Automatic merging of map files in RoboHelp?

[Hope this isn't a double post; my first attempt ended in
network error and forum doesn't seem to have that post]
My group is charged with developing a help system using
RoboHelp 7. Output type will be WebHelp. The interface between
context-sensitive Help system and the target application will be a
single project's output and a single map file. The plan for help
development is to divide the work up into multiple layers of
projects. The final output will be the result of multiple project
merges from the bottom layer up.
RH7 enables this methodology with the WebHelp merge
module...except that it doesn't automatically merge sub projects'
map ID files (individual BSSCDefaults.h) into the master project's
map ID file BSSCDefaults.h. I can use a different name for the sub
projects' map files and import them into the master project, but
this still does not result in the master's map file being modified.
The map IDs remain dispersed across the multiple map files within
the master project.
Is there a way to get an automatic concatenation of map ID
files?

Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping that the answer would
be other than that it's a manual procedure outside of RH7, but
that's the conclusion given my previous [admittedly brief]
searching within this site and thinking more about the RH paradigm
(as explained in the Grainge article as well as the other Adobe
articles).
For now, I'm going to have the team use the following process
while we're shaking out our development methodology:
- each author follows the established naming convention for
Topic IDs and use his/her assigned map number range when creating
map IDs which should guarantee that the IDs are unique across all
projects
- each author will export his/her projects' map file (for
java applications) to a subfolder within their project
- rename the resultant BSSCDefaults.properties file to a
globally unique filename
- copy that project-unique properties file to the specified
folder
- one person/admin will concatenate the individual properties
files into a single file to be used by the application developers
Comments?
ayf

Similar Messages

Using Map Files / Map IDs

Heya,
RH9, merged webhelp
I'm trying to set up Map IDs for a quasi-context sensitive help feature, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I've read through the RH9 help which links to the Grainge website and a couple more links, but I'm still not sure what to do.
First, the background:
We auto-generate a set of release notes for new features and fixes. This is done using a script that pulls the relevant information out of Dovetail (basically where all our support and development cases are stored). So basically our release list shows the case number, the area of the software, and a brief summary of the fix/feature. The release notes are script-generated as an .html file that we can link to in help.
The issue is that they want me to alter the release notes so that the case number serves as a hyperlink to the relevant topic in help. So, for example, if we had a new feature for widget making, case number 12345, the release notes entry for this would have a hyperlink that would take the user to the 'Widget Making' help topic.
My thinking is that I can use the case numbers as Map IDs, ie assign Map ID '12345' to the 'Widget Making' topic, and then create a generic link in the release notes that can 'insert' the relevant case number when the user goes to find that associated help topic.
Potential Issue:
We use a merged help system, but we do not need to merge map files. Our help system consists of one mostly-empty parent project (title page, about page, etc.), a project that contains the majority of our topics, a project that contains database information for technical users, and a few other odd projects. All of the linked topics are going to be in the same main child help project. Because of this, the map file/IDs are going to be a single set in a single project, but not the parent project.
Does this only affect the pathway for the basic link (e.g. "webhelp/mergedProjects/child1.htm" instead of "webhelp/start.htm"?), or are there other considerations? For example, the merged help map ID topics I've seen talk about using number ranges to denote the different projects, but since we've only the one, do we really need to do that? To me, it seems like we should be able to use a relatively straight-forward single-project type link, with the only difference being that the the link goes to a child project folder and not the main webhelp folder.
So far in testing, the link doesn't work, so I'm wondering if either the URL is not as straight-forward as I hoped, or I'm missing something else due to the nature of how our webhelp is set up. Because it's a child, do we still need to 'merge' map files even if we don't need one for the parent? (ie we create an empty parent map file, merge it with the child, and link to the parent?)
Thanks for any tips/advice!

