Unexpected behavior: multiple entries/same target

[MarinaMichaels]

The help I am working on has some tables that are used by several different modules in the software. In the TOC, I've created separate entries, but with each entry linking to the same file. That works fine.

However, what I would expect to see is that, when someone clicks on the entry for a table, the breadcrumbs will reflect the table of contents structure. Instead, for some reason the cursor jumps to another entry that links to the same file, and then of course the breadcrumbs reflect that path (the same one for all of them). Does anyone have any insight into why this might be?

The following image shows the TOC placement and how the breadcrumbs show another location.

Multiple_topics_same_source_breadcrumbs.png

[techwriter31]

It sounds like you might be encountering the same problem that we did:
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =9&t=15263

Our workaround was to create separate topics to link to the TOC entries, and created a snippet that contained the shared topic content.

My guess is that you've got the "Automatically Synchronize TOC" checkbox checked in the skin and when you click on a link to a topic residing in a different location, it jumps to the appropriate TOC entry, but the breadcrumbs don't match up due to the issue above.

[MarinaMichaels]

Thanks. I was thinking I might have to use snippets, but those tables are used in about six different places, and it just seems like a lot of extra work for something that intuitively should behave differently.

[techwriter31]

Agreed!

[i-tietz]

Agreed???

A topic isn't aware of the calling context and how often and in what paths it appears in the TOC - it simply doesn't have that info.
And, since you're not working with a snippet, that topic exists only once. And the place in the TOC it jumps to is its first appearance in the TOC ...

How is the topic or the TOC supposed to get that context info?

[crdmerge]

Create blank redirect topics and link them to TOC entries. The topics should have, in the XML Editor mode:

<title>The Same Title as the "Original" Topic</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=original_topic_name.htm" />

This way, the TOC and breadcrumbs will always synch properly, wherever you've placed the redirect topic. (We always add a trailing"_redirect" to the file names (not titles) of these topics, for easy identification.)

The content="0; indicates zero delay, so that the users are not even aware of the redirect function. You could, however, increase that number enough to allow users to read some explanation you provide in the GUI part of the topic: "You are being redirected to a topic in this folder/section/category, blah, blah" and provide buttons for "Return to previous topic instead" and "Skip this delay and redirect me now."


Good luck,
Leon

[i-tietz]

Create blank redirect topics and link them to TOC entries. The topics should have, in the XML Editor mode:

<title>The Same Title as the "Original" Topic</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=original_topic_name.htm" />
...
The content="0; indicates zero delay, so that the users are not even aware of the redirect function. You could, however, increase that number enough to allow users to read some explanation you provide in the GUI part of the topic: "You are being redirected to a topic in this folder/section/category, blah, blah" and provide buttons for "Return to previous topic instead" and "Skip this delay and redirect me now."

What an effort ... why not just stuff the content into a snippet and insert that snippet into each of those topics - you wouldn't need an explanatory text for the user and the writer wouldn't have to make an effort to find and open the "real" topic is, when he opens one of the empty ones ...

Apart from that: Doesn't a redirect make it pretty impossible for the user to use the back button and go back to the topic before one of these?

[crdmerge]

Inge:

"when he opens one of the empty ones" Users aren't opening an empty one; that empty file is not "opening," only refreshing to the target topic.

"impossible for the user to use the back button and go back to the topic before one of these?" No, the Back workflow simply bypasses that redirect page (because it was never actually "opened").


Leon

[i-tietz]

"when he opens one of the empty ones" Users aren't opening an empty one; that empty file is not "opening," only refreshing to the target topic.

The full quote is:

... and the writer wouldn't have to make an effort to find and open the "real" topic is, when he opens one of the empty ones ...

No "user" there ...

[MarinaMichaels]

A very late reply, but I think worth making. I ended up using snippets, but because each of those many tables was indexed row-by-row, that means that there are multiple index entries for each parameter in those re-used tables. Although you can set a topic so it isn't searchable, there seems to be no way to tell Flare to only pay attention to the indexing in one of the snippet-created topics. Even if you set a topic so that it isn't included in the target, Flare still seems to pick up the indexing. Another feature request coming right up.

[i-tietz]

Then apply conditions to the keywords in the snippet.
And in the topics you insert the topic into you use specific snippet conditions to see only those you needd for that topic.