TFS, folders, and naming

[tdohan]

Hi. My developers want to use TFS for source control. Right now they are manually bringing my compiled output into TFS. Problem - In Flare, we use lots of folders and subfolders to organize the topics. The developers are telling me that the paths are too long. There is a 256 character limit. They want me to reorganize all the topics so the paths are shorter.

Is there a way to compile with a different folder structure than what we have in Content Explorer? The way it is organized in Content Explorer makes sense to us writers. Any suggestions?

[LTinker68]

Why are you having them bring in your compiled output? They should just be putting your source files into source control. You can use those files to build the output at any point, so there's not much reason to put the output into source control.

As for your source files, you will need to reorganize them a bit if you go so many levels deep or have such long folder names that the combination of them and the filename exceeds the character limit. And you gotta be going real deep or be real wordy to get that many characters.

[mattbnh]

You can eliminate one level of folders by picking "do not use Content folder in output" on the advanced tab of your target.

That would be a quick way of complying with their request without spending a bunch of drudgery time and messing up your folders.

But...if you are using URLs to link context sensitive help, do a test first with the rebuilt help to make sure it does not fracture all the links from the application.

[tdohan]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Hey, for those of you that use TFS, is it possible to have the "folders" in TFS (or however the source is organized) be different than what displays in the Content Explorer?

Thanks.