Hi,
When you use CSH in a merged project, the master project will automatically check all child projects when the context sensitive id cannot be found in the master project. Peter’s method includes merging the map files but I don’t think that is necessary. We have several merged projects that work perfectly without merging the map files. But Peter is the authority on merged help
It is important to first get the terminology straight. In WebHelp there are Map ID’s and Map numbers. The Map ID (or topic id) is an alphanumeric string that can be anything from one character to a hundred or more characters. Then there are the Map numbers. Map numbers are a number between 1 and 4.294.967.295.
The terminology is important because what RoboHelp calls a Map ID may be referred to as a map number. Reading the article on Peter’s site I get the impression that what is called a Map ID on Peter’s site is actually the Map number in RoboHelp. (Please correct me if I’m wrong Peter.) The Map ID in RoboHelp is the Topic ID on Peter’s site. See step 8 of the article, it describes how to create a test page using the default RoboHelp JavaScript API. But that test page actually uses the map numbers as the default JS API does not support topic id’s, only map numbers.
Your map file tells the following:
‘12345’ is the Map ID or topic ID.
‘1’ is the Map number. The Map ID referred to on Peter’s site if I’m not mistaken.
Calling the Map number 12345 will not work if you use the default method because you are looking for the wrong number. Try the following:
Say that your master project is placed on http://localhost/newproject.htm. Open a new browser window and add the following URL in the browser where you replace the url with the url your project is placed:
http://localhost/newproject.htm#<str=12345
Does this get the desired result? Also try the test page but use ‘1’ instead of ‘12345’. Does this also get the correct page?
You (or your developers) may also be interested in my WebHelp CSH dissection: http://www.wvanweelden.eu/robohelp/webhelp/csh Note that this article is aimed at developers and does not provide any direct answers, but it will help you understand the different settings in RoboHelp.
Hope this doesn’t confuse you and I hope my assumptions about your intended action are correct.
Greet,
Willam

Is it possible to reuse the map file that was produced to map FrameMaker styles to RoboHelp when creating a PDF in RoboHelp?

I'm using RoboHelp 11 to produce WebHelp. The documentation was previously written in FrameMaker and posted in PDF format, however it has undergone many releases since those days. I'm now being asked to create the help in PDF and WebHelp. Not really an issue except that the help format does not look particularly good in PDF (not designed for both).
Ideally I'd like to just use the map file from the original Frame to RoboHelp conversion in reverse (with a little editing)--to convert the RoboHelp styles to the original FrameMaker formats when I create the PDF, however A) there doesn't seem to be an option for that, and B) the original FrameMaker to RoboHelp map file doesn't seem to have been preserved after that conversion. Is it there and I'm just not seeing it?
If necessary I can just create another CSS to redefine the styles, but if I don't have to, I rather not.

I suspect that even if you could find the mapping information (pass as to where) it would simply tell you that Style A in Fm was mapped to Style B in Rh but not give you any information about how Style A was defined in Fm.
I think your only options are to create a CSS as you suggest or, as I would, create redefine the Word Style Mapping Template to suit. By going to Word first, you can edit the output for better page breaks and other tweaking you might want.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Automatically merging PDF files based on conditions

Hello
I need to be able to setup a job with some basic parameters to automatically merge multiple PDF’s.
For the following group of files:
1_a.pdf
1_b.pdf
2_a.pdf
2_b.pdf
3_a.pdf
3_b.pdf
I need to be able to append the pages in the "_b" files to the start of the "_a" files using the number at the start as the match identifier.
I think the safest method would be to output a new "_c" file and maintain the original files.
I can see functionality to manually do this or merge a group of files into 1 but I need to automate this to deal with larger volumes.
Do I need additional software? Any suggestions on how to do this?
Appreciate any help.
Cheers

You're looking for a PDF Parser or PDF miner tool (PDFminer) as a starting framework, and you'll almost certainly be writing custom code around that as parsing a text file that's effectively free-form and originating from multiple different sources almost always (always?) involves writing customized processing code and an on-going series of tweaks as the suppliers of the PDF change their ticket formats. (Even apparently-simple details such as the time and date formats, for instance, can vary by geography and language and by supplier, and can derail common processing.)
In some cases that I can envision, it'd be entirely possible that the data you're after is actually located in an embedded image and not in text that can be parsed.
The best approach is to get folks to send you JSON or XML or some other format intended for interchange, and avoid the whole mess that is parsing or mining a printer-oriented format.
The other obvious option is to use something like Amazon's Mechanical Turk or some other explicitly outsourced help. Depending on how often the formats change and how many of these PDF files you're dealing with and how varied the formats are, sometimes throwing staff at the problem can be the most cost-effective approach.

How can I instruct SqlMetal to exclude the 'storage' attribute of all the columns on a mapping file when converting a .dbml file to a mapping file?

