Webhelp v browser-based AIR Help

Hi, I 'm going to be writing help for a web-based application for the first time and am trialing Robohelp 9. Can anyone tell me the difference between the published files for Webhelp and browser-based AIR help? Would there be any technical difference in deploying them to a web server? My apologies if this has been answered elsewhere - I couldn't find a reference to it.
Also (probably a separate question), is there any way to incorporate commenting with either output type? I know this is not supported in the SSLs, but is there a way around it using script? It seems strange that only the 'offline' AIR help includes online commenting. And Adobe's own help pages include it (though they don't seem to use Robohelp!).
Many thanks in anticipation.

Hi Susie et all,
Just spotted this thread and am in the exact same position as you :-)
Really like the browser-based Air help look and trying to keep up with the limitiations and any issues.
We cannot use classic Air Help as the help system supports a web-based product and there is no way that the client will allow a 'special' install for a help system.The trouble starts when you start comparing Air Help, browser-based webhelp and browser-based Air help. In Air Help you are teased with the Favourites tab, the comments pod but they are not available for browser-based Air. The search also works differently in Air formats (results in topic window), something I only became aware of a few days ago. You cannot add custom buttons to tool bar in BB Air something I've found very userful in web help. We have also had a few formatting issues and use a different .css for webhelp and airhelp (mainly to get styles to match the different skins).
There is no doubt that the browser-based Air output looks slick and as John said the skin can be modified to give a corporate feel. But your visitors will need flash player to view content in the left hand pane - its flash that gives it the slick look and feel. I'm trying to run some test this week to find out what will happened without flash player AND to check how the help appears in the various browsers.
I'm curious, have you had any specific issues with running browser-based help on a webserver? We are still awaiting feedback from developers, but so far they have been unable to get browser-based help running on server - just a blank page with grey background. I'm reassured by Peter's comments so hoping it is some security setting that they can deal with. The most sensible approach now is to try and get webehlp running in same environment.
I will definitely post feedback and will be following this thread closely now.
Kind Regards
Craig

Similar Messages

Browser Based AIR Help not displaying in browser

Hi All!
Publishing with RoboHelp 8...
WebHelp generates and publishes properly to the server. Viewable, working, all good.
Browser Based AIR Help previews, generates, publishes, but won't display via IE or Safari. All that I get is a blank page instead of index.htm
Side Note/Side Issue: Project contains links to Baggage File PDF's. The links in the WebHelp version works properly. The BB AIRHelp only displays a blank page
Any thoughts?

LOL, it was never my intent to berate you. Only to try and point out that things like this require some thinking through.
As for the "sexist overtones", those totally aren't intentional either. I facilitate RoboHelp and Captivate classes for my living. I find that as humans, we all have food in common. As a result, it is often helpful to use an analogy to better understand what is going on with things we cannot see physically, such as RoboHelp generating and publishing files.
If you look through these forums at all, you will see that I use the analogy of a Single Source Layout as being just like a recipe. The Single Source Layout Pod being just like a recipe box. And I'm always calling the SSL the "SSL Recipe". Go ahead and search. You'll be surprised.
So it had nothing to do with this post. Only that it's my preferred way of trying to help make sense of things that aren't exactly tangible.
Sorry if I offended you in any way. I certainly didn't mean to!
Cheers... Rick
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Browser based AIR Help and PDF Files

Hi everyone,
I am so glad to have forum like this, hoping that sharing your experiences will help a little bit further.
Just recently I have tried to generate an browser based AIR Help in combination with merged projects. By the way, Peter Grainge's tutorial was very helpful here, thanks Peter!
My project also contained a single PDF file in a baggage container. After I had published my file, I had noticed that it was not possible to open the PDF in any way.
So I tried the same using the Adobe AIR Help Application and there the PDF worked. Now I was wondering whether I did something wrong or do I need to be aware of something.
Personally I don't mind using the Adobe AIR Help Application, the only disadvantage I had discovered beside the local installation, is the the document spacing seemed to be a little odd. Actually there was no space between the border and the content. With any other single source output there is, including the browser based AIR help.
I didn't find any similar problems on this forum, but maybe any of you has a little hint for me.
Thanks and greetings from Germany,
Christian

