MadCap Software Forums

Hi everyone,

I am working on Flare, multiple projects. We are starting to get move involved in content re-use, so I am experimenting with the idea of having a parent (master) project, and then other projects that link to specific topic files, in the parent project, that we re-use. Our parent project is in SVN, my test project is saved on my desktop. I opened the new project, imported the Flare parent project, picked two html and 2 png files to import into the 'child'. They came in fine, had a little icon indicating they were a linked file, all good. I then had one of my other team mates update the html file in the parent project. I re-opened the child, and I expected to see the update in the html file that I had imported; but it was unchanged, and in fact, the little grey link icon is now gone.

I am missing something here - hoping someone can shed some light on why my html file seemed to get unlinked? TIA!

Are you using Flare's built-in SVN integration or doing your SVN stuff outside of Flare? I'm only asking because that might have something to do with it, but I don't use Flare's SVN integration so I can't help you if it's that.

Do you have an import file in your Project Organizer for your parent project? Whenever I need to bring in changes in linked projects I can run that import file. I vaguely remember that there's an option when you import files that asks if you want to keep it linked, so did you select that option? (Sorry to be so vague, it's a while since I've done it from scratch.) If not, you've done a one-off import with no link. Check the Imports folder to see if the .flimpfl file exists - if not, I suspect you did a one-off import.

I assume you have your test project locally, and you also have a checked-out version of your parent project checked out locally. In order for the changes your colleague made and checked in you need to update your local copy of the parent project, as your test project imports from the local parent Flare project, not directly from SVN.

Hope that gives you a couple of ideas.

You may be confusing getting updates from SVN and importing files from one Flare project into another Flare project. If so, you aren't alone; a lot of folks confuse the two.

You need to have a working copy of the master project and a working copy of the child project on your computer.

Your colleague needs to have a working copy of the same master project on his or her computer, too (and might have a working copy of the same child project or perhaps a different child project; we don't need to worry about that here).

If one of you makes changes to the master project, that person needs to commit those changes to the SVN repository to which the master project is bound. (I know you know this part of the workflow...)

The other of you then needs to open the working copy of the master project on his or her computer and get those latest updates. Then, in a separate operation having nothing to do with SVN, that person must open the working copy of the child project and import the linked master files again (by using the Reimport button on the Import file's toolbar) from his or her working copy of the master project. Finally, that person needs to commit the updated imported master files to SVN. Understand that the files are not being committed to the location of the master project in the SVN repo, but rather are being committed to the location of the child project in the SVN repo.

Think of it this way: By way of its import file, a child project knows the location of a master project on the computer so that it can import stuff. By way of its own project properties, a child project (one bound to SVN, that is) also knows the URL of the location in the SVN repo to which it is bound. But a child project does not know the URL of the location in the SVN repo to which a master project is bound. Its only connection to a master project is through its own import file.

I hope this helps. I know it can seem a confusing workflow.

p.s. Just read something a little closer, and made sure I agreed with Choccie's post (which I do)... If the little link icon is gone, that suggests that the import file -- which is the file that makes the connection between the master project and child project -- has been deleted, and the child project now considers those files to be local to itself, again having nothing to do with SVN. (Sorry to be anthropomorphising projects.)