Hi,
I'm trying to use LINQ to SQL with a top down approch using my own POCO classes. I'm using a XML file for the external mapping but in order to avoid typing a long file by hand I found that I could use the O/R designer to create the .dbml and from there I
could use SqlMetal.exe to generate the map file from the .dbml. The only thing is that, by default, SqlMetal generates a map file which includes the 'storage' attribute for all the columns of the database. For example:
<
Column
Name="Ticker"
Member="Ticker"
Storage="_Ticker"
DbType="NChar(20)
NOT NULL"
CanBeNull="false"
/>
However, in my code I only use automatic properties (Ticker, in this example) and not properties with the corresponding private field. Basically, I don't have any field "_Ticker" in my class. I found out that this the reason why I'm getting the error
"Bad Storage property: '_Ticker' on member 'TTS.Domain.Asset.Ticker" when trying to add an entity to the database. However, ff I delete the all the 'storage' attributes from my mapping file everything works fine.
Is there a way so I could use SqlMetal to generate a map file from a .dbml file but in which it never includes the 'storage' attribute?
Thanks.
Best,
Miguel T.
This is reason why I'm getting the error.

Hi Serguey,
I was expecting that answer but I still had some hope that it could be possible! I checked those 2 links before sending my question.
Currently, I'm deleting the storage attributes everytime that I generate a mapping file. The issue is that I will have to do this eveytime that I need to add data in my O/R designer which happens quite frequently since I'm working with iterations in my project.
It's not very practical but it's still better than write the additional data by hand.
I don't know how I could create my own mapping validation in order to exclude the 'storage' attributes everytime that I generate a mapping file from a .dbml file with SqlMetal but I will check that option too.
Thanks for your helps.
Best,
Miguel.

Why are Map IDs landing in Project Map File, not All Maps, and with a .h extension

I am using the Tech Comm Ste 2, Adobe Robohelp 8.0.2.2 in Windows XP. I assign map IDs manually instead of using automap. I open the Edit Map IDs window. In the right column, under "Topic," I select the topic I want to map. I then click the icon below to open the Context-sensitive Properties for Help Topic window. I select the topic title, without the .htm, and copy it. Then, from the left column, I click the Map File dropdown list and select the HH file to which I want to map the help topic. I then click the icon at the bottom to open the Create/Edit Map ID window. In the first field, I paste the topic ID, and in the second field I enter the map ID I want to assign. Then I click OK.
Usually this places the topic in the correct HH file, highlighted in yellow until I select the topic from the list and then click Assign. For some reason, RH is not adding my topic to the HH file; instead it is adding it to the Project Map file. When I click OK, I get a blank window and the Assign button is disabled. My topic shows up in the Project Map File. The topic displays with the HH files and a .h extension has been added to it.
I can't delete these topics from the Project Map file. I can't assign them map IDs. And this seems to happen randomly. SOMETIMES I can map my topics, but I never know when I can do it and when one of them is going to land in the Project Map file.
Can anyone help?

Personally I've never had or heard of this issue. The fact that this appears to be random suggests that the MapFile dropdown may not be displaying the correct map file when you add or assign the mapid. Also check to ensure your project's source files are not located on a network drive as this can cause issues. If this continues perhaps you could give us an image of what you are seeing.
The RoboColum(n)
@robocolumn
Colum McAndrew

Error when trying to use Automate Merge to HDR... in Photoshop CS4

Hello,
I am using Photoshop CS4 on a new MacBook Pro running 10.5.6.
If i select "Automate>Merge to HDR..." or "Automate>Photomerge...", i get an alert with an error:
« Error 48: File or folder does not exist.
Line: 38
-> $.evalFile(g_StackScriptFolderPath + "LatteUI.jsx"); »
I went the whole uninstall-reinstall the Design Premium suite, but i still get the same error.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
PS : A file named LatteUI.jsx does exist at the location /Volumes/Applications/Adobe CS4/Adobe Photoshop CS4/Presets/Scripts/Stack Scripts Only/LatteUI.jsx, and obviously i have installed the suite on a different folder than the default...

This is not an error of installation. I have had photoshop CS4 installed on a completely different partition on a Macbook and a MacPro. They were running fine. All the necessary files were installed to the system drive during installation. I too am having this problem, but it was the upgrade to snow leopard that caused it. I am searching for a solution to it, when I find it, I will post it.

