Tracking Help Use

[Nina Esile]

I am wondering what companies use to keep track of help usage, allow for user feedback, track hits to topics, and the like. I've read on this forum that Pulse is not a priority for MadCap, so I don't want to get involved into another time-intensive project that doesn't yield results.

Looking for your suggestions.

[roboHAL]

I had (past tense) used Pulse for a year or so but eventually abandoned it because their internal reports began to inaccurately capture data. No idea if it was ever fixed. What our development team and I decided - and are now using on a limited basis - is that we add a parameter to external links (not the topic htm files but I suppose that too could be done) that allow us to know if a link is accessed from within the HTML5 output or not. Some users are provided small segments of documentation to do "homework" on our products before they are given user ids. Without logging into to the product they cannot access the help files. So certain pages in online help contain "OLH=1&" as part of the URL and when that URL is accessed we record it as knowing the call was made from within online help. When we provide the same links to individuals who do not have product access we give them the link URL minus the OLH=1&. I understand this is not completely fool-proof because if someone knows the OLH=1& it can be manually inserted.

[RamonS]

As far as usage, you can instrument the help with Google Analytics. Won't get you feedback or any other features.

[ChoccieMuffin]

For feedback, we have a linky thingy at the bottom of our masterpages that opens an email:

<script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/document.write("<a href='mailto:EMAILADDRESS?subject=Customer%20Feedback%20("+document.title+")%20&body=Topic%20Reference%20(COMPANY%20use%20only):%20"+location.href+"%0A%0APlease%20enter%20your%20comments%20below:%0A%0A'>FEEDBACK</a>");/*]]>*/</script>

Don't know if that sort of thing will help.

[Nina Esile]

As far as usage, you can instrument the help with Google Analytics. Won't get you feedback or any other features.

We use GA now. I am looking for something more interactive. Thanks for your suggestion, Ramon!

[Nina Esile]

For feedback, we have a linky thingy at the bottom of our masterpages that opens an email:

<script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/document.write("<a href='mailto:EMAILADDRESS?subject=Customer%20Feedback%20("+document.title+")%20&body=Topic%20Reference%20(COMPANY%20use%20only):%20"+location.href+"%0A%0APlease%20enter%20your%20comments%20below:%0A%0A'>FEEDBACK</a>");/*]]>*/</script>

Don't know if that sort of thing will help.

Hi Choice Muffin,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to see if this will work for us. I like it at first glance.

Nina

[roboHAL]

Nina, the email feedback does work. I too use it.

This is a MadCap knowledgebase tips and trick article: http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/Mi ... icName.htm

I believe the CDATA portion does not belong in the script. Also, while it does include the topic title, I'm going by memory but I think the script only captures that portion of the string which is continuous (i.e. no spaces). So a title like "testing 123" returns "testing".

[Nina Esile]

Nina, the email feedback does work. I too use it.

This is a MadCap knowledgebase tips and trick article: http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/Mi ... icName.htm

I believe the CDATA portion does not belong in the script. Also, while it does include the topic title, I'm going by memory but I think the script only captures that portion of the string which is continuous (i.e. no spaces). So a title like "testing 123" returns "testing".

roboHAL: Wondering if you have a sample page I can look at or if you don't mind sending a screen shot? I'm interested in making this work for us.

[Nina Esile]

As far as usage, you can instrument the help with Google Analytics. Won't get you feedback or any other features.

We use GA now. I am looking for something more interactive. Thanks for your suggestion, Ramon!

Ramon:

Also wondering, do you have build problems with the GA code? I placed it in the <head> section of all of my pages. Didn't use the Insert Script command or a Master Page. I simply did it by hand. Then when I compile the project I have two problems:

1. Flare auto-inserts CDATA tags.

2. A script that I have entered in the text editor by hand, is wrong after compile. In other words, in my text, I see this URL: '//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js' (Just a part of the script). But then after compile, I see this URL in its place: 'http://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js'. The whole story is that the latter is the URL we used to use but I've edited it. Strangest thing is that after compile, that's what I see instead of the edited code. Above the head section, this comment is also inserted: <!-- saved from url=(0016)http://localhost -->.

I've opened a case with support to see if they can shed some light. Just wondering if you've seen this behavior before.

Many thanks!

Nina

[roboHAL]

Okay Nina. I've uploaded three photos. One is the xml editor, another the text editor and the resulting sample topic. I include this script in the master page so it is available in all topics. I've edited the email address so as to provide some level of privacy, etc. but certainly you can get the idea. Also, I note the CDATA has been auto inserted by Flare.

[Nina Esile]

Okay Nina. I've uploaded three photos. One is the xml editor, another the text editor and the resulting sample topic. I include this script in the master page so it is available in all topics. I've edited the email address so as to provide some level of privacy, etc. but certainly you can get the idea. Also, I note the CDATA has been auto inserted by Flare.

Thank you roboHAL,

I am looking forward to trying this out.

Another question, if you don't mind indulging me: I don't understand CDATA. Flare is inserting this in one of my scripts that I added by hand and I don't know if I need it or don't need it. I know we're having a little trouble with that script being recognized by Google Analytics, but not sure if the presence of the CDATA tag is what's messing things up.

I've looked up explanations of CDATA online and I don't think it's sinking into my brain.

Thanks again,

Nina

[roboHAL]

You're welcome Nina. This article explains CDATA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDATA

I suggest you try removing it and see how the email feedback and google analytics works both wit and without it. Sometimes a little experimentation in a particular use case can go a long way.

[Nina Esile]

You're welcome Nina. This article explains CDATA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDATA

I suggest you try removing it and see how the email feedback and google analytics works both wit and without it. Sometimes a little experimentation in a particular use case can go a long way.

Thank you roboHAL. I read that explanation even before I asked you. I think I'll try and Explain CDATA myself, in plain old English. That usually helps me to understand things a little better.

Again, thank you for all your time today. I've got a little homework to do!

[devjoe]

CDATA in a nutshell

CDATA is a way of marking a segment of an HTML or XML document to indicate that all of the text within it should be interpreted literally; < and > characters do not create tags even when not escaped.

CDATA is used with Javascript because Javascript uses < and > signs as comparison operators. The entire script is wrapped in a CDATA tag so that HTML processing doesn't take any < characters as the start of a tag and get confused parsing the page.

However, since the CDATA has to be inside the script tag, Javascript is going to see it and it will mess up the program. To hide the CDATA tag from being processed by the Javascript interpreter, the opening and closing of the CDATA tag are marked off by Javascript comment characters. Those characters are just normal characters to the HTML parser, which interprets the CDATA as it otherwise would. So this is a slick way of making the page work for both Javascript and HTML.

[Nina Esile]

@devjoe:

Thanks so much for the explanation. I needed that extra info about how JavaScript interprets the characters. That helped a great deal.

Thanks to everyone who helped on this thread.