Automatic Process

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Mritunjay_g
Propeller Head
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue Apr 11, 2017 11:56 pm

Automatic Process

Post by Mritunjay_g »

Hello All,

Respected All, do we have any facility to take content on online help automatically in MadCap Flare?

In Brief,
I am having single sourcing online help project. And,
I have a monthly process, the report of which is to be sent to the client through online help. This report may be in Excel or Word.

This report is lying somewhere on another machine and I have to make it part of online help.
Hope I am clear in putting my words. Pls help me out.

Thank you all in Advance
Mj
trent the thief
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:21 am
Location: Off in the dark....

Re: Automatic Process

Post by trent the thief »

Hi,

Your question is a little complex.

Flare has a function that you can call from a script that would allow you to schedule a build using Windows Scheduled Tasks.

You would need to lay the groundwork for that automation, though. You need to create an Import project file for the report's file type. But first, you'll need to have them decide on the imported file's format to make things easier. Otherwise, you'll need to know which file type they used each time to tell Flare which import file to use (or play with conditional scripting in windows). You need to set the Import project file options for the Report and configure the publishing Target file to Auto-sync Imports before the build.

So, the process with a pre-determined import file type:

1. Setup the Flare Import file for your report file. (Import files are by format)
2. Configure the HTML Target file to Auto-Sync imports (automatically import the content)
3. Create a script that calls the Flare CLI app (madbuild.exe) to build the project.
4. Create a Windows scheduled Task to kick-off the build and publish.

This will take tinkering to get it all playing the way you want.

Also, you'll get quicker answers on Flare's Slack channel. If you aren't already a user and want to begin, PM me your email address.
Trent.

Certifiable.

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umm...
I meant MAD Certified.

Official Propeller Beanie Owner :-)

:flare: Are you on Flare's Slack channels? PM me for an invitation! :flare:
robdocsmith
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 246
Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 3:11 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: Automatic Process

Post by robdocsmith »

This is similar or the same as your previous enquiry about incorporating Word/Excel documents into online help. There is no automatic solution for you to do this. If the file to import always had the same name and was always in the same location on your file server, it is possible to create an import for that document and run a scripted build to include it in the help. Or if the file only needs to be linked, you could set up a page in the help with a link to the particular file. However, the file would have to be named the same each time.

I'd be really really reluctant to launch Word or Excel natively from the online help directly. You'd have no control over what was in the document, what formats were used, or whether it contained potentially dangerous macros.

In my documentation (output as PDFs), I refer to particular xlsx files for data. What I have created is a Python scripted solution outside of Flare that extracts the information I need from various documents, incorporates that information into flare htm files, variables and conditions, and then builds the documentation for that product. This means I maintain control of the look and feel of the documentation set, and am totally in control of when I build and what documents are included.

If I was doing software engineering (instead of writing manuals for luxury motor yachts) and needed to, say, include release notes that were provided as Word docs... I would insist the Word docs are always put in the same directory. I'd create a script that reads each Word file and converts them to htm files, the script would also build a fltoc file that includes all the newly created htm files in newest-first date order. I'd include that TOC in my help (since I'm creating it, the TOC wouldn't change filename). And then either manually or by script build and publish the help system. That would work quite effectively. I'd hate doing it because it's a really awkward way to go about it, and relies on my own knowledge of scripts - If I left the company the process would be difficult to maintain. First and foremost, I'd try to get the Word or Excel files written in something closer to htm or xml than native Word/Excel.

Hope that gives you some ideas...

Rob
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