instead be Unbind, which will remove the element but leave the content inside the element in place, inside its parent element. For instance, unbinding a link will remove the actual hyperlink while keeping the text that was linked.
  • A variable is a placeholder for a bit of text you can insert into your topics. The Variable set editor lets you change the value of the variable, which will change it in the output everywhere that variable appears. It's also possible to override the values of variables within a target, so that the same help can, for instance, apply to two differently named products or versions of a product via different targets. Variables used in topics can only contain text, not tags. Advanced usage of variables lets you use them in the text of TOC entries and the destinations of hyperlinks; look for other topics in the forums which discuss this, since the relevant syntax has either fallen out of the Flare help or is so deeply buried I can't find it any more.
  • A snippet is, like a variable, a reference to a bit of reusable content you can insert into topics. But snippets are only used within topics, and they can contain tags. One bit about snippets that confuses users is that they can be inserted two different ways. If, when you insert the snippet, you are in a paragraph that contains any other content, you will get a snippettext, and if you are in a blank paragraph or between paragraphs you will get a snippetblock. Snippettext can contain only inline tags (like bold, underlining, links, etc.) and not block elements like paragraphs and tables. Snippetblocks can contain pretty much anything. Snippets also have their own condition system (separate from conditional tag sets) that lets you customize each instance of a snippet. Finally, you can use snippets as templates for topic sections, by inserting them and then converting the inserted snippet into text.
There's still more, of course, but I hope this gets you started.
ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

Thanks, guys! That's very helpful input.

Since the skins that are bundled with Flare don't provide what I need, I'm definitely going to need to build my own using CSS/JS. This is why I'm asking for documentation of the top-down architecture of skins. I'm struggling not just to find any thorough documentation of the bundled skins (for instance, the tutorial that comes with the Sunset template only talks about replacing the logo and changing colors, leaving all other content undocumented) but also to find any documentation of how a skin file is supposed to be structured - and how one might go about editing it to do what you want or need.

I have plenty of experience working with CSS and have support from my team on the JS side, so I know that once I can find some documentation from MadCap on this I'll be able to achieve what I need. If anyone can help me find that documentation, I'd be grateful. Until then, I'll keep looking!
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

What sort of thing are you trying to achieve? What output(s) are you aiming for? There may well be a template available on the Madcap site that is closer to what you want than a blank canvas.
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
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ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

I'm generating HTML5 content (which will never have to be printed) and have some navigational requirements that none of the templates on the MadCap site appear to meet - for instance, I need two different navigational TOCs/outlines (right and left) which link to different kinds of content. Essentially, on the left is the TOC linking to all the docs available in our doc portal while on the right we display the current document's TOC.

If there's a template already out there that offers that flexibility, I'd be overjoyed to use it as a starting point. You're absolutely right, ChoccieMuffin, that starting with a template that's "close enough" is often miles easier than starting from scratch.
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

There are a couple of side-nav templates that you could take a look at - Herschel and Cardiff - on the Flare website here: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/download ... templates/

Not sure if they'd do the trick for you, but worth a squint.
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
Report bugs at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.
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NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

ArdisRamey wrote:I'm generating HTML5 content (which will never have to be printed) and have some navigational requirements that none of the templates on the MadCap site appear to meet - for instance, I need two different navigational TOCs/outlines (right and left) which link to different kinds of content. Essentially, on the left is the TOC linking to all the docs available in our doc portal while on the right we display the current document's TOC.

If there's a template already out there that offers that flexibility, I'd be overjoyed to use it as a starting point. You're absolutely right, ChoccieMuffin, that starting with a template that's "close enough" is often miles easier than starting from scratch.
Don't assume you can't do something just because it's not in one of Flare's templates - they can get you started quickly, but aren't a good showcase of the variety of possible layouts you could produce.

I would investigate what options you have with skins (top nav and side nav) and the skin components - especially the menu skin component/proxy.

For example, you can insert multiple menu proxies in a master page, all linked to different TOCs.
devjoe
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by devjoe »

So, Ardis, are these docs going to be the topics in your Flare project (each one of them an HTML page)? That's how the built-in Contents pane works; it displays a list of all the topics which are in the project's main TOC.

