Deep Linking to Flare Topics

[Physicsman]

Greetings!

I’m replacing a developer documentation system with Flare. Our development team is global and located in offices around the world. Hence, very often a user needs to send a link to a particular topic within Flare to other users.

Using Flare, the browser bar address for any topic is always shown as:

Code: Select all

http://<Web Address>/Docs/Default.htm

So they right click the topic link in the Table of Contents and select Copy Link Location. This provides the correct URL for the topic page, for example:

Code: Select all

http://<Web Address>/Docs/<Sub-Directory>/TopicABC.htm

The URL is then pasted into an email. However, when the recipient clicks the link it opens only the help topic but without the frames, navigation, TOC or the rest of the Flare help system.

In the old documentation system, each topic page displays its address correctly in the browser bar, for example:

Code: Select all

 http://<Web Address>/Docs/<Sub-Directory>/#TopicABC.htm
http://<Web Address>/Docs/<Sub-Directory>/#TopicXYZ.htm

When using these links, the entire documentation system is loaded together with the topic, so TOC, navigations etc. can be used.

Q1) Is there a way to correctly deep link to the correct topic URL and have it opened within the Flare help with Frames, navigation, TOC etc.?
Q2) If not, is there any other way to achieve the desired end result?
Q2) If the answer is no to questions 1-2, can a correctly functioning Deep Linking feature be added to Flare for the next update?

Many thanks!

[RamonS]

You could try HTML5 help. There the topic URL shows in the title bar. I am not entirely sure, but are rather confident that submitting that URL to a browser will load the rest as well.

[LindaW]

What we do now - until we start publishing to HTML5 - is send two links - one for the topic, which opens without navigation, and a second link for the WebHelp that will open with navigation - not a perfect solution, but that's how we work around it for now.

[crdmerge]

See http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... ipt#p78574 for the method we use on a master page.

Good luck,
Leon

[Physicsman]

Ramon, Linda & Leon (crdmerge),

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I'm going to look into all three and then decide with the team(s) which one we'll go with. Appreciate your help a lot!

[NorthEast]

To answer Q1, yes you can use a CSH link to link to the topic and open the WebHelp frameset.

For example, here's a CSH link to a topic in Flare's online WebHelp:

http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare7/Default_CSH.htm#CSH/WebHelp_CSH_Calls/CSH_Calls_WH_WHP_Developers.htm

The topic above also provides information on how to make a CSH link to a topic. The above example link is using the 'URL' method to link to the topic by its filename.

Also, this topic describes how you could create a toolbar button that generates a link that you can copy/paste.
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 329#p64056