changes to skin not deploying properly on version 2

[fltii]

i have Madcap Flare V2. and recently started using a skin to format my help frame.

the problem is that often when i build, publish and then commit and deploy my project, recent changes are not saved, or they revert back to earlier versions. sometimes some changes are visible on our test server and others are not.

i think what is happening is that Flare does not recognize that the skin has been changed and skips that on the build.

is this a known issue for Flare V2? or is there anyway to re-build changes even if the version "thinks" it is current?

[LTinker68]

See this thread --> http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 32&p=46364

[fltii]

thank you lisa,

i should have specified. i actually output to webhelp.

so i can get skin changes to deploy. but sometimes after making changes, saving them, running a build, and publish in flare, the changes do not show up after deploying to the webhelp.

it seems like the build and or publish misses some of the newly saved changes to the skin.

is there a way to force a rebuild, without creating and applying a whole new skin?

[LTinker68]

Delete your Output before building. That'll trick the browser into think it's going to a new site and will automatically load everything new instead of going to the cache. It's not so much a problem with changes to topics generally, but it's definitely recommended any time you make a change to the skin. I and many others here have just gotten into the habit of deleting the Output folder before we build.

[fltii]

thank you,

i understand...

now the problem is organizational.
a great many of my images (inserted screenshots, pictures, etc.) are saved in one of the output folders.

how can i move those files to the content folder (resources/images) without breaking all of those image paths? or what would i need to do to fix the paths if i do that?

[KevinDAmery]

Ok, first thing: never save your source files in the output folder, because when you do a build you can end up overwriting your source files with the output files (which can get mucky). Instead, you should save your source files under the Content directory (for example, images normally go in Content\Resources\Images).

To move them, what I would do is open the Content Explorer and turn on View Files. You can enable this feature with one of the icons above the treeview (I forget which one and I don't have Flare open at the moment, but it's on the left side at any rate). This will allow you to select files in Flare. Then open the folder where your image files are and drag them to the location you want them to be. Flare will alert you that there are links to the files and ask you if you want to update them: tell it that yes, you do want to update the links.

One note: if you have a large number of files, it is possible that Flare may freeze during the copy process. In my experience, the copy and relink still works afterwards, but you will have to kill Flare. So, make sure that you save any open files before you begin the copy process.

(And feel free to submit a bug report if this freeze does happen to you....)
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx