CSH calls and report readability

[MSCaroline]

I'm new to RH Server (9), and am trying to get my CSH calls set up in such a way that the Frequently Accessed CSH report provides useful information. The best I've been able to determine for the calls is the following format:

http://servername/robohelp/server?project=projectname&area=areaname&ctxid=mapnumber

This yields a report where the topics that have been called are identified only by their map numbers. I guess I can cross-reference this and figure out what topics are being called, but it would be nice not to have to do that.

When I assign map IDs, there's a text part of the ID and a number part of the ID. I have not been able to make calls using the text part work-- only using the number part.

Does anyone have any insight into this?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Sorry that I don't have anything that will help. What I do have is a curiosity question.

What exactly do you do with this report? What changes do you make to your help system or application after determining which topics are most frequently accessed? I've always wondered about that.

Cheers... Rick

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[MSCaroline]

Heh, good question. 😄 And my disappointing answer: Nothing, so far. We don't actually have a license for RH Server yet-- I'm evaluating. I think that that particular report would really just tell us what parts of the application users find difficult to work with. That might point to interface improvements, or simply giving greater attention to the help content for that area....

Melinda

[RoboColum_n_]

Melinda is right. The reports can indicate issues not just with the help but with the UI. One reason why people access an area of the help frequently can be poor dialog / workflow design. I am also aware of some sites where the RH Server reports have been used to add FAQ topics to the start of each TOC book which are regularly updated based on the feedback in the reports.

BTW the CSH call only works by using the mapid number.

---

The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[johndaigle]

Yes. Colum is quite right. I would add that RoboHelp Server 9 added a huge improvement to the feedback and analytics reports. It happens that the Frequently Accessed CSH got the least attention and is lacking IMHO. It does a good job of reporting the Context ID (map number) that was called for from the application and the number of times, etc. However, the context ID alone is not very helpful if you don't have the more user friendly topic title to go with it. I have spoken to the Adobe RoboHelp Product Management team about this and I expect a more robust CSH report will be high on the list of improvements in the next release.

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com