I Want to limit search results to specific Target/TOC

[dwinn19]

I have several documents in one project for different audiences, which is great for sharing stylesheets, skins etc. But When I generate Webhelp output for each one, I want to limit the Madcap search results to only documents in each specific TOC. Your doc says Search works on all topics in the project and that you can exclude topics from Search altogether, but that's not what I want. Any way to make Search TOC/Target specific?

[NorthEast]

How is your project set up...
a) Do you build one target, i.e. have a single help output which is used by all audiences?
b) Do you build several targets, i.e. a separate help output for each audience?

If you have one help output used for all audiences (a), you could restrict the search results by using a search filter.
This is used in Flare's WebHelp; see here.

If you have several help outputs (b), you could use conditions to exclude the content that you don't want in a particular output.

[Madcap Guru]

Conditions. Wouldbe the best way to go

[dwinn19]

I found what I needed. it's a flag under Advanced in the target: "exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from target"

Thanks

[mafaulkner]

We're using Flare 8, and the "exclude" check box isn't working for us.

We have one Project with two targets (Cat and Dog). Each target has its own TOC, and we have used conditions so that only Cat topics appear in the Cat TOC, and Dog topics appear in the Dog TOC. This part is working fine.
However, in search, Cat topics show up in the Dog search results, and vice versa. Checking or clearing the "exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from the target" MAKES NO DIFFERENCE! Any idea what's happening?

[mafaulkner]

Never mind--I think we found the problem.

[sandi_mbf]

Hi mafaulkner,

I have the same problem using conditions. Topics excluded with conditions still appear in the search results. What did you do to fix that problem?
Thanks!

[whunter]

I have the same problem using conditions. Topics excluded with conditions still appear in the search results. What did you do to fix that problem?

Have you just excluded the topics from the TOC? Or did you also exclude the files themselves in the Content Explorer? Unless you exclude the *files*, they will show up in search (unless you are using the "Exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from target" setting).

So many options.

[sandi_mbf]

Thanks whunter!
I finally discovered that option, "exclude content not linked directly..."
It works!

[chuck_agari]

Never mind--I think we found the problem.

Not sure I'll get a response from the OP this many years later, but....

I'm doing the exact same thing, one content repository, multiple targets, each with its own TOC, almost all topics links in the TOC are exclusive to those TOCs, yet selecting the "exclude content not directly linked..." option in the target settings for HTML5 output still allows me to find content "across" outputs. So what was the problem you found (and hopefully solved)?

[Psider]

The tricky thing with that setting is it doesn't mean "if I'm not in the toc, don't include me". Rather, it means "only exclude me if no included content links to me, AND none of those linked topics link to me".

Say you have three topics A, B and C. Only A is include in the toc.

With the setting switched off, all three topics will be included in the output.
With the setting on, assuming A does not link to B nor to C, then only A will be included in the output.
If A links to B, assuming B DOES NOT link to C, then A and B will be included in the output.
If A links to B, and B links to C, then all three topics will be included in the output.

(At least, that's how I remember it working. Anyone else, feel free to jump in an tell me I'm an out of date dinosaur :p )

[NorthEast]

The option "Exclude content not directly linked..." might be a quick way to cut out files from the output, but it doesn't give you any control or visibility over what files are included/excluded.
I never use this option.

If you want to control what is/isn't included in your output, then I'd always advise to use conditions.

[chuck_agari]

It's not about the output. It's about the search results.

I have two separate outputs, which I generate from a single content repository. While I've done only one test, when I am viewing one set of (HTML5) output and search for a very specific string that appears only once and only in a topic in the other set of output, I still get a search result with a link to that other output.

[NorthEast]

It's not about the output. It's about the search results.

I have two separate outputs, which I generate from a single content repository. While I've done only one test, when I am viewing one set of (HTML5) output and search for a very specific string that appears only once and only in a topic in the other set of output, I still get a search result with a link to that other output.

Erm... are you sure about that?
I'd be very surprised if your search results are linked to topics that are inside a different output's folder.

Flare's search results will just include topics that are in that target's output.

Whether you expect those topics to be included is another matter.
You can only exclude topics by using conditions, or the "Exclude content..." option - which as I've mentioned, doesn't give you any control over which topics are included/excluded.

[Vibeke B]

So this means that if you have a topic you are working on for later use and do not want it included in any searches, you need to condition it out in the Content Explorer and not just in the TOC? Wow, I did not realize this. Game changer for me!

