How do I specify the files to publish

[mdgates]

I have one project with various TOCs and WebHelp targets. When I publish Target A, the Content folder includes .htm topics from Target A but also Target B and Target C. The Content\Resources\Images also has images from all my targets. It seems like Flare is publishing everything in the project, not just the files for a specific target. This is creating a bloated file size and users can search the Target A (the Help) and find topics from Target B (the online admin guide). Not a good thing.

Is there some way to exclude the target B and C files from publishing?

[LTinker68]

When you publish you first have to build, and the build is what determines what files are included/excluded based on the condition tags you inserted and what you have set up in the target. And if TargetB and TargetC are also online outputs, then you have to set up multiple destination files that specify different locations so that you don't add the files from TargetB to the same location where TargetA's files are stored. So check that you've set up (and applied) the conditional tags, target, and destination file properly.

[NorthEast]

I'm guessing you're not using conditional tags in your project.

When you publish your WebHelp targets, they will include everything in your project, including topics that aren't in your TOC.

To control which topics appear in your different outputs, you need to use conditional tags. One way to do it would be to create a separate conditional tag for each output, and then apply the tags to the topics that are specific to each output. You can then select which conditional tags to include/exclude in each target, so the topics that you've marked with those tags are included/excluded.

[doc_guy]

For what it's worth, this is actually by design. Many help authors create a table of content to list major topics, but then link to other topics (either from other topics, or directly from the application itself, using context-sensitive help calls) for additional content.

Depending on how your CSH (context-sensitive help) is designed, if you have tons of mini topics that give very short descriptions of buttons or whatever in your application, you need to have these files included in your build, but you DON'T want to link to them in your TOC.

For that reason, all topics/images are included in a WebHelp build.

To exclude certain content from the build, you can mark the topics (or their parent folders) with condition tags, then set the condition inclusion/exclusion settings in the target.

If you've organized your top-level folders by Project A, Project B, Project C, then you can just set the condition on the highest-level folder; all child content of that folder will respect the parent condition.

I've stared organizing my images the same way; I have my content/images/projectA folder, and my content/images/projectB folder, and then I have a content/images/shared folder that has no conditions set; images in that folder get pulled into all projects (this includes my logos, images that are part of snippets, etc.).

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any questions when setting up conditions. It's not too hard, but you may run into a snag or two, and we're here to help.

[mdgates]

Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like the consensus is to use conditions. I'll try that.

[mdgates]

I applied conditions but Flare is still publishing every topic and image in my project to my Content folder.

Here's what I've done:

- I've used the following condition tags: PrintOnly, ScreenOnly, Admin Guide, and User Guide.
- I conditionalized each of my user guide TOC topics for either PrintOnly or User Guide.
- I conditionalized each of my admin guide TOC topics for either PrintOnly or Admin Guide.
- In my user guide WebHelp target (the Help), on the Publish tab, I've set my tags to exclude Admin Guide and PrintOnly and to include User Guide and ScreenOnly.
- On the Basic tab, I've specified a unique location for the Output Folder.
- I clicked Save All.
- I've built the user guide WebHelp target.
- I've published the user guide WebHelp target.

Flare publishes the files for my Help but also topics for the admin guide.

Any ideas?

[LTinker68]

- I conditionalized each of my user guide TOC topics for either PrintOnly or User Guide.
- I conditionalized each of my admin guide TOC topics for either PrintOnly or Admin Guide.

Putting conditions on a TOC entry only determines whether or not that particular entry in the TOC is included in the output. For instance, I have each book linked to a topic so that the breadcrumbs have a hyperlink and I have the same topic inside (beneath) that book so that if the user is clicking various topics inside that book then they can still get to the book's "intro" topic by clicking on its TOC entry. However, I don't want two copies of the same topic printing one right after the other in print output, so I apply an online-only condition to the TOC entry so that it's not included in the print output.

Applying a condition to a topic file determines whether the topic, its TOC entry(ies), hyperlinks in other topics that point to that topic (just the hyperlink tag, not the text), cross-references, etc., are included in the output. (In other words, applying a condition to a TOC entry applies only to that TOC entry; applying a condition to the topic affects all references to that topic.)