PDF should work from browser based AIR Help. Try a different file.
See the AIR topics on my site about the margins. In short, you create a copy of your CSS and just change the body tag margins in Notepad. Use the ordinary CSS when you are working or creating other outputs, use myproject_AIR.css when you generate the help.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Context Sensitive Help in Browser based AIR

Hi, I have looked through all the posts here and it doesn't help. I am using RH8, fully updated.
I am coming from a html web page, part of an AJAX applications output, and I need to get to the right page in AIR, which is the only Help I can find that is compatible all the way with all browsers.
RoboHelp_CSH. js contains the function ShowHelp, which I have successfully got to work for Web help and Flash Help, so I can do MapIDs. It does not seem to work with AIR.
It says in the Adobe Support http://help.adobe.com/en_US/RoboHelp/8.0/RoboHTML/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d11aff59c571-7f4 3.html that I need a function called RH_AIR_ShowHelp, but I can't find that on my hard disk or on the web, nor any instructions on how to use it.
What am I doing wrong, or where does it say how do I get this functionality to work?
Thanks for your time
Paul

Whilst not completely checked, there are some new pages about AIR help on my site. Maybe they will help.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Can you tell me how to displays my browser based help?

I am using RH8, generating Browser based Air, and have windows 7.
This is a continuation of my previous discussion.
I was able to generate browser based air help for my merged projects just once.But I just tried it again and it won't work.
Here is what I did.
I created the parent file and generated the Air files.
This created my subdirectories for my merged projects. However, it did not create an !SSL file.
Then I generated Air files for my 11 projects and put the results in the folders created by my parent file.
I can view everything just fine on my pc but when I put it on another pc or our network drive, I just get a gray screen.
We just sent it to our IT person and he put our Air files out on our corporate web and it did display. However it did not have the correct template.
Also, the publish button displays for me but not for the other developer I'm working with when we want to publish.
Lots of questions, I hope there are answers. Thank you.
Pat

Hi there
Oh the joys of working in largely uncharted waters! (I'm talking AIR Help)
Sorry, but about the only thing I'm able to help with here is the Publish button. You stated that Publish was available for you but not your co-worker.
Publish will only be available if you have defined a Publishing Destination in the Single Source Layout properties. The question in my mind is to ask if you and your co-worker are opening the same project. If so, I would be assuming Source Control is involved. And if you both have the same project, it's a bit of a mystery as to why Publish isn't enabled.
But if you are each working on separate projects, I can totally understand that, because Publish settings are configured on a "per project" basis.
Cheers... Rick
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Why don't our links work in browser based help?

We are using RH8, Windows 7 and outputting to browser based AIR help.
We cannot get our links to work in browser based air help. These are links between projects. Links within projects work fine.
We output our help and it worked fine on our test system. We tested it on another system and it worked fine.
However, when we attached it to our application, the links between projects did not work.
We think it might have something to do with the address, which looks something like this
http://199.166.111.177/smartc/smartsol/mgproj/ etc. etc.
When we set up the links they were set to something like this
../../../smartc/smartsol/mgproj/ etc. etc.
We are thinking this might be the problem.
Our question is - is there a universal naming convention that will allow us to publish our help anywhere.
We don't put our help on a server and have people access it that way. We provide the help file and let the user put it anywhere they want.
I may not be saying this correctly.
any help is appreciated.
Pat

I'm having a similar problem, if I understand the original question, in accessing my AIR help from a server ...
Background:
In RH8 html, I've been creating a Web Help project have successfully integrating it into our product for a couple of years now (thanks to all on the forum who've helped me with bugaboos along the way, Peter et al!). The project is bundled in with our software and pushed out to our hardware device (let's call it a router) and the user can access their router's UI via a custom path and use the help when needed from their home network and remotely.
Today I've been looking at changing over to an AIR help end product to replace the Web Help project. In my initial tests, using the exact same project I'm using for the Web Help, when I push the AIR help out to my test bed I see a blank page when I access it. I'm using the same path and same files and have flushed my browser cache. When I build it, it is set as a "Browser Based Help". My thinking is something along the lines of certificates / security etc. but don't know and don't see a setting.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Update:
I may have a solution ... a developer noticed that in one of the .js files a file names "AC_OETags.js" was listed with caps. If you are running apache on your server it will not like the capitalization in referenced in the file (the actual name of the file can have caps). Once the link to the file was made lower case the help system worked as designed.
Good luck everyone.

