Softball Question

[dwag]

Child's play: We use Flare 5 to incorporate webhelp in our software. We have but don't yet use Mimic 2, primarily because I can make the movies, but I can't get them to work in the help output.

Here's what I do: I make a movie, save it in Silverlight format and build it. In a Flare topic, I create a link to the movie, everything seems to "take," I save the topic, check it into TFS, build the help. But the next morning, when I test the link in our software, I get the following error:

"Server Error
404 - File or directory not found.
The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable."

Told you it was child's play. Told you I'm not the sharpest spoon in the drawer.

Thanks.

p.s.: Get ready, I'm about to serve up another home run ball: Can Captivate play with with Flare?

[SteveS]

Have you tried making the help without the movie residing in source control.

Or, build everything away from source control?

I think TFS might be the culprit.

[dwag]

Thanks for responding, Steve. Forgive me, but I'm not quite sure what you're asking. In Flare, if I click Build > View Primary: "MyWebHelp" and click the movie link, the movie plays fine. If I go to the TFS folder where the help output resides, open the help file and click the movie link, it plays fine. But if I click the Help icon to open the help in our company's software (the place where I really want the link to work), then click the movie link, I get the previously mentioned error. Apologies for my limited ability to converse technically. Thanks.

[SteveS]

No, you're explaining okay. My understanding can sometimes go off on a tangent...

What I'm getting at is trying to ascertain if the link that fails is pointing to something back in source control, rather than pointing to a movie stored in an easy to access location.

The other thing that crosses my mind is the question 'does the link point to a temp location on your machine?'. If so, is the temporary location being deleted or overwritten during the shutdown process at the end of day?

[SteveS]

Another thought...

Are you trying to open the target with the same browser/ same machine each time? ie does the opening fail next day using the same machine you viewed with during the build process?

[dwag]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I open the help with the same browser and machine each day. The Flare help project is in the TFS folder. The link is pointing to the movie file on my C: drive (where all the Mimic project and movie files have been stored since I installed the software--C:/My Documents/My Mimic Projects). I wondered whether the movie or Mimic files needed to be copied to the Flare Help project, but according to Flare's help, they don't. Do the Mimic folders need to be in TFS?

[carolynmwallace]

p.s.: Get ready, I'm about to serve up another home run ball: Can Captivate play with with Flare?

Now THIS part, I can answer! Yes, it can! I use Captivate to create animated tutorials and then put the resulting HTML/SWF files in my Flare Help projects. I have Captivate 1 and Flare 5.2.

[dwag]

Thanks, Carolyn. If nothing else, I now have hope. Is it a reasonably bug-free, intuitive tool? I've just begun to research other software simulation tools and need one that'll stay out of my way, so to speak, while I work on content.

[carolynmwallace]

Well, I have Captivate 1, which harks back to when the program was still made by Macromedia *cough* DARK AGES *cough.* As such, it's not as user-friendly as it could be. However, I had a background in programming Flash and other animation programs that helped a lot.

[dwag]

Sometimes I feel like such an end user. Thanks, again. Perhaps I'll download a trial of Captivate, see where it takes me.