top-nav feedback by topic

pdenchfield · Post by **pdenchfield** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:31 pm

Is there a way to give readers opportunity to email detailed feedback on a given topic?

Example: Reader visits the topic at docs.acme.com/whizzbang/install.htm
Topic is in a top navigation web output

Can we provide a link somewhere (in the topic, to the side, etc.) that automatically includes the topic identifier (by URL or other internally-meaningful mechanism) in an email or a contact form for the reader to enter detailed comments?

Thanks!

arshabhirai · Post by **arshabhirai** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:06 pm

Hi Pamela,
I am in the process of doing something similar. Did you implement it?
Thanks,
A

pdenchfield · Post by **pdenchfield** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:19 pm

Hi A, I haven't found a way to implement this functionality yet. Thanks and good luck! Pamela

smajors · Post by **smajors** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:41 pm

Yes, I'm pretty sure this is possible. We have the Topic Toolbar setup to include the feedback button. When you're on a topic and you click the feedback button, an email opens and the Subject reads "Feedback (Topic: Glossary), for example.

topic_feedback.png

I honestly don't remember how we set this up, it's been awhile, I just know it works. I believe we were also able to change the icon and use our own. You can search for "Topic Toolbar" in Madcap's Online Help and several topics are there.

pdenchfield · Post by **pdenchfield** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:55 pm

Does the topic toolbar button for sending feedback require the use of Madcap Pulse? I tried to find out more but this particular button is not listed here: http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare201 ... olbars.htm

smajors · Post by **smajors** » Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:10 pm

No, we don't have Pulse and are able to use this feature. If you go to the Project Organizer, check the Skins folder to see if there's a skin called "Topic Toolbar", if not you can add a new one and modify it from there. I would have to search more in Flare's help to remember how to implement it. I see in my top nav Target I can specify which Topic Toolbar to use, or use the default. I'm not sure what other steps you have to take to make it work.

Update: After looking around some more, I found in our Top nav Master Page we inserted the Topic Toolbar proxy in the location we want the toolbar to appear in each topic. That should give you a good start!

Rene Severens · Post by **Rene Severens** » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:40 am

Hi,

When you add the next script to the master page used,
then each page will show a hyperlink at the bottom of each topic,
that a user can click to send an e-mail to the specified address.
The script will add a subject to the e0-mail that can be configured,
and add the url of the webpage,
so the receiver sees directly on which topic the user is informing about, whatever, ...

the almost complete masterpage I use is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:lastBlockDepth="3" MadCap:lastHeight="122" MadCap:lastWidth="1020">
<head>
<link href="../Stylesheets/WebHelp_MainStyles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script>
function emailFeedback(){
window.location='mailto:INFO@COMPANY.COM?subject=I report a found error on page ' + document.URL;
}
</script>
<style>
.email
{
border-top: 1px solid green;
padding: 3px;
text-align: right;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="COMPANYMenu">
<MadCap:topicToolbarProxy style="mc-topic-toolbar-items: Print ExpandAll RemoveHighlight;" />
</div>
<MadCap:bodyProxy />
<p> </p>
<p class="email"><a href="javascript:emailFeedback()">Found an error on this page? Let us know!</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

using the next style

div.COMPANYMenu
{
float: right;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
}

Note that in the line
window.location='mailto:INFO@COMPANY.COM?subject=I report a found error on page ' + document.URL;
you must replace INFO@COMPANY.COM by a valid email address for you situation.

Greetings,
Rene Severens

Post by **NorthEast** » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:46 am

If you search the forums, you'll find plenty of solutions.

For example, try adding your own button to the toolbar in the skin editor, then for the button Event > Click action use something like:

Code: Select all

document.location.href="mailto:you@yourcompany.com?subject=Feedback (Topic: "+document.title+")&body=File: "+location.href+"%0A%0AComments:%0A%0A";

That'll pre-fill the email with your email address and details about the topic (title, URL)

pdenchfield · Post by **pdenchfield** » Fri Oct 20, 2017 5:53 pm

Thank you, Dave and Renee. I hope to try this out Monday.

pdenchfield · Post by **pdenchfield** » Thu Dec 21, 2017 4:22 pm

Dave, Renee, thanks for your help! I was able to add a custom toolbar button that does the job. Details below for anyone else reading.

To add a custom toolbar button that opens up email in the user's default email client:
1. Open the toolbar skin: Project/Skins/TopicToolbar.flskn
2. In the Setup tab of the skin editor, click the button to add a toolbar button and then enter a name, such as "FeedbackEmail" and then click OK.
3. Click the arrow to move the new button to the Selected group on the right.
4. In the Styles tab of the skin editor, expand Toolbar Button, then scroll down until you see the name of the new button you added and expand that too. Expand the "Event" node. A "Click" text box appears.
5. In the "Click" text box, paste in code that opens an email with the verbiage you want. Example: document.location.href="mailto:docs@example.com?subject=Feedback (Topic: "+document.title+")&body=File: "+location.href+"%0A%0AComments:%0A%0A";
6. To add an image to your new button, expand Background, click the button on the right of Image, then click the ellipsis button in "Insert Image" to open a File Explorer window and navigate to your image.
Note: Flare stores toolbar button images in the following folder.
C:\Program Files\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare 13\Flare.app\Resources\WebHelp\Default.flwht\Images
NOTE: Flare stores selected button background images as code directly in the topic toolbar skin. (Open in internal text editor to see this.) Therefore, the best way to select a button image is to use Flare's UI to navigate to the file.

eknell · Post by **eknell** » Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:49 am

Pamela, I've been using these exact instructions on a number of my projects - thank you! Is there a way to display something *other* than "Comments" in the body of the email? I have a business partner who really likes the ability to link to the topic, but wants to direct the feedback some.

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