Store Templates in "My Documents", you kidding?

[mswlogo]

This is extract of setting up templates:

In Windows Explorer, find and copy the entire project folder that you created.

example

Let's say you have created a Flare project and stored it here: My Documents\My Projects\TheBigProject. In this case, you would copy the folder called "TheBigProject." This folder contains all of the files contained in your project.

In your "My Documents" folder, create a subfolder and name it My Templates (if it does not already exist).

This subfolder will be used to hold all of the different templates that you create in Flare, as well as templates for other MadCap Software applications.

Note: In Vista, the folder is called "Documents" instead of "My Documents."

So many tools today just don't get enterprise development.

I want templates stored in Source Control (svn in my case) !!! Not in "My Documents" so a project (or projects for that matter) can use the SAME consistent Templates through out.

There might be ways I can trick the software to using templates from the project folder itself or I just have not found it yet.

But all I see out of the box is "My Templates" (i.e. stored in "My Documents") and factory MadCap Templates. Unbelievable.

Apologize if I'm just stupid and don't see how to do it just yet.

[joanTravis]

Did you get an answer? I'm dealing with the same issue?

[RamonS]

Yea, I noticed and reported that some time ago. It just doesn't jive to have everything done through GUI except for managing templates. And the My Documents folder is dumb beyond repair, but nobody gets fired for doing it the Microsoft way.

[GregStenhouse]

Agree with these sentiments, the current state of templates is inadequate. It just doesn't work to get multiple Flare users across a company to manually copy the latest template project or template files to their "My Documents" folder. And if projects are already set up there is no easy way to update files in that project with the latest template files.

There are 2 workarounds I've thought about but haven't actually implemented yet:
1. Get everytone to move their "My Documents" to a network location. (Right Click My Documents, Properties, Move...). I guess that could be the same folder for everyone? And, or:
2. Use Global Project Linking to copy across certain updated important files (e.g. stylesheets, skins and masterpages) for all projects. To do that you set up a "Project" import file that pulls across the latest of those file in all projects, either automatically before build (dangerous I wouldv'e thought), or as a manual step.

A couple of thoughts, probably not ideal unfortunately.

Cheers
Greg

[Andrew]

Yea, I noticed and reported that some time ago. It just doesn't jive to have everything done through GUI except for managing templates. And the My Documents folder is dumb beyond repair, but nobody gets fired for doing it the Microsoft way.

I agree that My Documents (aka Documents in Vista) is not the right place for the templates. In any team environment, where templates are extremely useful, confining them to everyone's personal areas is really annoying, because it's hard to keep them all in synch.

[NorthEast]

I have to distribute changes to our templates, and the process is clumsy to say the least.

The idea of using project linking in a template is good for keeping files in a project up-to-date, things like stylesheets and skins. It needs to be managed with care though.
Project linking will keep files up-to-date, but of of course you would still have the problem of keeping any changes to the project template itself up-to-date on everyone's PC. For example, if you add/remove/rename a file in your project template, that still needs to be manually propagated.

Another problem I find with the template structure is that topic templates can't be linked to project templates. I set up several topic types to be used with a specific project template (e.g. a procedure topic, a FAQ topic, etc), and these use styles specific to that project template.
As the topic templates are all stored in the same folder, when I create a new topic in a project I can see all my topic templates. I find this a problem because only some of these topics will be for use with my current project template, the others are for use with different project templates (and will use different styles, stylesheet links, etc).

[joanTravis]

Thanks for the suggested work-arounds.

FYI, I did get an official response from Tech Support:

Thank you for contacting MadCap Technical Support.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to set a custom 'My Templates' directory. I've submitted a feature request to the developers regarding this issue. In the future, please reference this request with the number 28955. Please let me know if you have any other questions regarding this topic.


Thank you,

Ryan Cerniglia
Technical Support Representative
Certified MadCap Advanced Developer for Flare v4

MadCap Software, Inc.
Technical Support Center
http://www.madcapsoftware.com

[doc_guy]

Store Templates in "My Documents", you kidding?

If it's a joke, it's not very funny...

[GregStenhouse]

I guess you could always distribute new templates or template changes via a batch file. Create a new text file, give it a .bat extension, with the text inside something like:

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF
ECHO Updating template files...
XCOPY "xyz" "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Templates" /y
PAUSE

where xyz is the location of your "master" template file(s) on the network

Send the batch file to everyone and get them to run it.

(Note: you can also run batch files directly from Flare, here's the approach I've found works best:

1. Copy the batch file to the Project\Advanced folder
2. Create a shortcut to the batch file, located anywhere in the Content folder. (Note: this shortcut is kind of a workaround, as I haven't found a way to run batch files directly from Flare) (note also: if building an online target, you might want to give the batch file a condition so it is not compiled into your build
3. From Flare, locate the batch file shortcut in the Content Explorer, and double click it. Flare will ask if you want to use the Windows default program, click Yes

[ChrisN33]

I agree that template implementation in Flare is subpar, to be polite about it (why not let users pick the folder so they can use a network drive?).

My problem is that my company uses Windows XP Professional 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236 : Service Pack 3), which does not have a My Documents folder, so I created one: C:\Data\My Documents\My Templates\TableStyles (Data is the only folder that gets a nightly back-up).

The problem is Flare can't "see" it. Example: On the Select Table Style Template screen, Flare says about My Templates "[Selected folder is empty]."

I moved My Documents to C:\Data\[username]\My Documents\My Templates\TableStyles, but it's still invisible to Flare.

Can someone from MadCap at least tell us the exact path for the My Templates folder that Flare requires? This way we could at least use templates, even if we can't share them.

[RamonS]

That cannot be just any ol' My Documents folder, but must be this one:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents

Years ago applications would have crafted a folder in the application folder in the Program Files folder, but most security models do not allow for just any user to write the Program Files folder (something that even Microsoft software trips over, like MSSQL Server being unable to write to a database table unless the user has write rights to the Data folder - talk about d'oh!). That's why the My Documents or My Whateverlongnamewecanthrowintothemixtocomeascloseaspossibletothe255charactersfilepathlengthmaximum is the folder to stuff these things in. Storing it anywhere else requires that rights are checked and applicable feedback is given. That's all in the name of security where Microsoft's approach is to switch off features rather than to enhance security. I guess that is what comes from rolling with mediocre operating systems.

The Flare help does hint to the correct folder structure in this topic: http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... plates.htm
The one thing missing is the drive letter, which I can understand, because Windows is not always installed on C:. I have several systems where the folder would be on D: or E: as that is the system drive.

Obviously, the best solution would be to tell Flare where the templates are to be stored and then have a "Make this a template" function that copies the current item into exactly that folder. I recommend dropping a few notes here:
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[KevinDAmery]

My problem is that my company uses Windows XP Professional 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236 : Service Pack 3), which does not have a My Documents folder,

Normally it should (mine does, although I don't use it for much). It's possible that may have hidden it through a security policy, although I'm not sure why they would bother. But as RamonS says, it's buried deep in the Documents and Settings folder, so trying to find it through Windows Explorer is a headache.

And yes, Madcap certainly should let us define what folder to use for templates rather than piggybacking on such a user unfriendly setup as the one in Windows.