I don't want Output folder

[MCPBecker]

Here's the deal. We publish our HTML5 help on an Amazon server. I have mapped the server "buckets" to a drive letter using a third-party product. So far, so good.

I have tried building my project and then using Flare's Publish function to publish it to the server drive. This works, but the permissions are not set correctly for public read.
If I Build my project directly to the server drive, it works great. Everything is set correctly EXCEPT, the build process makes the damned "output" folder. Why does Flare insist on this? Isn't there any way that I can publish directly to the mapped drive without the output folder? Our project is pretty big, so publishing takes about an hour. Then going back and changing the ACL takes another hour.

Any ideas?

[RamonS]

The only folder you can turn off from within Flare is the "Content" folder. That setting is in the target properties on the Advanced tab, but I doubt that will help you.
The only idea I have is to build and publish locally, once done run a batch or PowerShell script that does the copying for you and sets the proper permissions as needed. OR...build directly to the mapped drive and then run a batch script that first moves all the files from within the output folder to one level above (same folder where the output folder is in), then delete the output folder. Moving is quick and it should retain the permissions. I also wonder why building to AWS works because the permissions set should be those for your local account...but if it works, it works. You may also want to look into the options of that third party tool, maybe you can set the permissions when files are written to the mapped drive. Also, you may want to check the settings of the web server on the AWS instance, maybe you can tweak them to accept the other permissions as well.
As far as the output folder goes, that is Flare's folder and was never intended to be consumed as the final output. That is what publish is for. I haven't run into any issues wit published output on either IIS or Apache, once the files are written to the designated location they just work....maybe I just have been lucky.

[Lydia]

So, if you build on the server, and this works, have you tried to publish afterwards on the server? Maybe I get this wrong but it sounds like:
A) Build locally, publish on server -> access/permission problems
B) Build on server -> files are accessible

So for situation B I would try to publish on the server after it was build there. But maybe you have done this already, I'm not sure.

[kwag_myers]

I've actually have to do what RamonS suggests and copy then delete folder contents. I use a Visual Basic Script ('cause that's all I know):

Code: Select all

'Var Declaration
Dim srcFolder, objFolder, objFSO

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")	

If objFSO.FolderExists("C:\Users\kwag.myers\Documents\Test\Output\WebHelp") then
	objFSO.CopyFolder "C:\Users\kwag.myers\Documents\Test\Output\WebHelp", "C:\Users\kwag.myers\Documents\Test\WebHelp"
	objFSO.DeleteFolder "C:\Users\kwag.myers\Documents\Test\Output"
End If

'Display message box when done
MsgBox "Ta Da! \0/" & strMsg, vbInformation, "Done!"

WScript.Quit  

If you're not familiar with VBS or BAT files (as RamonS suggests), you can copy my code into a NotePad file and save it with either a .vbs or .bat file extension. Then double-click to run it.

[MCPBecker]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm just on the edge of understanding this stuff. I will test these options with my sample project today.

[canoerqueen]

I am a real noob to the Cloud.

I have created an S3 bucket to hold my Flare help, and I haven't published to it yet, I just dragged and dropped my files into it. I am sure all kinds of things will be coming up for me.

Here are my immediate questions:

1. As I set up the properties for my S3, I am looking for an index.htm, all I see is an index.js. The properties dialog for the S3 bucket allowed me to use this and happily saved. Is that going to work?

2. Can I use this S3 bucket for CSH? In thinking this all the way through, I think so, it's like any other publicly available website. This is only just a small part of my workload, so I am keen to get your thoughts and best practices before I go down a rabbit hole.

3. Can I store resource files alongside my project in the one S3 bucket or do they need to be external? Just thinking videos?

Thanks for any help!

[canoerqueen]

One more thing,

How do users in the Cloud deal with versioning issues with the product if help is publicly available? I have one product that will always have the latest help, no versioning necessary and I have other products that the help must always be version specific. Just wondering how that plays out in the google universe.

Thank you so much! Linda