How control the dir where the chm goes?

[samjones6]

Hi!

I hope this is easy.

I set the Target to this output dir:

"F:\docs\eu\help-file-v4\Flare\WidgetHelp\Output\Microsoft_HTML\"

But Flare 6.1 puts it here:

"F:\docs\eu\help-file-v4\Flare\WidgetHelp\Output\Microsoft_HTML\Output\Microsoft HTML Widget\"

How do I get control over where the output goes?

Thx!!!

[wclass]

Set the target to output to the "default".
Then create a publishing destination to the folder you want.
I generate the output to the default location for testing, then immediately "publish" it to where it should go.

[samjones6]

Set the target to output to the "default".
Then create a publishing destination to the folder you want.
I generate the output to the default location for testing, then immediately "publish" it to where it should go.

Margaret,

Thanks!

But I already have that... see pic below.

What to do?

[wclass]

Your pic shows a path in the output folder - that's what should be "default".

Here's what I do:

• In the target, set the Output Folder to "default".
• In the Destinations folder, create a location that points to the folder that I want.
• "Build" the output (to default).
• Then, "Publish" the output to the selected destination.

Here is a pic that might help:

default_output.png

[samjones6]

Ohhhhh!

Thanks!

So obvious! (Not! <g>)

Who the heck designed this so that the output dir is not the output dir....

Bad design...

I will try that tomorrow.

[wclass]

I think the logic behind the approach is that you build to your local output folder while you are testing, and only publish once it is ready to be viewed.
I found it confusing at first but have gotten used to it. I have set up quite a few publishing destinations - for testing and so on.

I found that if you enter a file path into the Output path, this will cause problems if you have a team of users and someone points to somewhere on their own C: drive. Hence, as we are a group of four, we now never change the output folder so we can all generate locally without having to think too much, and can all publish to our shared folders when needed.

[RamonS]

Ohhhhh!
Thanks!
So obvious! (Not! <g>)
Who the heck designed this so that the output dir is not the output dir....
Bad design...
I will try that tomorrow.

It is not bad design, it allows things such as publishing the output to FTP. Building the output straight to FTP instead would be bad design. The feature appears quirky because it can do much more than you currently need. Also, there should be some reasonable control over the folder where the output goes, because Flare needs to write to it. In some cases a file write can only happen with specific credentials or in a specific context for security reasons.
Also, when you have five projects with three output types each and specify the same output dir for all of them the current way reasonably prevents overwriting the output from other projects.

[samjones6]

It is not bad design,

You are welcome to that opinion.

From my perspective, I am a super-power-user of development tools and help authoring tools. And I could not get Flare to "do what I told it" until I came here and asked for help.

If that qualifies as "good design" in your book, be my guest!

In my book, it qualifies as "PITA"

[RamonS]

All I wrote is that it is "not bad design" and it clearly isn't. Sometimes features are designed in a way that solve a problem for a broad number of people, so for some the one solution may not be the absolutely perfect solution. In this case it may also be a misunderstanding as to what the output folder is intended to be used for and what the publishing feature does. Taking both together Flare will do exactly what you ask for.