How many license needed for our projects

[JP Cornelissen]

Hi,

We are moving from .chm help to (airplane) WebHelp Pro. I am wondering how many licenses I would need / what the best practice would be for our help projects. I can't find a clear answer in the documentation for this.

We have 3 core products PMS, POS and CRM.
Each of the products is multi lingual.

Therefore we have a help project for each product/language combination.
- PMS English help
- PMS Dutch help
- PMS German help
- Same for the POS and CRM product.

As each project is for a different product and language we do not need these projects to be merged. If I understand the install documentation correctly, then I can have one engine with different projects that are not being merged, or I can have a different license for each of them.

- What is best practice? One or multiple licenses?
- What are the pro's and con's of each?

By the way, we're using RoboHelp X5, the box has a sticker 'Office pro for .net' upgrade, and the cd has RoboEngine for .net (o version number listed).

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi John-Pierre. I am reliably told by Adobe, although I have not yet been in a position to test this, that you only need a single RoboHelp Server 6 licence to publish multiple help files. What they say is "add multiple websites in the IIS on the Server and then publish to them at different ports using RoboHelp Desktop Application." So this would accommodate your requirement in RoboHelp Server 6. As you are using a previous version, this advice may differ. That said, it would be worth a test.

[JP Cornelissen]

Thanks for the quick reply Colum.

This means I would need to upgrade. I just found there is a version 6 now. I read the details and it says that RHx5 can publish to server 6. However, x5 does not have an option to specify the port where it need to be published to.

Unfortunately I can't find release notes on all the changes between x5 and 6. Do you know the benifits from upgrading?

[RoboColum_n_]

You need to understand the difference between the client and the server. Users with a RoboHelp X5 licence (the client) produce the help and publish to the server. The RoboHelp Server 6 licence is the "engine" that allows you to direct the published files to a port. As I said, I'm told RoboHelp Server 6 has the ability to do this. Once this is done, you just point the properties of your Webhelp Pro output in RoboHelp X5 at the location.

Click out this link for the release notes for the new version. One of the main changes is the natural language search has been replaced by keywords.

[JP Cornelissen]

Thanks again,

I just read a more extensive document about RHS 6, it indeed says that you only need one license for different projects. That does not explain much more though as - if I understand correctly - RHE 5 can also be used with 1 license for multiple projects, but the key thing here is merging or not (again, if I understood correctly, whcih is the reason for posting in the forum).

So, my original questions remains.

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi John Pierre. All you would do is set-up separate ares in IIS for each of the projects. There is no need to merge them. The single licence will enable you to publish to each IIS location.

[JP Cornelissen]

Thanks again Colum. You lost me with that one (Ares?). I'll see if our sys admin knows. Then I think we just have to do some testing.

[Captiv8r]

Hi John-Pierre

I suspect Colum is off on a Friday night adventure. I think the "ares" is probably a typographical mishap and was probably totally intended as "areas".

Cheers... Rick

[MergeThis]

The difference between WebHelp and WebHelp Pro is commonly misunderstood.

WebHelp Pro provides natural-language searching, whatever server it is placed on. WebHelp provides normal searching

Project merging can be accomplished in standard WebHelp. Although you say "As each project is for a different product and language we do not need these projects to be merged," that's not necessarily the case. Each "product/language combination" can be a merged project if you find it more efficient.

Usage reports are only available if RoboEngine is on the same server where the users are accessing the help (that is, if your web site is hosting the help).


Good luck,
Leon

[JP Cornelissen]

Rick: thx
Leon: I know the difference and am refering to Webhelp Pro. The RoboEngine has a tickbox to enable/disable merging.

[JP Cornelissen]

Rick,

I read through some topics and see that you (are) still one of the people who know the most.

Do you have the answers to my actual questions? And if more then one license is needed in X5, does the same apply to 6?

Thanks!

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi John Pierre.

