Output WebHelp to a single folder?

[brianlaing]

I have a requirement from a developer to output all the topics for a help system into a single folder. I can do this using (gasp) DITA and WebWorks, but this particular project is in Flare (have V6) and I'm scratching my head (after looking through tons of postings and online). Is this possible? (The html string for context-sensitive help can't traverse folders).

Thanks!
Brian

[Nita Beck]

Hi Brian!

I take it that the developer wants to link to filenames/pathnames, not map IDs (or whatever they're called in Flare; sorry--old RH habits die hard).

I don't know of a way to make Flare do what you are being asked to do. (Perhaps the true gurus on this forum know something otherwise and can add to the discussion.)

But if I were in your shoes, I would push back on this requirement. I would explain to the developer that having him/her link to filenames rather than map IDs will become a straightjacket for the ongoing maintenance of the Flare project. Knowing you as I do (yes, I know him personally; Brian's in the Rochester Flare User Group), I feel I can safely assume that you follow the best practice of having your filenames reflect the contents of your topics. So if one of the software features you document gets renamed in future and you dutifully update the content of a topic, you would not be free to change the filename, and now you've got a "mismatch" that you've got to document for the sake of future maintenance.

IANAP ("I am not a programmer"), but I can't imagine that it's any harder programmatically to point to a map ID than it is to point to a filename. And maybe it's even easier to point to a map ID for all I know.

If the developer insists on linking to filenames, then my advice to you is to name your topics as generically as possible. For example, if you've got a "Welcome to BestThingSinceSlidedBread" topic, name the file something like "welcome_to_product.htm".

[LTinker68]

There is no way in Flare to get it to put all the output files into one folder. You would have to do that in the authoring environment. That is, you'd have to put everything in the root of the Content Explorer and then in the target set the option to not put the output into a Contents folder.

But I agree with Nita -- push back on the requirement. Just point out that it's a lot easier for them to mistype a filename that can be 10, 15, 20 characters long as opposed to entering a map ID that's only a few digits long. And heaven forbid your filename has a feature name in it that someone later decides they want to rename so you have to rename all the topics and the programmers have to do the same. If they use map IDs, then the programmers don't have to make any changes, and when you rename the file Flare will automatically update the link to the map ID, so it's minimal work for you, too.