Creating external mapping file for C# application

Hi,
I'm using Robohelp 7 and producing HTMLHelp files. So far, the programmers have been making internal links in the program to call my help, but I'd like to take this over using an external mapping file.
Is it possible to use regular map files, using the built-in Map ID functionality, for C# .NET applications? If so, is there something special I have to do? Or do I just create a regular map file?
Thanks!

I mean that, in the past, they have hard-coded the link to each help page within the application. But, I'd like to take that over by maintaining a Map file where I specify the link between the topic and the Map ID.
However, I'm not sure that the map file works for C# .Net applications, and the engineers aren't sure either. I told them I'd go investigate.
Is there a way to create a Map file, or something that works like a map file, for a C# .Net application? Or do they have to go on hard-coding the links to each topic?

How to update bookmarks when merging two PDF files?

We have a company catalog that gets generated once a night. It's three step process:
     Step 1) A raw XML file gets generated from our main ERP software (Microsoft Dynamics).
     Step 2) Then that raw XML file is ran against a stylesheet with XEP to produce a nice professional looking catalog.
     Step 3) And the third step is a script that merges the front and back covers with the main catalog produced in step 2. Each cover is two pages (front and back).
My problem is when step 3 runs it produces a final catalog but all the bookmarks are off by 2 pages because the front cover adds two pages in the very beginning. This post may be premature because up until now I've been merging the PDF pages with a program called "GhostScript" and it allows me to merge them via line command. I'm just now trying out AcroExch.App COM Object for VBScript so I'll see if it works but wanted to fire this out for help to see if anyone has encountered this or can confirm if Adobe automatically updates them for you? When I "Merge" the PDF files through Acrobat Pro they get updated automatically, so hopefully it will work the same way with AcroExch.App Object.   Thanks guy!

I think you might be misunderstanding what I'm saying... we are not performing tasks for non-licensed individuals. We purchased a copy of Adobe Acrobat Standard so we could create a PDF of our catalog. That catalog we then put on our website and let people download it. Since our products change all the time, we generate a new catalog every night. The term "server" is just a place where a script runs, I could have it run on my desktop computer if that's really an issue but I think we're talking semantics. Acrobat is not what produces the main catalog PDF, that is done through XEP when it runs through the raw XML produced by our ERP software every night. The only thing we want Acrobat to do is an automated process to merge 3 PDF files together: Front Cover, Main Catalog and Back Cover. That's it.   Are you saying that is against the EULA of Adobe for us to do that?
Now for the bookmark problem, what do you recommend I do then? When I merge all three of those PDF files in Acrobat Standard manually it works perfect. All I'm trying to do is automate that process once every night. I know how to automate with Acrobat, I just can't figure out how to fix the bookmark problem?

Imported a .h map file, no Map IDs show

Background: RoboHelp 10 project, linked to a FrameMaker 11 book, HTML Help output. No errors or missing resources on update of Fm book.
After linking the project to a Fm book with TopicAlias markers selected for CSH, I imported a .h map file used by the developers and did a Force Update All. The imported map file shows up under the Map Files node in the Project Set-up pod. But when I double-click it, nothing displays in the Map IDs panel on the left side of the Edit Map IDs dialog box.
I thought 1) specifying TopicAlias markers for CSH during link setup, and 2) importing the developers' .h file would map the IDs to the topics.
Am I doing something wrong in the linking or .h import steps? I really don't want to have to manually edit the topic IDs in BSSCDefault.h--there are hundreds of them.

Umm, if you’re using the markers from your FM files to set the mapping, why are you getting something from the developers? In your workflow I would expect you to be sending them your .h file, not the other way round ;>)

Convert Arbortext XML files to RoboHelp

We are converting XML files from Arbortext to RoboHelp. Does anyone know how to conver the files? We would like to import or convert the files and remove the XML code Arbortext automatically adds to the files.
Thanks! Sandy