It sounds like you want the right TOC to be a list of the headings within a topic. There isn't a built-in Flare feature that does this, unfortunately. You could, as Dave Lee suggests, use a menu proxy attached to a different TOC, one which has entries referencing bookmarks at the various subheadings within your document. I thought I'd seen a post where somebody had written a javascript that inserted a dynamic in-topic TOC based on the headings within a topic, but I can't find that now.

But that's going to be the main idea. The list of all topics is the built-in Flare TOC, and the list of headings within each topic is going to be some sort of in-topic TOC you assemble.
NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

devjoe wrote:It sounds like you want the right TOC to be a list of the headings within a topic. There isn't a built-in Flare feature that does this, unfortunately.
No - you can do this in Flare. Insert a menu proxy, then select (Headings) rather than a TOC.

It was me who posted the script to generate a list of links to headings in a topic. I posted that before it was added as a feature in Flare.
ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

Dave Lee wrote:
Don't assume you can't do something just because it's not in one of Flare's templates - they can get you started quickly, but aren't a good showcase of the variety of possible layouts you could produce.

I would investigate what options you have with skins (top nav and side nav) and the skin components - especially the menu skin component/proxy.

For example, you can insert multiple menu proxies in a master page, all linked to different TOCs.
You're right, Dave. That's exactly why I'm looking for more in-depth information about the Skins that Flare offers out-of-the-box - so that I can begin to understand what they do and don't offer, and either extend one to do what I need or build one from scratch if necessary. In order to do that, though, I'll need much more direct documentation than the incomplete and roundabout support documentation I've been able to find on Skins so far.
devjoe wrote:
So, Ardis, are these docs going to be the topics in your Flare project (each one of them an HTML page)? That's how the built-in Contents pane works; it displays a list of all the topics which are in the project's main TOC.
I'm not worried about using TOCs, devjoe. I think I understand that functionality well enough to muddle through, at least, and anything I don't know now I can learn as I go.

My concern at the moment is in configuring BOTH left-hand and right-hand navigation panes (with a central content/reading pane) to display concurrently. I haven't seen this accomplished anywhere, and I can't find any documentation that would help me understand how to make that happen within Flare.
devjoe
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by devjoe »

Well, the thing is that the right-hand navigation pane is not really a pane in the same sense that the left one is. The right one contains per-topic different content and as such is part of the topic. You just need to format it in CSS to display so that it occupies space like a pane would. So, for instance, you might put it inside a div with

Code: Select all

position: fixed; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; width=250px; overflow: scroll;
to get the appearance of a pane that fills a column of the screen and stays put when the rest of the content moves.
But the problem with this is that fixed elements float over the page and other content runs behind/in front of them. So you need to wrap your body content in a similar div with

Code: Select all

position: fixed; top: 0; bottom: 0; left: 0; margin-right: 250px; overflow: scroll;
You will want to add some borders and other styling if you want to make the right nav pane look like the left nav one. You can take a look at the styles applied to the built-in CSS pane to figure out how to set up the other. The margin-right on the body div will need to be more than the width of the right nav div (250px in my example) in the end to account for the space occupied by the right-nav's margins and borders.
ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

devjoe wrote:You just need to format it in CSS to display so that it occupies space like a pane would.
This is precisely the kind of input I was hoping for. Thank you for this helpful clarification. I don't know that I agree with your characterization of my right-nav content (though you undeniably have more experience with the tool than do I, so I'm happy to trust your instinct) but I look forward to trying out your approach. Even if it doesn't give me what I need the way I need it, I'm sure I'll learn quite a bit just from trying it!

I'm still going to hold out hope that there is a way to accomplish what I need more directly (instead of the "hack" you've described here), but I'm grateful to you for having given me this avenue of exploration.
NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

I'd suggest just trying out the different skins and skin components in a project - it may make more sense when you've spent time looking at them.

With regards to the layout, how you accomplish this might depend what main skin you're using - i.e. side nav, or top nav, or none at all.

