Finding commented topic

[owilkes]

Hi All,

I've tried Madcap helpdesk, and they say it is an enhancement request - but I thought I'd check the wise heads here, in case a workaround has already been found (as it seems like a pretty fundamental problem).

We have multiple (15) projects, which we merge at runtime build using a 'master' project (TOC links into all the other projects).

The targets on the underlying projects all use the same Feedback server code.

Unfortunately, quite a few of the projects start with 'Overview' - or some title that isn't particularly descriptive.

So when we want to fix a problem, based on a comment someone has made on one of our pages - its a hassle to hard to work out on which topic this comment was made, you have to navigate & search. Which is absurd, as surely Feedback knows which page it is attached to.

Has anyone found a cunning way of putting a URL on the generated email/ anywhere, so we can actually track down the topic being commented on?

Thanks.

ps we're thinking about running an auto-import, and then build, from the master project - but it all gets pretty huge (25,000 topics, soon to grow to nearer 50,000) - and I suspect even our fastest machines will just go unresponsive at this. Particularly as we like having overnight builds.

[crdmerge]

Here's what we use (a separate .js file with a footer setup in our master page). Note that the mailSubject can be changed to indicate product version numbers, also very helpful.

Code: Select all

Contents of feedback_script.js
(Javascript won't work if you add a line break in the wrong place)
==============================

var mailSubject = 'Online Help V8.1 Comment';
var mailBody = '[Enter comments here] \n\nMy comments apply to this page: ' + location.href;
var mailDisplay = 'Feedback on this page';
document.write(
'<a href="mailto:docteam@MyCompany.com'
+ '?subject=' + escape(mailSubject)
+ '&body=' + escape(mailBody)
+ '">' + mailDisplay + '</a>');


Link in master page (includes centering, a horizontal rule, and Online condition, and a "Return to top" link. Adjust to your preferences.)
=================================
        <p class="BottomNav" align="center" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="border-left-width: 1px;border-right-width: 1px;border-top-style: solid;border-top-width: 1px;border-top-color: #d9e4da;border-bottom-width: 1px;padding-top: 4pt;" MadCap:conditions="Primary.Online"><a href="#" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Top of page</a>&#160;&#160;<span style="color: #1c4598;font-size: 8pt;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-size: 7pt;" xmlns="">|</span>&#160;</span>&#160;<script src="../../feedback_script.js" language="javascript" type="text/javascript" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></script></p>
        <p>&#160;</p>
    </body>
</html>


Good luck,
Leon

[owilkes]

Thanks Leon - ironically, we had already written a java script (which we put in a button on the toolbar instead) to generate an email with this path - so, great minds etc. With this, we almost do away with 50% of the point of 'Feedback Server'.

However, I'd like to be able to use the actual Comments section - so people can just enter their comments, and a conversation develop on the relevant pages. Can't do that with emails alone.

I'm thinking you came up with this solution as you similarly found no way of linking back and locating a comment from the Admin view, which may confirm that there is indeed no way of customising the auto-generated email from Feedback to contain the path.

Thanks again.

[crdmerge]

Actually, the concept of a Feedback "conversation" never came up in our initial discussions, since we were not hosting the online help (clients install the help on the same Middle Tier server that contains the product). As to Your statement "Can't do that with emails alone," the email threads ("conversations") work well for us, both for external customers and for internal reviewers (low maintenance, too). I monitor our dedicated "docteam" address, and forward the comment to the responsible writer (eight of us working 42 projects in a merged WebHelp environment).


Good luck,
Leon

[i-tietz]

You can add a topic that contains a form or a form outside the help that you link to.
And you add the link to that form in each topic that passes the URL of the topic as a parameter to enter into a hidden field of the form - use the masterpage for that link.
If you feel like it you can have it opening in a new window so the user doesn't lose track.
What you do with the data inside the form depends on what you program into it - you can have it send an email or write it into a file or a database ...