So you need to apply the appropriate conditions to the topic files. If all of your print-specific topics are in the same folder and there are no online-specific topics in that folder, then you can apply the PrintOnly condition to that folder instead of to every topic inside that folder. However, if a folder contains a mix of topics, then don't apply any condition to the folder -- apply the appropriate conditions to each topic inside the folder.

[doc_guy]

Also be sure to clean your build output folder. Flare won't do that automatically, so the files you built previously will still appear. There is a clean project option (Build | Clean Project) that you can use to clean your output folder.

[mdgates]

Aha! I needed to also conditionalize the .htm files and images in the Content Explorer. Now the Content folder on the publish location only contains the required files. Thanks to everyone who commented.

[bbuchko]

Something else that's relevant (to any newer users reading this thread) is that Include overrides Exclude when it comes to conditions. Let's say you have a topic marked Screen Only and Admin Guide. Then, you mark the Target Conditions to include Screen only and User Guide and to exclude Print Only and Admin Guide. The end result will still include all of the Admin Guide topics marked Screen Only, because include overrides exclude.

The solution I found was, if you're applying multiple conditions, to only mark conditions you want to exclude and leave all of the include check boxes blank. That won't always work, and I'm bracing myself for problems with my conditions soon as I add more clients to go with the multiple access levels I'm already using. I'm sure I'll have plenty of posts about that in the near future!

[Joywriter]

I have applied a test conditional tag to a topic(s) in my Flare project. I want to produce an output that has only these topics with this one specific conditional tag applied. How do I do this? It doesn't have to be print. I'm looking for a just a list only so I can go back and work on these files. It's an identification tool need that I want.

[lacastle]

Make an appropriate target (webhelp, html, etc.) and include/exclude the appropriate conditions on the Conditional Text tab in the target.

[lacastle]

In the Flare Help TOC, go to Features > Single-Source Publishing > Multiple Outputs and Condition Tags > Associating Condition Tags with Targets for the necessary steps.

Also, here are some other forum topics:
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... al+exclude
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... al+exclude

[Joywriter]

Laura,
I've walked through these steps but for MyWebHelp target it seems that all my choice to include this specific conditional text tag will just make it included in with all the other tags ... and I just want this one specific tag? I've heard something about printing it as a TOC? would this just give me the ability to print only topics to which I've applied this specific conditional text tag?

[KevinDAmery]

I don't think Flare currently supports a workflow to exclude content that doesn't have conditions applied to it. That would be a good thing to have, though: I'd recommend putting in a feature request. You can do so here:

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[lacastle]

I usually apply a condition tag to every topic just to organize them better (and so I can see the colors for what i have done, started, need to fix errors, etc). If you open the Content Explorer with the Show Files option (second icon to the left in that pane), or open the File List (Ctrl+Shift+J) you can select multiple files and apply conditions (press F4 to open the Properties window for all the selected topics).

Here's a forum topic about sorting by condition: http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... +condition

[LTinker68]

I've walked through these steps but for MyWebHelp target it seems that all my choice to include this specific conditional text tag will just make it included in with all the other tags ... and I just want this one specific tag? I've heard something about printing it as a TOC? would this just give me the ability to print only topics to which I've applied this specific conditional text tag?

I'm not quite following what's happening. If you create a new target just for that condition, and in the target specifically select include for this condition and specifically exclude all other conditions, then the generated output should only contain the topics that have that condition applied. Whether or not all those topics are shown in the TOC or not depends on if you added those topics to the TOC. (You can have more topics in the output folder than are displayed in the TOC.)

[KevinDAmery]

If I'm reading it correctly, Lisa, I think what Joywriter is after is to exclude everything, even content that doesn't have any conditions at all. In other words, a way to say "exclude everything that ISN'T conditioned as *new*." As you say, you can do it if there are other conditions applied, but for any content that doesn't have any conditions at all you're out of luck.

You could of course use Laura's suggestion of adding a condition as soon as you create a topic, but that doesn't help much if you have hundreds of topics already that don't have conditions applied to the whole topic.