MadCap Software Forums

This may be naive, but I can't connect to the SharePoint server. The same URL that works with all browser types doesn't work with Flare's SharePoint Explorer (Flare 12). The message returned is "Unable to connect to" and then the URL. We are looking at using SharePoint to handle checkout/check-in of files, but testing has stalled at this elementary step. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Ed Mertz wrote:We are looking at using SharePoint to handle checkout/check-in of files, but testing has stalled at this elementary step. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Hi Ed. Welcome to the forums!

If you are intending to use SharePoint for version/source control of Flare projects, the way one might use Git or SVN, to the best of my knowledge, you can't use SharePoint for that purpose. I once inquired with MadCap Tech Support about using SharePoint for version/source control of Flare projects and was told it was not possible. To quote tech support, "...although Flare is somewhat integrated with SharePoint, ... SharePoint is not a substitute for source control."

If I've misunderstood what you're attempting, sorry.

Thanks, Nita. The Flare documentation (SharePoint Guide) says the feature is supported; there's a procedure in the doc for doing it. Doesn't matter though. IT tells me our version of SharePoint (don't know what that is) doesn't support the SharePoint Explorer connection required. Nothing is easy!

I think one can *publish* to SharePoint, but not use SharePoint as a source control repository. But I could be wrong...

Would you please provide a link to the Flare documentation coverage that you referred to?

EDIT: Yeah, I'm probably at least partially wrong. You might want to check with tech support. The way I read the Flare documentation, MadCap isn't expecting authors to use SharePoint for robust source control, but the documentation definitely talks about checking files out/in.

Here it is, Nita (I think). htt[img][img][/img][/img]p://docs.madca ... tGuide.pdf

Relevant discussion starts on page 13.

I'm going to have to beg off on commenting any further given that I don't use SharePoint this way and that I don't want to take you (further?) down the proverbial garden path.

Were I you, my next step would be talking to tech support to sort out why you cannot connect to the server.

I can confirm that you can use SharePoint to store your source files, but it's not as good as it could be. I'm not sure why you got an error, so that one you'd have to take to MadCap Support. If you're using SharePoint 2013, then double-check that you're using the "clean" URL -- SP will throw a bunch of crap into the URL sometimes, so you can't necessarily copy-and-paste from the browser into Flare. In other words, I don't think you want the part of the URL that says "_layouts/15/start.aspx#/". For example, when I go to the library where I'm storing my files, SharePoint shows the URL as http://myserver/mysubsite/_layouts/15/s ... Items.aspx. The clean version of that URL is http://myserver/mysubsite/mylibraryname. That clean version is what I put into Flare, and it was able to connect ok. (And, of course, make sure you have rights to the library in SharePoint.)

I can't connect to the SharePoint server also. what to do?

Whether SharePoint integration works or not is dependent on the version of SharePoint you are using. We have SharePoint 365 and GIT I use GIT for our main product help but it would be useful to have the SharePoint Integration for non mainstream work.

My understanding is that SharePoint 2007, 2010, and 2013 are currently supported, SharePoint 365 is not currently supported.

A feature request has been submitted for SharePoint 365 to be supported. I cannot wait.

This information was provided to me by MadCap Support.

Attempting to publish to SharePoint as well. Just learned from Flare support that, at the moment, not able to publish from Flare to a cloud-based instance of SharePoint, only an on-prem instance. Don't know if that is what you were trying to do.

Hi,
I just have one question, not about publishing, rather just importing. Can we directly import a Word file to MadCap with the saving location to be on SharePoint?
When I go for importing, I don't get the SharePoint folder option in the Save to Window. (However, I can easily import to other drives). So I am still confused if I can make my SharePoint as the source location for my files, or I need to do a local import and then copy-paste the project to SharePoint?
Please respond. Thanks.