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Rsfl
Rsfl
Inspiring
November 27, 2015
Question

AIR help that does not require installation of the runtime

  • November 27, 2015
  • 1 reply
  • 4936 views

Is there a way to generate an AIR help file that does not require the user to install the runtime? I googled and saw once that there is evidently an option to provide the runtime environment in the app itself (sort of like an integrated viewer file). However I don't know whether this was a standard function of AIR apps or just a hand-coded workaround.

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    1 reply

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 27, 2015

    That’s probably more of a function of an AIR app – RH AIRHelp being one kind of AIR app, it doesn’t support this. You either have to install the AIR runtime or use the one that’s already there. Since you can’t edit the AIRHelp app, there’s no way of “baking in” this sort of function. AIRHelp hasn’t had much attention in the latest releases, so I wouldn’t hold my breath on any further changes.

    Rsfl
    RsflAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 27, 2015

    Thanks for the fast response. We had looked into AIR help when it was first released and decided that it is no option for us due to the required installation process (user needs runtime, requires admin rights etc.). I had hoped that Adobe might have solved this issue in the meantime.

    Rsfl
    RsflAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 1, 2015

    Sometimes we see folks frown on CHM output because they think it looks too "dated". But Adobe added this way cool means of packaging WebHelp output inside a CHM file. So if that sounds remotely appealing you may want to investigate that aspect.

    However, in re-reading the thread, it would seem most of your interest is in the notification and prompting of a new version.

    In thinking about that, I can fathom a way to make that happen with a CHM. What you could do is insert an inline frame in the start page of the CHM file. Configure that inline frame to point to an HTML page you have where the web version of the files live. As the CHM is opened, the user would then see any new information you wanted to present.

    Cheers... Rick


    I wrote a script for that some time ago. It first tries to load a small image from the target website, which only serves as test whether the internet connection is reliable. If yes, it loads the actual content and displays is, otherwise the content of the offline page is displayed. That works well for single reference pages like release notes, but not for a 20.000+ topic information base..

    Adobe RoboHelp - Intelligente Weiterleitung auf Internetseiten

    Yes that feature to build a webhelp into a CHM is really cool. We tried the concept of inserting Webhelps and Flashhelps into CHM containers some 12 years ago manually but found that it was too much work at the time. Now it's a one-clicker.

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