I'm back again from my "Friday night adventure" - actually more like tidying the house up before various (real) estate agents come to see it on Saturday. Sorry for the typo. We'll have to put this down to trying to meet a deadline of Friday PM and having last minute spec changes! All part of parcel of a Tech Writer

One of the problems you'll face with the server edition is that whilst there are a number of people on these forums who know a great deal about RoboHelp, not many use the server edition. Particularly when it comes to licences - where from experience the answers are fuzzy - it is often best to get the answer from Adobe themselves.

Also just to add to Leon's excellent advice, natural language searching is available in the X5 server edition. If you decide to upgrade, Robohelp Server 6 edition uses keyword searching to bring it more in line with the "google" generation.

[JP Cornelissen]

Thx Colum

Call Adobe support? Duh, I tried but that is useless. I first tried our local reseller. They did not know they answer, so I asked if they could find out with Adobe. Should not be too difficult as it could imply selling more licenses to us... Well, it is difficult they say, communication with Adobe is almost impossible. They either don't get an answer, or it takes ages.

Then I posted the question in the RoboEngine forum. Anyway, after reading you reply I tried to call Adobe support directly. First choice is customer service or tech support. Well, it is about licenses so should be customer service, but then it is a bit technical because it is not user licenses so I called tech support (in the Netherlands that is)...

- First the phone rings for 30 sec.
- Then the phone is picked up with a waiting music.
- Only after 2 minutes music, you get the voicemenu (so it takes 2.5 min before you actually know that you realy ended up with Adobe).
- Then you are asked for which product you call (very long list), so I chose former Macromedia products
- I get a technician asking for the customer number, I dont have one which he found odd.
- He asks for the serial number, I give the serial on the box, but it is useless to him, his system does not know it. Well, could be as it is a former macromedia product which I indicated in the voicemenu.
- Then he asks what I am calling for: number of licenses for RoboEngine.
- Then after him discussing with a collegue he asks for what I try to do, so I tell him
- Again after him discussing with a collegue he asks for how many users I need it, well, it is not user based, which he found odd
- So then I said that I want to speak with someone who knows about the product RoboEngine and he is going to have someone call me back.
- This whole exercise took 20 minutes.....

- 30 minutes later someone called me back (yes that surprised me in a positive way). So, I gave him my question (same as here in the forum) and the guy did not have a clue what I was saying. So I said that I asked for someone to call me back who knows about RoboEngine, but that he obviously did not. The excuse he had is that they support 70 products and that they can't know everything...
- So, I explained again slowely, he made notes, discussed with a collegue and got back to me saying that they don't really support this. He has another number (and email) for me in the UK.
- I call the UK number, I do not get a company, but a persons voicemail: 'hi this is barry something's test box, leave a message'.
- I'll see if an email works...

Anyway, this is why I hate support from these big software giants (Microsoft is the same problem), and why


This is so different when compared with MadCap (sorry for swearing here, but yes I am reviewing if we should get a RH6 update, wait for RH7 or switch to Flare - I know they yet have to release their feedback server - but given the Adobe 'support' it might be worth to wait). I had sent MadCap an email with a few questions and within a minute (yes really 1 as in one minute) they called me back!

[RoboColum_n_]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your support woes. I'm not an Adobe employee or have any connection with them but I'd personally stick with RoboHelp from what I have seen and know about Madcap. If it would help, contact me offline at cmcandrewATidbsDOTcom to discuss this.

[JP Cornelissen]

A blog with the steps to take has been posted by Akshay Madan, Product Manager Adobe RoboHelp.

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2007/07/configuring_adobe_robohelp_ser.html

[RoboColum_n_]

Thanks for posting the blog URL John-Pierre. It makes for an interesting read.

[johndaigle · Accepted solution]

Hi, Colum and John-Pierre
Akshay's post on the Tech Comm blog was a very pleasant surprise to me. During beta testing and writing my article for the Developer Network,
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/robohelp/articles/rhserver.html I missed this and did not include it.

It's terrific news that RH Server 6 no longer has the "License Manager" in Configuration Manager.

