Flare HTML5 with SharePoint 2013?

[TheControlVoice]

I am building some applications that will run inside SharePoint. I want to create my user documentation using Flare but I’m not sure what the best way to embed the help is. I don’t want to place it on an open server to the public. i.e. I only want it accessible from inside SharePoint if the user logged in has permissions. Has anyone done something like this before?

[doc_guy]

I would map a local drive on my computer to the SharePoint folder inside the SharePoint site where the content should live. Then publish to that local drive, which will store the files in the correct SharePoint site. Since the files are stored in SharePoint, only people who have permissions to read content in that SharePoint site will be able to see the files there. They will publish/be accessible from that drive just like any other web server, but because they are part of a Site, they have all the permissions issues addressed through the SharePoint site security.

Does that make sense?

[Matt Collins]

I use this same approach for our team.

I learned something from a fellow attendee at MadWorld: If you connect Flare to your SharePoint (using Flare's SharePoint Explorer) you can also have Flare publish directly to your SharePoint.

To do this, create a destination for the SharePoint folder, set the destination type to File System, and point it at the SharePoint folder/library you want to publish to.

[Lydia]

Paul, Matt,
I was under the impression that one cannot open htm/html files from Sharepoint, unless this security measure is lifted by the admin. Which s/he might not be willing to do.
What is your experience? (Not with the sys admin, but rather with opening htm files on Sharepoint

[Matt Collins]

You absolutely must be granted access to the files in SharePoint to do anything with them in Flare through the SharePoint Explorer. For example, if you have read only access, you'll only be able to copy content from the SharePoint files &;or use them as an import source and will not be able to publish to SharePoint; but if you have full access you can copy, edit, delete, import from, save to, and publish to SharePoint.

Sorry, I should have made that clear in my last post.

[doc_guy]

What Matt said. Your permissions to the SharePoint site determine if you can do anything in that site. However, if you have read/write permissions for a site, then you can publish Flare content to that site, and you can click on a link to the HTML page on the site, and it will look like the file is being shown on a normal web server (It won't have SharePoint's "look").

Does that make sense?

[Lydia]

Matt, Paul,
thank you for your updates.
I do have permission to read/write/delete files. It's actually my personal site where I'm testing this. I've created the site and library and put the files there. I can delete or rename them, or download files.
The real problem is a general Sharepoint restriction, that won't allow anyone to open html files. If you click an html type file, it will (ask you to) download the file and on the local drive you can open it. Restricting opening an html file is one of the standard restrictions set in Sharepoint servers, if I understand this correctly. There are many posts out there on this topic. You can force the files to open by changing the html extension to aspx. But that is not really a workable solution when publishing webhelp. Or you can try to convince the admin to change that restriction.
So, if you have no probs in opening the htm files inside the Sharepoint, possibly you don't have the restrictions in place anymore.

[Matt Collins]

I have not run into this issue, but I believe that is because our SharePoint administrators removed that restriction on our servers. I'm afraid I can't help beyond saying that.

I will say that without that restriction, you can publish HTML5 output to a doc library and point links to the Default.htm file, from there your output will pretty much work like an HTML5 output published to a web server.

As an added bonus, since your content is housed on the SharePoint server, it is also searchable through SharePoint's native search function.

Note: I recommend using a TopNav/Frameless HTML5 skin when publishing to SharePoint. The SharePoint search results will point straight to the topic file, and if you do that with a tripane output, the skin is not delivered with the topic from the SP search results link, however this is not an issue with the amazing new/old school frameless skin.

[doc_guy]

I also have not run into this issue. The company I worked for that used SharePoint must have removed this restriction.

Have you tried editing the target for your HTML5 output and specifying a custom file extension? You could switch it from .htm to .aspx. I don't know how that would affect the viewing output, but you could certainly try it and see what happens.

[Lydia]

Paul, thanks for pointing out the alternative extension. I didn't think of that one. I had changed the extension manually for the default file, just for testing. So, yes with the aspx extension it looks like I can open the files. I have now some publishing issues, but that's a different story and not part of this discussion. Thanks again, Lydia.

[marcelg]

I have got the same issue, I can see all files from the SharePoint explorer but I don't have the option to open the files (same goes with the external reference explorer). Within Sharpoint I can op, edit or delete the files so I think I have the right acces rights ... Anyone knows how to solve this?

[beej13]

I built my HTML5 output using the .aspx extension and copied it to SharePont (copied, not published directly). Sometimes when I click the link to the default.aspx, everything opens fine. Sometimes I just get a blank page. The address line shows it's going to the correct file, but the file is not opening. This happens on several other users' computers too, and even when I get a blank page, they can sometimes open the file. Any ideas what might be happening?

I really want to use an HTML5 TopNav file as a stand-alone help for one of our major processes, but SharePoint is the go-to system for everyone. If I can't get this to launch correctly, I'm stuck. (I have requested that the security level be changed, but that has to go thru a lot of layers of approval and there is a chance it will not be approved. I'm looking for a viable work around.)

[mamarachel]

I'm getting a 404 Error with Top Nav Output in SharePoint 2007. Here's what I did:

I placed the output from the default top nav basic project created with Flare 11 in a SharePoint 2007 folder. When I click on default.htm, the home page displays with no problems. However, when I click on any of the links, the page briefly flashes (I can see it for a split second) and then a "The web page cannot be found HTTP 404 error occurs."

Could anyone shed light on this? Is this related to how the SharePoint site is set up? If so, what do I need to ask SharePoint administrators to change?

Thanks, Andi

[Nita Beck]

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, one cannot open .html/.htm files directly from SharePoint, at least not by default.

I personally don't have an answer for you, but this topic from the Flare 12 documentation might offer the guidance you and your SharePoint admins need: http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... ration.htm, especially the last section called "Viewing output files/adjusting browser handling".