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oliviert5031601
Inspiring
Mar 20, 2020 6:57 AM UTC
Answered

good habits regarding output directory

Hello, I'm managing a merged chm project. After every modification in a subproject, I have to manually copy the resulting chm file in the asset directory of the main project

I was just wondering if it was a good idee to use the asset directory of the main project as the output location of the subprojects. In that case I do not have to copy manually the chm files after every compilation.

best regards, Olivier

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    Peter Grainge
    Peter GraingeCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    Mar 20, 2020 9:54 AM UTC

    Let's say there is a parent and four children, five projects in all.

     

    Whichever way you work, to get the copy CHM that is in Assets you have to generate somewhere.

     

    OPTION 1

    Generate all five projects to different folders. You then have to get all five CHMs into one folder. That requires the additional steps that Vivek has outlined and an additional folder for every project.

     

    OPTION 2

    Generate all five projects to one folder. Job done. Surely that has to be the easiest solution and the one I would describe as smart.

     

    ****************************************

     

    The fact that RoboHelp is creating a copy in Assets is a hangover from how things were done in Classic and was the cause of confusion.

     

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    7 replies

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    Mar 20, 2020 9:54 AM UTC

    Let's say there is a parent and four children, five projects in all.

     

    Whichever way you work, to get the copy CHM that is in Assets you have to generate somewhere.

     

    OPTION 1

    Generate all five projects to different folders. You then have to get all five CHMs into one folder. That requires the additional steps that Vivek has outlined and an additional folder for every project.

     

    OPTION 2

    Generate all five projects to one folder. Job done. Surely that has to be the easiest solution and the one I would describe as smart.

     

    ****************************************

     

    The fact that RoboHelp is creating a copy in Assets is a hangover from how things were done in Classic and was the cause of confusion.

     

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    oliviert5031601
    Inspiring
    Mar 20, 2020 10:01 AM UTC

    I think Peter your answer makes sense. use the same output directory for main and subprojects. stupid of me. thank you

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    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Mar 20, 2020 9:33 AM UTC

    Surely it's easiest to just generate all the CHMs to one folder. No further action required. 

     

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    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Mar 20, 2020 8:02 AM UTC

    I don't think you can set that as the target, I would need to check. However, I have covered what to do in my page on 2019 merging. Create a folder outside all the projects and use that as the target.

     

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    oliviert5031601
    Inspiring
    Mar 20, 2020 8:04 AM UTC

    that is indeed the default way RH is working. I'm curious, as this would spare me some repetitive tasks after every compilation in the subprojects

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    Vivek Kumar
    Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    Mar 20, 2020 9:21 AM UTC

    Hi Oliver,

    There are two ways to handle this.

    1. In RH2019 you can specify a post generation script which will run after every compilation. For this you will have to write a small JavaScript file which will copy the files from output directory to another one specified by you.

    2. Another and a better way is to create  Publish profile of "FileSytem" type. In this you can specify where to publish/copy the output. And you can run it whenever you think your output is ready to be copied.

     

    Hope this is helpful.

     

    Thanks,

    Vivek

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