Directing users to a newer version of help

[amykk]

We keep old versions of help on our web server for customers who are using old versions of our products. I'm trying to figure out a way to get users to the help for the current product version when they access an old version of the help. In other words, I want to offer them the choice to go to the current version when they're viewing an old version. I don't want to automatically redirect them in case they're intentionally looking at the old version.

Any advice on how to handle/do this? I'm also looking for examples if you have some to share.

[doc_guy]

Insert a paragraph into the top of the master page of the old help system that says something like:

Note: You are visiting an older version of the help for our application. The newest version (version number X) of the documentation can be found at URL (link).

Then re-publish the old help system.

It's not a Flare example, but ServiceNow did this recently here.

Here is a screen shot of what they did:

[Paulie]

Hi there,

At my previous company we had a system where the latest version was stored in a variable in a javascript file on the server at a relative path that was valid for all of the help systems. Each help system topic also had a variable inserted via the master page that contained the version number for that topic, and a hidden "this is an outdated version of the documentation" div tag.

When the topic loaded, if the two version numbers were different, the div tag was made visible. If the two version numbers were the same, the div remained hidden.