A top nav skin will have a fixed header area at the top, but the layout below that header area is controlled by yourself.
So if you wanted some columns with menus/TOCs, you could add HTML for these in your master page, e.g. create a div and and insert a menu proxy inside. Then you'd style your column (div) using using CSS.

Or if using a side nav skin, that would generate a menu/TOC column on the left/right, and you could add another column in your master page as described above.

To set up your columns (i.e. make the divs look/behave like columns) you have a few options -
(a) Write the CSS yourself. I'd suggest using something like flexbox - which is what Flare used for its own side nav layout.
(b) Use the foundation grid which is already built-in to the HTML5 output. You just need to apply these divs/classes and it'll work in the output, as Flare includes the Foundation CSS automatically.
TR Lisa
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by TR Lisa »

@ArdisRamey I think I'm trying to do the same thing you are. Or very similar. Using HTML5 top nav, I want a menu proxy equivalent to the top nav on the left, the topic body content in the middle, and a mini TOC of the topic headings on the right. The Flare online help is configured exactly this way, at least for many pages, but I'm having trouble duplicating it in my project. I've found some content in the Flare help on all of this but it's a bit disconnected and hard to knit together. I've tried following the instructions below, pasted in from the Flare docs, but what I get doesn't look at all like what I expect--the menu proxy displays at the bottom of the topic across the entire page. I don't see any column formatting. If one of us gets this figured out before the other, let's share the solution?

========
Maybe you already have an existing project where you are generating Top Navigation output with a side menu that is not fixed. You want to switch to a fixed side menu, but you do not want the menu to obstruct content that scrolls under it. Therefore, you want to also change to a 2-column format where the text flows on the left and the topic menu displays on the right.

In order to do this, you need to change the following:

Skin Component You can update your Menu skin component using the steps already described. See How to Set a Fixed Menu.
Master Page If your master page is configured to use one column, where text appears under the side menu, you will need to make changes to your master page accordingly. The easiest way to do this is to import a 2-column (i.e., fixed menu) master page from one of Flare’s Top Navigation project templates. See How to Incorporate a 2-Column Master Page.
Styles In order for the imported master page to work correctly, you will also need to add the appropriate styles to your stylesheet. The easiest way to do this is to import those styles from one of Flare’s Top Navigation project templates. See How to Add Styles for a 2-Column Format.
The following steps describe one way that you can accomplish these tasks.

OpenHOW TO INCORPORATE A 2-COLUMN MASTER PAGE
Create a new temporary project (see Creating a New Project), selecting one of the following Top Navigation templates in the process:
Top Navigation Advanced
Top Navigation Basic
Top Navigation and PDF Advanced
Top Navigation and PDF Basic


Open your regular project and import the master page called “OtherTopicsFixedSideMenu”:
In the Content Explorer, expand the Resources folder and right-click on the MasterPages subfolder.
Select New > Master Page.



In the Add File dialog, select New from existing and click next to it.



In the dialog that opens, find the temporary project you created. Navigate to the Content > Resources > MasterPages location.
Select OtherTopicsFixedSideMenu.flmsp and click Open.
In the Add File dialog, click Add. The master page is added to your project and opens in the XML Editor.
In the imported master page, right-click the menu proxy bar and select Edit Menu Proxy.



From the Skin File, select the Menu skin component that you have set to “fixed.”



Click OK.
(Optional) If you have any content from your old master page that you want to keep, you can copy and paste it into this new master page.
Click to save your work.
Make sure you associate the new master page with the appropriate targets or topics where the older one is set. See Associating Master Pages with Targets or Associating Master Pages with Topics.

Alternatively, you can delete the older master page that you do not plan to use any longer. When doing this you can tell Flare not to remove any links. Then you can rename the new master page so that it has the same name as the deleted master page. This way, the new master page will be linked to whatever the old master page was linked to previously.
NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

TR Lisa wrote:I don't see any column formatting.
It looks MadCap are using a responsive layout to create a 2 column layout (div.topic-layout), with the side menu and topic body.
See: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... ontent.htm

For the right hand menu, you could add a 3rd column, or put it inside a floated div (if you want content to wrap underneath it).
Also, use a menu proxy (not mini TOC) to create the topic headings.
ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

TR Lisa wrote:@ArdisRamey I think I'm trying to do the same thing you are.
TR Lisa, it's so nice to know I'm not alone in this! I'm sure that together (with our powers combined!) we'll be able to solve this. I'm exploring an approach quite like what you describe, and will report back as I learn more. (I do have to take this Sprint off from most CSS work to focus on content generation, but I'll be back at it in full soon!)

