Convoluted logic for condition="include only these topics"?

[Phlawm53]

I'm sanity checking the results of my research regarding the ability to use a Flare 6 condition tag to select a (small) subset of project topics for inclusion in a given target.

What I wanted to do was create a "TestGen" condition and apply it to (A) a glossary file at the very end of a large project, and (B) the project's PDF target. Intuition -- and about twenty years of experience with computers and authoring programs -- led me to assume (uh oh) that selecting an "include only" tag in both the file and the target would product a PDF containing only the contents of the selected file or files.

But no -- Flare built the entire project, paying no apparent heed to the condition tag.

So I researched the issue in the online help and this forum. I've located this topic and am not elated by its apparent message:

Generate "only" these topics with conditions

I interpreted that topic to mean that Flare's "include only" logic is bass-ackwards: One must apparently define a default "include never" tag, apply it to all the topic files in a project, then selectively remove that tag for files one wants in a limited subset of output?

The alternative proposed in that same thread is to create a separate TOC and in essence hand-build a separate subset project. In my opinion, that's not a fix, it's a circumvention.

Assuming (uh oh) that I've read the topic correctly, am I the only one who finds Flare's behavior in this regard to be contrary and convoluted? Or have I failed to grasp some key, obvious concept?

(Also, I am familiar with the Preview Topic button in the Flare topic editor. But that doesn't generate PDF-like output, and so can't help me with this particular issue…)

Cheers & thanks,
Riley

[Andrew]

You understand the topic correctly.

What you call the "include only" setting is actually "always include." It's not backwards if your goal is to override something that's been excluded. When you get into situations with lots of overlapping conditions, that can be very important (I don't have any projects like this; I use the Exclude setting only). I think the theory is that, for the most part, people have large projects and exclude little bits here and there for various targets, rather than large projects where they exclude almost everything.

However, I agree with you in that I'd like to have an "include only" setting. I'd submit a feature request!
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[NorthEast]

I'd say part of the problem is that the interface itself isn't very intuative - I think when I first saw 'Exclude' and 'Include' check-boxes I made the same assumptions about how they would work (and I've seen colleagues do the same).
So I don't think it's great that you have to read the help to understand how they work; perhaps the 'Include' should be renamed.

However, I don't think it's backwards as such; it could be equally as irritating if it was the other way round and you had to mark all the topics you wanted to include.

[Andrew]

However, I don't think it's backwards as such; it could be equally as irritating if it was the other way round and you had to mark all the topics you wanted to include.

I don't think Riley was arguing for this; I think he was thinking that the includes would be "include ONLY" and if you didn't have anything set to include only in a project, all the non-excluded files would be included.

In any case, I think you're right; any time you have simply "include" and "exclude," some people will assume it one way, and some another. It's ambiguous.

[ccardimon]

I LOVE Flare, but the phrase "include never" makes me feel like sanity is merely an option.