"Update your browser" prompt - Internet Explorer

[tpmtpm56]

Can someone explain the mechanism behind the continued use, or calling, of Internet Explorer in Flare HTML output?

In our HTML output we provide links to YouTube videos. Clicking a link prompts you to select a specific browser (message: "Please update your browser. Your browser isn't supported anymore...").
Naturally we would like the video to open in the preferred browser.

I raised this issue with MadCap support two years ago, and their response was this:

The hyperlinks open through the CHM viewer as it was designed to use Internet Explorer. Unfortunately as Internet Explorer has since been deprecated, this functionality extends to CHM outputs as well. This is not something that Flare changes, as it is performed by the viewer itself.

This point became moot after a while, as we stopped using links to external videos. And to be honest I did not really understand the explanation of the mechanism behind this.

Management wants to use them again, and in a test were pretty agitated that the videos don't open in the preferred browser.

Can someone explain this please, and is there a workaround?

[Nita Beck]

MadCap is not the inventor of the CHM Viewer. Microsoft is. MadCap just bundles it with Flare. Given that MadCap has no control over it, and given that (I don't think) Microsoft has made any updates to the viewer -- for years -- I don't think you're going to be able to solve this for CHM (HTML) output.

To support the long-term future of your Help system, you should consider moving it to HTML5 instead of CHM. It's totally possible to have HTML5 output be locally installed, rather than served up from some web location. But it'll require some redesign on your part as well as reprogramming on the application side. But once that's done, it should be fairly easy to maintain. I speak from experience, having migrated several of my clients' old CHM systems to locally-installed HTML5 systems.

[tpmtpm56]

Thanks Nita; we'll look into this - but I'm confused: What you mean by moving our help to HTML5?
When we generate our output, the output type selected is HTML5. Is this then not really HTML5?
Also, and for context, we provide our help from two sources: locally (i.e. the help system is automatically installed along with our product and is then available contextually via F1), and on a remote server (designed to provide the latest help between product releases).

[Nita Beck]

HTML (aka CHM) Help and HTML5 Help are two different formats.

HTML Help first appeared with Windows 98 and was authored with the HTML Help Toolkit developed by Microsoft. Later, other help authoring tools such as RoboHelp and Flare (among likely many others) integrated Microsoft's toolkit into their products. Although the source topics in an HTML Help project may be .htm and .html files, the output Help itself is compiled into a single file whose extension is .chm. Based on the response you got from MadCap tech support, which mentions the CHM Viewer, I assume your Flare project outputs a .chm file. For many years (dare I say, decades), Microsoft has been threatening to kill .chm. There was an uproar by the community, so Microsoft still does supply a viewer with recent versions of Windows, but to the best of my knowledge, it is no longer supporting updates to either the toolkit or viewer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft ... _HTML_Help
https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... Output.htm

Sometime later, with the advent of the HTML5 markup language, help authorting tools added Help formats based on HTML5. Flare offers several varieties of HTML5 Help: Top Navigation, Side Navigation, Tripane, and Skinless. None of these are compiled Help systems. Rather, they are collections of files -- .htm, images and multimedia, scripts, and more. MadCap recommends HTML5 output.

https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... Output.htm

Both HTML (CHM) and HTML5 Help systems can support context-sensitive help (CSH).

https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... SH/CSH.htm

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, it is possible to locally install HTML5 help, rather than serving it up from a web server. And that help can support CSH.

I hope this information clears up the confusion.

p.s. And if your help output format is NOT .chm, then I don't understand MadCap tech support's response to you, and my complete explanation is moot!

[NorthEast]

In our HTML output we provide links to YouTube videos. Clicking a link prompts you to select a specific browser (message: "Please update your browser. Your browser isn't supported anymore...").
Naturally we would like the video to open in the preferred browser.

If you're producing a HTML5 output, then where is that output being displayed when it displays that message?
Just it sounds like you're not displaying the HTML5 help in a browser. If you're displaying it in an embedded browser control, then check if that is set to an old IE compatibility mode instead of Edge.

Or, if you're actually producing HTML Help (CHM), then by default Flare will set the output to run in IE7 compatibility mode on the target Advanced tab:

Code: Select all

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />

If that's the case, you could try changing "IE=7" to "IE=edge" to run it in Edge browser compatibility mode.

[tpmtpm56]

Thanks - I think you're right that the message is being displayed in an embedded browser.
When I generate HTML5 output and open it directly from the output folder (using Chrome, Firefox, Edge), this problem does not occur.
It occurs only when I open the help from within our app - i.e., open our app, hit F1 (which we use to call help for a specific topic/function) - the help invoked in this case is installed locally, along with and in the Program Files folder of our app.
I asked Tech Support about this, and will ask about editing embedded browser control when they respond.