Dave Lee, I have done what I can to explore menu proxies, but I'm 4 "help" pages deep and can't seem to make heads or tails of their spread-out documentation. Is there one page that explains what menu proxies are and how to use them - and if so, can you provide that link?

Thanks, all, for your continued support of this very complicated topic!
NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

I'd suggest spending an hour or two just trying it out, then ask questions if you don't understand. Find out what you can/can't do with a menu proxy, and whether you'll use one, before you start thinking about how to style it. If you're not happy with the menu proxy (and top nav skin), the new side nav skin may be an alternative.

When you insert a menu proxy, you can set it to display:
(a) items in a TOC : The (default) option shows the default TOC used by your target, but you can choose a different TOC.
(b) headings in the current topic : choose (headings) and set the number of heading levels.

If you're using it to show items in the TOC:

* NOT Context-sensitive: will show the entire TOC.

* Context-sensitive: Shows only the current topic in the TOC structure, and surrounding topics (not the full TOC). You can choose what surrounding topics to display - i.e. parent topic, sibling topics (at the same TOC level), and child topics - and also set the number of levels of child topics to include. Note that a context sensitive menu will only be displayed if the current topic is in the TOC.

* Skin: Choose the skin file that'll be used to style the menu proxy.
ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

Dave Lee, while I'm grateful for your continued assistance, I hope you understand how frustrating it is to be looking for documentation of core (required) Flare features and to only be told to play with it until we figure it out for ourselves. I'm thankful for your willingness to help, but if I were willing and able to spin my wheels trying to reverse-engineer the functionality through trial and error, I wouldn't be asking for documentation on this forum.

Again, I am grateful for your assistance. It's just that I'm looking for more than "try to figure it out yourself", and I'm holding out hope that the documentation is out there somewhere.
NorthEast
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by NorthEast »

ArdisRamey wrote:Dave Lee, while I'm grateful for your continued assistance, I hope you understand how frustrating it is to be looking for documentation of core (required) Flare features and to only be told to play with it until we figure it out for ourselves. I'm thankful for your willingness to help, but if I were willing and able to spin my wheels trying to reverse-engineer the functionality through trial and error, I wouldn't be asking for documentation on this forum.

Again, I am grateful for your assistance. It's just that I'm looking for more than "try to figure it out yourself", and I'm holding out hope that the documentation is out there somewhere.
I'm not suggesting you have you have to figure it our for yourself - but you do need to spend some time in trying out a feature for yourself.
That's why I'm suggesting spending an hour or two to create a test project - try the different skins, insert a menu proxy, and see what the options do.
If you do that, and are still confused about how it works, then at least you'll be able to ask more specific questions about which parts you don't understand.

It's difficult to provide an overview of everything. There are various ways you could configure skins, skin components, and build your own CSS.
More specific questions will probably get a better answer.
ArdisRamey
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Re: Architecture of a Flare Skin?

Post by ArdisRamey »

For answers/explanation provided by forum members, I absolutely agree with you. It's not just nigh impossible to provide a complete overview of an entire sweeping topic like this, it would be ridiculous to ask. That's why I'm specifically asking for links to resources that *do* explain it. I've explained that I've looked at the Flare doc I've been able to find from MadCap, and obviously I've searched the forum AND have been trying to make it work every day since before my first post. But what I need is more information - and I'm asking for links to extant documentation that already provides that information.

I'm sorry, Dave, that you felt I was asking you to provide that sweeping answer yourself. I tried to be clear that I was asking for links to existing resources. I'll endeavor to be more clear in the future.

There's such a large body of knowledge the Flare community has discovered over the years, I'm sure the information I'm looking for is out there - somewhere.
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