Multiple "Books" - One Project Or Multiple Projects?

[jbarwick]

I have many "books" consisting of 1 project with about 80 to 100 targets for each PDF and each page size (A4 vs Letter vs "book" size) and and 1 target for "Web Production" and 1 target for "Web Staging" each with conditional flags dictating content per target.

The books have "shared content". Sort of like snippets, but a little more complicated.

Flare v3 can have multiple projects, but cannot share content among the projects (as was my understanding after questions were posed to support)

I understand now that Flare v4 (I just installed today) can have multiple "project files" each sharing directories for page content (per one of my email with support) and maybe...just maybe...projects can share snippets as well.

Now the question:

Is it better to have one project with hundreds of targets, or multiple projects for each book and then a master project "linking and merging projects?"

Any insights that anyone can offer?

[RamonS]

I think that depends on what the experiences are....and given that Flare 4 was released yesterday I think it would need some time until several people tried it out and are able to provide some first hand experiences.

[jbarwick]

Or...was I mistaken about the shared content thing?

Or...is support talking about Version Control System to share content?

Still doesn't support subversion or CVS, so, pretty useless (I've tried the "plug-in" that support referred to...I even purchases a 5 seat license...but it doesn't work well, and kills system resources...oh, well...another topic).

[jbarwick]

Any experiences (good or bad) benefits/drawbacks using multiple projects with v3 and master project/merge.

I've never tried it before, I'm afraid of the "Master TOC Creation" and my project is too big to convert unless it's really deemed to be the right way to do it.

I'm still bummed by the fact that you can't put a "topic file" on a "TOC link" from a master TOC. And bummed that they didn't put in my recommendation of a "topic file" associated with a TOC link in the TOC entry properties dialog....Therefore, clicking on a TOC link from the master TOC still doesn't allow you to create a "cover page" for the linked TOC. (confused yet)?

Therefore, even in flare v4, it seems as though I'll still be maintaining two copies of the same TOC (one copy is a subtree of the master TOC) and not use TOC links.

This inability to control topic displays on TOC links has me afraid of Project Merges.

Anyone have any experience with Project Merge in a Master Project? (i.e. the "Select Flare Project and Target for Merging" option on a TOC entry in the Master Project?

[NorthEast]

I understand now that Flare v4 (I just installed today) can have multiple "project files" each sharing directories for page content (per one of my email with support) and maybe...just maybe...projects can share snippets as well.

Try it out!
You just import the project. In the import settings you tell it what files in the project that you want to import, which you can do by using a filter (e.g. include all your topics, images, and stylesheets; and exclude the skin and targets), and you can also select individual files to include/exclude. So, yes, you can resuse snippets or anything in your project.

I'm still bummed by the fact that you can't put a "topic file" on a "TOC link" from a master TOC. And bummed that they didn't put in my recommendation of a "topic file" associated with a TOC link in the TOC entry properties dialog....Therefore, clicking on a TOC link from the master TOC still doesn't allow you to create a "cover page" for the linked TOC. (confused yet)?

I totally agree, whilst you now do this in v4 for linked (merged) projects in the TOC, you still can't set a topic for a linked TOC.
I use multiple TOCs linked to a master TOC in my project, and having these top-level books unlinked to a topic makes the help navigation and breadcrumbs look inconsistent.

Anyone have any experience with Project Merge in a Master Project? (i.e. the "Select Flare Project and Target for Merging" option on a TOC entry in the Master Project?

Yep, I started off with 12 projects (converted from another tool), and I investigated the project merge route. I chose not to use it because it was quite difficult and tedious to add hyperlinks between topics in the different projects (see http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?t=5792).

I ended up combining the 12 projects into one big project, which for me was a much more workable solution. We apply a condition tag to each of the 12 sections of the help, so we can easily build individual or multiple sections of the help as required. We also use source control, so the team of 5 that work on it can all do so at the same time.

I think merging works fine if the content in each of your projects is quite separate, without much overlap. If your projects have a lot of shared content or you need a lot of links between the projects, then I'd suggest using one large project and build multiple targets.

[Andrew]

I'm still bummed by the fact that you can't put a "topic file" on a "TOC link" from a master TOC. And bummed that they didn't put in my recommendation of a "topic file" associated with a TOC link in the TOC entry properties dialog....Therefore, clicking on a TOC link from the master TOC still doesn't allow you to create a "cover page" for the linked TOC. (confused yet)?

I totally agree, whilst you now do this in v4 for linked (merged) projects in the TOC, you still can't set a topic for a linked TOC.
I use multiple TOCs linked to a master TOC in my project, and having these top-level books unlinked to a topic makes the help navigation and breadcrumbs look inconsistent.

Just put the book you want to have linked in the child project, and not the master, and have the child TOC entirely replace the parent (a new setting the TOC properties of the master project TOC).

[NorthEast]

I'm still bummed by the fact that you can't put a "topic file" on a "TOC link" from a master TOC. And bummed that they didn't put in my recommendation of a "topic file" associated with a TOC link in the TOC entry properties dialog....Therefore, clicking on a TOC link from the master TOC still doesn't allow you to create a "cover page" for the linked TOC. (confused yet)?

I totally agree, whilst you now do this in v4 for linked (merged) projects in the TOC, you still can't set a topic for a linked TOC.
I use multiple TOCs linked to a master TOC in my project, and having these top-level books unlinked to a topic makes the help navigation and breadcrumbs look inconsistent.

Just put the book you want to have linked in the child project, and not the master, and have the child TOC entirely replace the parent (a new setting the TOC properties of the master project TOC).

Nope, the When merging, replace node with merged TOC option only applies to links to merged projects in your TOC, not links to other TOCs in your TOC.

I only have one project. It has a master TOC which has links to 12 other TOC files in the same project.
Each link to a TOC appears as a book and these cannot be linked to a topic, or be replaced with a topic from the linked TOC.

[Andrew]

Whoops, I need to read more carefully! Sorry about that.