Search and Togglers

[jacortes]

When you search, topics that contain the term appear even if the text is "hidden" in a toggler. Is there a way to have the toggler automatically open so you can see where the term is? It looks like Flare's own Help system solved this.

Thanks.

[JohnB]

Well now, I could start a fresh discussion, but found this perfectly worthy unused one.

Did you, or anyone else, figure out how to get togglers to behave as they do in MadCap's own Help (automatically expand when they contain a search term)? I don't see any relevant options in the WebHelp Plus target or skin. Is it Voodoo, and if so, is there a good Quick Start or Dummies guide?

Thanks! - John

[NorthEast]

Well now, I could start a fresh discussion, but found this perfectly worthy unused one.

Did you, or anyone else, figure out how to get togglers to behave as they do in MadCap's own Help (automatically expand when they contain a search term)? I don't see any relevant options in the WebHelp Plus target or skin. Is it Voodoo, and if so, is there a good Quick Start or Dummies guide?

Thanks! - John

For WebHelp, any term in hidden text will be revealed by a search. It does this by default, and there isn't an option to switch this on/off.

Are you saying it doesn't work for you?

[JohnB]

Yes, that's what I'm saying, it doesn't work for us. Two different projects, WebHelp Plus, Flare 7, affecting both Search and Quick Search.

If I expand the toggler, the search term is highlighted, so search is working, just not working as we'd like!

[Andrew]

Yes, that's what I'm saying, it doesn't work for us. Two different projects, WebHelp Plus, Flare 7, affecting both Search and Quick Search.

If I expand the toggler, the search term is highlighted, so search is working, just not working as we'd like!

Does this happen in all browsers, or just one or two?

[JohnB]

Right now, the company is on IE8. No other browsers are allowed to be on users' machines. If they were, it definitely would be worth comparing!

Also, I've tried plain old WebHelp and see the same behavior. I did, though, just discover one toggler that DOES automatically expand. Comparing the one that works and those that don't, they seem to be identically constructed.

[i-tietz]

Togglers, expanding text and dropdowns are heavily equipped with javascript. This sounds like it's a security setting problem.

Other alternative: Maybe it's not the thing itself, but the position (of the toggler that opens) that makes the difference.

[Andrew]

If you have support agreement, I'd contact MadCap that way. If not, report it as a bug.

[JohnB]

Yep, I was just hoping it was an option I was overlooking.

I leave you with this: I did a view source on the Flare Help, and they apparently use drop downs, not togglers (though my isolated sampling may not be universal). So, I created a couple of drop downs and did a search and lo and behold, they automatically opened if they contained the search term.

So right now, I am believing that if you want the Help to show search terms found in drop downs, use...um...dropdowns. Togglers are hit and miss when it comes to this behavior, though by far, they are a miss (at least for IE8, with what I believe are default security settings).

Ask me if we want to convert all of our togglers to drop downs. (I should mention, another writer claims that in her project, drop downs do not open on a search...grrr.)

[NorthEast]

In my experience with Flare WebHelp (all versions, with all browsers), the search results will reveal any hidden text. That includes drop-downs, togglers, and even any text with the display:none property.

That's how it normally works, so it'd be interesting to know what causes this.