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Achal__
Inspiring
June 6, 2022
Question

Customizing Frameless Output (RH 2020) for restricting access to topic pages

  • June 6, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 636 views

Our software product has 5 different modules and the User Guide has 5 books in TOC for 5 different modules of the software. Not all the customers subscribe to all 5 modules, so we need to show the content of only the subscribed modules. I am trying to restrict the end user from accessing the unsubscribed modules. Is there any way to handle or customize this? Can we extract the hierarchy of TOC and customize it? or is there any way that we generate 5 different outputs for 5 different modules and try to link their index files?

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    3 replies

    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 6, 2022

    In a previous life we did this with a merged help system and custom coding by the developers. We published each help module in a specified folder structure on the server with specific naming conventions, NOT the merged help structure RH requires. Then the developers wrote code which somehow faked (mapped?) the correct paths that RH required, based on the software modules (and versions) the client had installed. I don't know the development details, but can confirm the system worked once set up with the custom coding. 

     

    While no direct help, it may give your devopers something to think about. 🙂

     

    (I should note we definitely did not have every possible module and version combination set up on the server - that amount of data would have rivalled Google. 😄  )

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 7, 2022

    I'm not sure that would work in the new UI versions.

     

    Classic allowed you to only install some of the children on the fly or restrict access and everything would still work. The new UI requires all the child projects specified in the parent to be installed, hence saying you would need multiple parent projects specifying which child projects were went with it. Without that some functions will work but not search at least.

    ________________________________________________________

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

     

    Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.
    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 7, 2022

    I think you can have some installed but you need to make sure 3 or 4 base files are in place. (given the devs could fake the correct merge structure in code, I'm pretty sure they could fake the basic structure). I'm sure I posted ages ago about it - I'll try to find it. 

      Peter Grainge
      Community Expert
      Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 6, 2022

      @Jeff_Coatsworth Dynamic Content Filtering does not restrict what users can see. The user can choose to see some or all of the content but you can't stop all users seeing all content. I think you are right that RoboHelp Server would allow access to specified areas according the user rights. However, it's an expensive option just to achieve that.

       

      @Achal__ Merged Help can be set up so that you have a parent and a child for each module. However, the parent has to specify which children (module) are in the merge. Assuming users can have any combination of the five modules, that means you need a parent for every combination and your developers have install the right mix. That is going to get messy but it does the job.

       

      I have always worked on the basis of what is the harm in giving the users all the help, provided it is clear which topics relate to which modules. The user may see the answer to their problem lays in a module they don't have. That will lead to them wanting that module. Another sale for you. If you went that route, then @Jeff_Coatsworth's suggestion of DCF would work well. Make it clear in the help that it works best if the user selects just the filters for them, one filter for each module.

      ________________________________________________________

      My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

       

      Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.
      A
      Achal__Author
      Inspiring
      June 7, 2022

      On the homepage of the dark skin of frameless ouput, is it possible to restrict access to the tile cards ? I mean if use is subscribed to only two module,, then he can only see two tile cards on the homepage. If this can be achieved, I can generate only a single output and resrict the user to access individual module through tile card. 

      Jeff_Coatsworth
      Community Expert
      Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 7, 2022

      Not without getting your developers involved - the user would have to submit something that identified what modules they have and the site's programming would have to interpret that list and show/hide accordingly. Not something that regular RH does on its own.

      Jeff_Coatsworth
      Community Expert
      Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 6, 2022

      I guess you could try some dynamic filtering to allow them to only show the ones that they are interested in seeing; I don't know of any way "out of the box" to tailor what's shown to who's asking - maybe with a product like RoboHelp Server?

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