TopNav skin and linked projects

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jnerd-face
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TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by jnerd-face »

I'm trying to adapt an existing HTML5 project to use the TopNav skin. My TOC is mostly links to other Subsystems projects, and none of those show up in the top nav menu when I generate. Is there a setting I am missing, or is this not supported by the skin.

Thanks much!!
Nita Beck
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by Nita Beck »

Welcome to the forums. Unfortunately, I think you are out of luck. :(

I assume that you are using runtime merging and that your TOC entries are pointing to the Flare projects (by linking to their .flprj files) where those subsystems are managed and built.

Per the Flare 11 help (here: http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... Output.htm), "Merging projects is not supported in Top Navigation output at all."
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jnerd-face
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by jnerd-face »

Ahh, too bad. Thanks for the quick reply!!
kkelleher
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by kkelleher »

Oh, that's unfortunate. I like the TopNav look, but we're married to the run-time merge for the one project where we could use it.

Anyone else who would like to use this combination of features, please log a feature request:
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx

Thanks,

Kristen
Kristen Kelleher
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cmoore66
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by cmoore66 »

I'm green behind the ears (aka, newbie in these posts). And it's been quite a journey familiarizing myself with Flare, learning the right terminology, and refining my searches so that I could finally arrive here at this particular string. It's not the diagnosis I wanted to hear. But at least I feel some relief from not knowing. Thanks to all who participated here. I will learn to love Tri-pane a while longer. Those of us who have projects merged in our TOCs can't be that small a minority. Or are we? You would think we're a a highly unusual bunch when you consider the one line note that alerts users to this circumstance stuffed way at the bottom of documentation. In any case, I've learned a great appreciation for these Forums. A wealth of information. It works.
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Could you use global project linking rather than runtime merging? And would that work with topnav?
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cmoore66
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by cmoore66 »

Hi ChoccieMuffin,
Thanks for the response and suggestion. I don't see any notes in the documentation warning against using Global Project Linking and Top Navigation. But I don't think it would work for us, as I understand things. We have a number of software modules that live independently from our main software platform version update schedules. We want to keep documentation for everything in one menu. But we want to be able to build and re-publish on the fly, irregularly, for one or two projects now and then. We want to avoid having to build and re-publish en masse, which I understand takes a long time. Keeping our various projects in subsystems and linking in the main TOC via runtime merging I guess allows for this.

Global Project Linking, on the other hand, appears to link information in one central place, which happens to be a master project. We just want to point all of our projects to a master TOC, and leave the content separate and independently available for manipulation and re-publishing.

I don't want to abandon the idea of converting to Top Navigation. But I suspect it will require flexibility on our side rather than Flare's side. And I need to understand our methodology and project structure better before bending to those requirements. But I appreciate the suggestion. And I'm always eager to hear more about possibilities and potential workarounds.
trent the thief
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by trent the thief »

It appears that it is top nav still does not support project merging.

http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare201 ... Output.htm

IMHO, I think this will prevent many doc teams with large projects from converting to the cool frameless output. I was kind of looking forward to playing with topnav, but merging projects is kind of high on our list.
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cmoore66
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by cmoore66 »

Good to see that my team still isn't alone in the world with merged projects and still ineligible for TopNav frameless HTML5 output. Has anyone heard any gossip about the new "side navigation"? I suspect it suffers from the same limitations. But thought I'd check the pulse in case something has changed with project merging and new fangled output. Lots of new looks, but same restrictions.

Makes sense from a marketing perspective: If you already have Flare, and you already have your projects merged into one TOC, you're water under the bridge. Not much sense adding new floors to a building made out of brick and mortar.
Psider
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by Psider »

I believe sidenav is just top nav on the side, so the same limitations.

I've also been doing some thinking about it, and it might make sense that merging isn't supported. I'm not a developer, but I'm trying to think how the combined TOC could be developed without frames (one of the key points of top nav). Just some random Friday musings. :)
wclass
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Re: TopNav skin and linked projects

Post by wclass »

We are looking into this as well - that is, linking many projects. SideNav has the same limitations (but looks nice).
Our next trial is to try and incorporate ElasticSearch, but the powers that be have said this will cost us in licence fees.
Will do some testing over the next few weeks anyway - cause if it works we might then work on a business case for the licence.

Other ways to experiment - we are going to test just having one big project. So far, I have set up our apps all as separate projects (which is easier to maintain), and then created a master project that uses global project linking to import all the sub projects. Only tried on a small sample so far and that works. At the same time we are testing some automatic build tools with TFS so that the giant build can happen overnight.

Has anyone incorporated Google Search across multiple projects? We have used CSH to link between separate projects in the past.

Will let you know how we go - might take a few weeks to complete at this point (other priorities).
Margaret Hassall - Melbourne
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