Deploying Browser Based Help

Hi,
We have generated a Browser Based help with RoboHelp 9.
We want to deploy/configure the help in a server and give the URL of the same to the users to access. How this can be done. Kindly suggest.
With thanks and regards,
Krishna

Krishna,
You or your developers will need to deploy the help on a the server that the users will access it from. Basically that means copying all the the files from the SSL folder where you generated the Browser Based Air Help to the server (or as Jeff suggested publish the help when it is generated).
You then simply give the users the link to the URL including the start up file (index.htm or whatever you have called it).
It is good practice to povide a link from the software application to the help (using a Help button/link). This is something you'll need to work out with the developer as she/he will link to the same URL using a call from the program.
I'd recommend thoroughly testing the links and content using all the browsers you need to support before giving out the link to the users.
Kind Regards
Craig

Air Help not a valid option for some projects?

RH9, multiple projects that are currently deployed as merged webhelp.
I opened the project we use as the 'parent' project and was able to change the output to Air, no problem. But when I try to open the other projects that we use as 'child' projects, it doesn't allow us to select Air. The option doesn't even display in the output drop-down.
Is there a setting we need to change? My understanding was that Air can do merged help projects and does them in the same manner as our existing format, Webhelp.

You are talking about browser based AIR help and you are saying that in RoboHelp 9 you are not seeing AIR as an option to create the layout?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Airhelp browser-based output won't open in network location

Hi,
Wondering if anyone can help us with the following issue:
I want to enable internal reviewers to open my browser-based AIR Help in a shared network location. Currently, in order to open the Help, reviewers must do the following (which seems rather complicated):
1. Create a folder on their local systems: \Macromedia\Flash Player\#Security\FlashPlayerTrust.
2. Paste into it the folder the RoboHelp.cfg file (containing the network path to my AIR Help index.html file).
I derived the above steps from the procedure provided by http://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/robohtml/WS1b49059a33f77726-484da80912ce87f5f33-8000. html
Is there a way to avoid having to make reviewers perform these steps in order to access AIR Help on an internally shared network location?
Seems like a very involved process to just check to make sure others in the company can open it and test it. If they don't do this and they click on the index file it looks as if the help will open but then hangs on a blue grey box with a progress bar that never moves.
Thanks!

Hi there
Here's the fundamental issue. When you present WebHelp, it's just a frameset with some HTML pages, images and lots of javascript. Browsers generally have no issue with presenting that from local locations such as the C drive or network drives. Well, most browsers. IE will refuse things unless you enable Mark of the Web. When you present browser based AIR help, it's a similar setup, but the fancy looking elements are presented using Adobe Flash. Because you are running from local media and not a Web server, Flash Security kicks in and doesn't allow things to work until you pat it on the head and tell it the world, in fact, will NOT end if it shows you this content. That's what the config file does. Tells the Flash Player that it's okay if the content in this location is presented.
The thing is, if you run from your local drive and Flash Player didn't worry about security, folks could do some pretty nasty things to you if they wanted. That's why it exists. But if you run from a Web server, the browser automatically places you in a safe area. I believe in temporary files where things can't get out of hand. So there is no need for rigid security.
Cheers... Rick
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Robohelp 9 Adobe Air Browser Based Help not rendering on IIS Server 7.5

Hello everyone,
I'm having an issue where the output (Adobe Air browser based help) is not rendering properly on the IIS Server 7.5 that it is published to.
I have updated the icons in the skin, and when viewed locally the site works fine. When it is published to the webserver the new icons do not show up, and the banner does not render in the new color. The site is using the unipane adobe air browser based help template.
I've had the dev team restart the webserver twice, and for some reason the flash object simply won't update.
Anyone else see this before?
Thanks,
Jerry

