Editing .flali outside of Flare to add batch of identifiers?

[phriend_o_phlair]

I'm contemplating something here. I don't know if it will work or perhaps break my project. To help avoid the laborious process of clicking about in the alias editor to assign topic bookmarks to CSH IDS, could I possibly edit the .flali file to accomplish the same? I have some expert script writers here. Perhaps I could extract all the anchors per topic, and then fold these into the .flali file according to the pattern used in the .flali? Then open in Flare? Thoughts?

Also, what are the risks of editing the .flali outside of Flare?

[rob hollinger]

This would not be a problem provided the scripts build the alias file correctly.

Code: Select all

<CatapultAliasFile>
    <Map Name="ID_NAME_TWO" Link="/Content/Index.htm" />
    <Map Name="IS_NAME_BOOKMARK" Link="/Content/Products/Product A/Article1.htm#one" />
</CatapultAliasFile>

If done correctly and the header file is linked correctly to the alias file, you should not have any problems.
The worst thing that could happen is that you need to rebuild the Alias file. Please make sure the scripts do not alter any content in topics and always back-up the project prior to allowing any script to run on an entire project.

Header File is what the application connects with - It contains the ID and the Number - Generally applications will call either one and the scripts use this information to call the Alias file.
The Alias file is what connects the ID to the topic/bookmark

[phriend_o_phlair]

OK, great. Thanks Rob! If we do this, I'll share as much as I can and let ya'll know how it goes.

[wclass]

We often edit the .flali outside Flare without problems. The usual caveats apply - make sure you back up etc.
For new projects we use Excel to generate our IDs - get a list of the topics into Excel (export from the File List) and put the links and IDs into columns. Then we add the xml tags using find/replace, and like magic, we have generated the alias file text.

[MaryseCoutureSh]

I have to create hundreds of CSH IDs from concept IDs and I would like to know if the script worked for you.

If yes, do you accept to share the script with me?

Thanks,