Are you talking about the XML comment Arbortext puts into the top of the document or the Processing Instructions?
If the first, Arbortext does insert an XML Comment at the top of the file. XML Comments do not affect the XML content and this should not affect your processing. For example, if you import DITA files created in Arbortext into TCS 4 or 5, they open and process just fine. I've had no problems importing Arbortext XML into TCS4 and exporting files via RoboHelp.
If you're talking about the processing instructions, they are unnecessary to retain and very easy to remove via a setting in Tools Preferences. The instructions to turn off Processing Instructions are here: http://blog.single-sourcing.com/2010/08/pesky-pis/

Newbie Map File question

I have inherited a huge project in RoboHelp which contains
multiple map files. One of the map files is the custom map file
that was apparently imported. This is the only one I need, yet
there is also a BSSCDefault.h. When I right click to delete, it is
greyed out. There are no map IDs in it, but it's still there. There
is also the "All Map IDs" file which appears to be identical to my
custom file. I'm guessing that one has to stay? I've managed to
delet all the rest of the old map files.
Each time I assign a map ID I feel that I have to make sure
that I select my custom map ID from the drop-down box, and that's
just one more step that I could accidentally forget. I'd rather do
away with everything else so I'll know that I'm always using only
my custom map file. Is this possible?
Thanks so much in advance for your help.

Welcome to the forums.
I don't think the "All Map IDs" is a file in itself, but
maybe a combination of all files' IDs displayed together. I don't
know for sure, as I always use only one map file for a project, and
I leave BSSCDefault empty. The BSSCDefault file seems like it is
forced on us, but we don't have to use it, as you know.
I think you mean that you are selecting your custom map file
name from the "Map File" dropdown box. You can skip that step by
clicking on your map file's name in the Project Manager. For
example, I have a map file called "cshmap.h." In the Project
Manager, I expand Context-Sensitive Help, then Map Files, then
double-click "cshmap.h," which has a page icon with an "h." The map
ID dialog opens with cshmap.h selected in the dropdown, so all the
changes I make will be in that file.
Hope this helps,
Ben

With the new update, I can't figure out how to merge duplicate "Faces" files together, so I end up with one location per face.

With the newest update, I can't figure out how to merge duplicate files in "Faces" (iPhoto). I have more than one file going for a face, and use to be able to click and drag them into merging. Can't seem to do it now. Can anyone please help? Thanks

Are you talking about iPhoto or Photos? If Photos, do you mean that Photos has several files for the same person but they are labeled differently and you are trying to merge them as one? If so, then you have to rename one of the files to match the other one with the correct name. If this is not what you mean then could you explain more clearly what you mean. To give an example if I click on Faces and Photos shows me all named faces in the top and on the bottom there are suggested faces that can be dragged onto a face in the top level to merge. If you try to merge two face groups in the top level that are the same person but for some reason the faces are labeled differently you have to label them with the name you want to use and then they will automatically merge.

Subfolders in Map Files and Baggage?

Using Robo 6 to create webhelp. This is one of many issues I'm seeing since inheriting this help project that had not been updated in 2+ years.
Today's question is, why are the topic folder names that I use to organize my content being re-created under Map IDs and Baggage? I have 5 folders under HTML Files (Topics) and these same folder names show up under Map Files and Baggage files, and they are empty. Also one HTMLPages folder is showing up that isnt' even in my help project. I have 5 other stand-alone help pages that I use Robo to maintain but they are in a completely different folder, outside of the Help project fodler.
I only have one map ID file and no baggage files. But it won't let me delete these "extra folders under Map Files and Baggage fiels so clearly it thinks they are needed.
thankyouverymuch...

Hi there
You have to understand the way RoboHelp works with these. Note the folders have icons on them. The Baggage and Image folders. This means they aren't true folders you will see in the Windows file system. This means RoboHelp is simply presenting what it knows about in that category. So when you create a folder in your project, you are creating a true folder in the Windows File System. It is then visible in the other "pseudo-folders" presented by RoboHelp.
Perhaps this link will help. Click here
Does that make more sense? Rick
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Map files - php application

Hi Everyone,
The software I am documenting is created in php (and my help
output is WebHelp (RoboHelp 6)) - is there any way I can create map
files with the extension .php instead of .h?
Thanks

Hi eagleowl1. I may be showing my ignorance of PHP but why
would you want to? The map file is not actually used by the
application. Instead it is used by your developers to code the CSH
call. Does PHP act differently? Anyway to answer your question, no
it can't from inside RH.

Automatic merging of map files in RoboHelp?

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