Hi Jerry
If memory serves, Browser Based AIRHelp uses Flash elements like FlashHelp does. I recall a few years ago that FlashHelp had the same issues on some servers. Further, if memory serves, the fix was to ask your web server folks to tweak the server by adjusting the MIME types so it will properly serve Flash items.
Adobe used to have a KB article on this. Unfortunately, time seems to have caused it to evaporate. Grrrrr
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
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Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
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Adobe AIR Browser Based Help Edit Home Button URL

I'm using the unipane template for my adobe air browser based help, and need to edit the URL that the home button uses. Currently, the home button will take me to a page displaying a table of contents structure instead of the default topic I use as the homepage.
Is there a way to edit this url that the home button in the unipane template?
Thank you,
Jerry

Not that I know of. I guess if you hacked the installed AIR help you might find a way of doing it but that hack would have to be done on every PC after installation. Obviously that is a non-starter.
The more people who request a feature, the more likely it is to be actioned. Please follow this link.
http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

MergedProjects dont appear in Adobe Air Browser Based TOC when published to a server

MergedProjects dont appear in Adobe Air Browser Based Help when published to a server - its works fine on my local machine. The topics are there on the server as they appear in the Search, but the do not appear in the TOC.
I have looked at another similar thread to this on the forum but there doesn't seem to be any resolution as yet?
I am publishing to local machine and then uploading to the server.
Thanks

Just to confirm - these files have indeed fixed the merged TOC display problem.
Thanks Peter.

Firefox does not display my customised Adobe Air browser based skin when viewed from a server

Hi,
I have edited the skin for my Adobe Air Browser based help. It appears fine in Explorer and Chrome, but Firefox displays the default black Air skin when viewed from a server.
However, it appears OK when viewed locally on my machine in Firefox?
Does anyone know why this is or if there is a way to make my customised skin display when viewed from a server using the Firefox browser?
Cheers

Peter,
I think this was it:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2846292#2846292
although my problem is just with Firefox - my amended skin displays fine in Internet Explorer.
Firefox just applies the default Midnight Black skin.
Cheers

Browser compatibility for Adobe AIR (browser-based version)

Hi there,
I'm using RoboHelp 10 to create the browser-based version of Adobe AIR. My understanding is that this version of AIR uses Flash for some of the navigation, such as the table of contents.
Can anyone else share their findings on which browsers and Flash plug-ins will reliably display the browser-based version of AIR? I've found that it displays fine on IE 8, but not IE 9, and not Google Chrome (version 23).
Any advice would be appreciated.
Robert

Hi Peter,
I've spent more time looking at my project and I am not getting the results I need.
To summarize, I've created a browser-based version of Adobe AIR that is a local copy. It runs fine on IE 8, but not Google Chrome (version 23) or IE 9. I've also tried created a very small second RoboHelp project and I get the same results--the index.htm page is blank in Chrome and IE 9.
In Chrome, I've double-checked that it is running Flash version 11.5.31.5. I've noticed that Chrome changes my file path (see attached screen capture).
I'm at a loss to figure out why this is not displaying, as expected.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Robert

Help! I've lost browser based YouTube on an iPad2.

I've lost browser-based YouTube on my ios 6 ipad. Neither Safari nor Atomic Browser will allow me to view YouTube videos, which leads me to think that this is a settings problem of some sort. I've rebooted twice, but I'm still getting "content unavailable for your device" messages. I've tried it both logged into and logged out of YouTube thinking that might be the problem, but no luck. I didn't really care about losing the YouTube app with the ios6 update, but not being able to watch embedded videos or use the browser to view them is infuriating.

Are you using the mobile site? There is an iPhone YouTube app and an app called Jasmine that is a pretty good substitute as well. Also, some videos are not available on mobile devices due to author restrictions.
http://m.youtube.com

Webhelp v browser-based AIR Help

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