[NorthEast]

So this means that if you have a topic you are working on for later use and do not want it included in any searches, you need to condition it out in the Content Explorer and not just in the TOC? Wow, I did not realize this. Game changer for me! :( :roll:

Yep, all help outputs will include all files in the Content folder, unless you exclude the files using conditions or the "Exclude content..." option.

[agracer]

I'm baffled.
I am using the "Exclude content not directly or indirectly linked from the target", and yet ALL of my content is being included in the output, and therefore returned in search results.

I know I have used this before, and it has worked well.

I'm guessing my problem is somewhere in the "indirectly linked" caveat. Perhaps that doesn't mean just my HTM and TOC file. I thought maybe it was my csh file, but set that back to default in the target, and the topics are still being included. Any other ideas?

I need to post a subset of a huge help file I am working on soon, and I can only be sure that the subset is ready for consumption. The rest has not yet been reviewed. Eek!

I appreciate your troubleshooting expertise!

[NorthEast]

Well, I never use the "Exclude content..." option, because you never really know what it may or may not exclude.

If you want to accurately control what is and what isn't in the output, then use conditions - and don't use the "Exclude content..." option.

[agracer]

Thank you. I am trying conditions as an alternative. An issue is that I did not know that I was going to have to break out this piece of the help functionality until last minute, and therefore, I did not code it cleanly for the conditions. I have some valid cross links to topics that I would not strictly conditionalize. This makes the "Exclud content" the best choice... if I can figure out why it thinks everything should be included.

[chuck_agari]

Well, I never use the "Exclude content..." option, because you never really know what it may or may not exclude.

That sounds very much like a bug, and a not insignificant one. A setting should do exactly as it promises.

[NorthEast]

Well, I never use the "Exclude content..." option, because you never really know what it may or may not exclude.

That sounds very much like a bug, and a not insignificant one. A setting should do exactly as it promises.

It's not a bug.

My point is that without building and inspecting your output in detail, you don't know exactly what Flare has decided to include/exclude.
There are numerous posts in these forums about particular files being unexpectedly included/excluded.
So this setting is fine if you're not very bothered about controlling what's in your output.

But if you do need to accurately control what is included/excluded, and do that consistently, then the only way to do that is using conditions.

[chuck_agari]

Well, I never use the "Exclude content..." option, because you never really know what it may or may not exclude.

That sounds very much like a bug, and a not insignificant one. A setting should do exactly as it promises.

It's not a bug.

My point is that without building and inspecting your output in detail, you don't know exactly what Flare has decided to include/exclude.
There are numerous posts in these forums about particular files being unexpectedly included/excluded.
So this setting is fine if you're not very bothered about controlling what's in your output.

But if you do need to accurately control what is included/excluded, and do that consistently, then the only way to do that is using conditions.

I respectfully disagree.

If you have a function that is explicitly explained in the UI as "exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from target," then when that function is selected, the target production should do exactly that. If it dies not, then it is a bug. If that function is designed to do something different that what the UI text explicitly says, then the UI text is wrong, and that is a bug.

[Psider]

It's more that the human brain can't keep track of all the links in every topic.

You include topicA in the TOC and remember that topicA links to topicB and you're fine with that. But you forgot that topicB links to topicC. So you're shocked when topicC turns up in the search.

[NorthEast]

If you have a function that is explicitly explained in the UI as "exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from target," then when that function is selected, the target production should do exactly that.

Bear in mind it's "directly or indirectly", so your output will include everything that's in some way linked to the target.

So if you find the content that's included, check what topics are linked to it, and keep following the links back.

[chuck_agari]

If you have a function that is explicitly explained in the UI as "exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from target," then when that function is selected, the target production should do exactly that.

Bear in mind it's "directly or indirectly", so your output will include everything that's in some way linked to the target.

So if you find the content that's included, check what topics are linked to it, and keep following the links back.

This is true, as is what Psider said.

I know in my case I'm using Flare as a complete content repository for the documentation of multiple products so I can reuse content, have one set of variables that I define differently per target, etc. But while I use a single CSS, a single set of Master Pages and Page Layouts, etc. And other than shared content, which does not--cannot!!--have links out of it, I have the content for each product segregate into its own sub-folder.

Yet I had an instance of HTML5 output where I searched for something that I knew existed only once in one product's topic set, and when I search for that exact string in the topic set of the other product's output, the topic was found. And it should not be.