Exclude unwanted skins from target output

[NickC]

Each time I generate my webhelp project, all skins in my project are included in the \Data folder.

Anyone know how to generate with a single skin each time. When I publish the projects (one per company), I have to delete the unwanted skins manually...

Cheers!

[lacastle]

Why does it matter if multiple skins are in the \Data folder if you're only referencing one in your target? I'm pretty sure users can't see your source files to know that other skins are saved there.

[LTinker68]

All of the skins are included by design, so that you can call specific ones at any time, depending on your circumstances. For instance, in one project I have five skins. Each one loads the help with a different pane as the default (Default opens TOC, Index opens Index, etc.). The URL to call each is slightly different, but if the skins weren't included in the output folder then I couldn't call them (the user would get an error).

I couldn't see a way through the GUI to add a conditional tag to a skin. You might be able to manually edit the skin file to add the conditional tag (make a copy of it first). I suggest you put in a feature request, though, asking for the ability to apply conditional tags to skin files. Put in the feature request at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.

[NickC]

Thanks for your advice and ideas.

I wanted to hide skins from my target outputs because we deliver help files to different customers (same content with variables, snippets, condition tags, different skins etc.) and it's important that these customers have no trace of each other even in the source xml files.

I could make each customer skin entirely generic but I reckoned that there should be a way to exclude a skin for a given target. Each time you generate output and then publish, there's another hundred or so files to process per skin. It soon adds up in a big project with 20 subsystems!

I think I might put in a feature request...

[QBF]

I wanted to hide skins from my target outputs because we deliver help files to different customers (same content with variables, snippets, condition tags, different skins etc.) and it's important that these customers have no trace of each other even in the source xml files.

I have a similar situation (and there are real-life reasons not to include "stuff" from one product with any other product build). Flare does not include the ability to condition skins, as such, all output will contain every skin in your Project Organizer > Skins folder.

I submitted a "Feature" request a while ago asking Madcap to add conditions to skins. The more people that request a specific "Feature," the more likely it is to be included in a release. You can request a new "Feature" at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[NickC]

Great - that makes two of us at least (I sent a feature request a few weeks back). This feature would certainly save me a lot of tidying up each time I publish and also reduce the size of my bundled help systems.

I really need an efficient conditional tag set up as we provide identical help which is rebranded for several clients and a stray logo or company mention in the wrong system would pose us a few problems. I'm sure we're not the only ones who need to condition out files/directories. Having said that, the condtions you can apply within files to text and images for web and print output work very well in Flare.