That means all the folks who wanted to have projects with separate reports can now do so without having to pay another $1,000+ for another license (as they did in the eHelp/Macromedia days!) So now you can just set up new IIS websites and point your Configuration manager to a new website and it configures the new server site. This will allow the author to create reports just for that site without having to pay extra.

This is a tremedous "sleeper" benefit that flew right past me. Akshay also addresses John-Pierre's question about Ports.
Thanx,
john

[JP Cornelissen]

Hi John,

Thanks for your post. This basically answers my original (and untill now still remaining) question on the number of licenses that would be needed with RH X5 / RoboEngine.

Now there is also a wish, namely to not having to create seperate IIS websites for each help system. A seperate website means something like this:
- http://product1_englishhelp.mywebsite.com
- http://product1_germanhelp.mywebsite.com
- http://product2_englishhelp.mywebsite.com
- http://product2_dutchhelp.mywebsite.com

I (and I expect many web server administrators) would love to see only a single website with different 'folders' in which each help system is located, example:
- http://help.mywebsite.com (= actual website)
- http://help.mywebsite.com/product1/english
- http://help.mywebsite.com/product1/german
- http://help.mywebsite.com/product2/english
- http://help.mywebsite.com/product2/dutch

[johndaigle]

Using your existing RH X5 scenario, you would need 4 licenses for four websites. That's why I was so excited about the new RH Server 6 pricing model. The old Macromedia pricing scheme is based on one license per database to store user search input, traffic stats and generate reports for that discreet website content. RoboEngine was based on 5 year old technology, the old original Active Server Pages (.asp) application, it requires your license or server site to be at the root of a specific domain, not a folder below the root as you (and me) are wanting. RH Server 6 is an improvement, but built on that same model because Adobe did not have time to do a ground up after acquiring it from Macromedia.

The Adobe team is spending huge amounts of time on the new version of RoboHelp 7 *client*. I'm not real sure what they have in mind for the server piece in the next release. There was no mention of this at the STC conference "sneak peek" month before last. My hope is that there will eventually be a re-architecting of the server piece in a future release that takes advantage of some of the newer technologies that were not available when eHelp was developing it 4 to 5 years ago.

In talking to the Adobe managers and engineers who were at STC, they spoke excitedly about the potential for RH Server so I see a bright future for it, I just don't know about exact timing.

What is also interesting to me is that Adobe is expected to release two versions of RoboHelp (6 and 7) in one year. This is not typical of their normal 12-18 month cycle. But they are being very aggressive in putting together their new technical communications platform (RoboHelp/Framemaker/Captivate/Acrobat3D) and are clearly on a much more accelerated development timeframe than in the past. Which is good news for us as authors! More goodies, more often

Thanx,
john

[Hamlet615]

Another question about licensing. Our documentation group has 3 tech writers. We are planning to use RoboHelp Server 6 to start delving into server-side help and all the glorious reporting capabilities.

As I understand it, the boxed RoboHelp Server 6 consists of two CDs--one CD contains the RoboHelp server software that will be installed on a web server. The other CD contains the actual RoboHelp application that we install on our laptops. But what is unclear to me is: will we need 3 licenses to install the RoboHelp application on each of our laptops? Please advise.

[johndaigle]

Mind you, I am an instructor and don't get involved in sales. But from my own experience, here is how I would interpret your scenario:

1 license for the RoboHelp Server for the 1 web server.
3 licenses for each of 3 laptops (Adobe's policy is to allow each license to be activated on a desktop and laptop for convenience).

If for some reason you want to "deactivate" on one machine and move that license to another, it is a very simple process and only takes a few seconds over the internet and is done from a built-in menu. But I believe they do limit the number of times to 20 for doing this deactivation/activation manuver.

As for the physical "box", these days the 1 RoboHelp Server CD comes in 1 black album type box similar to the way DVD movies are packaged. Each RoboHelp 6 authoring "client" CD comes is a separate but similar DVD album.

A further note that often comes up. In the past there has been a misunderstanding about whether purchasing the RoboHelp Server automatically somehow included a license of the Client app. This is not the case. They are not "bundled" as such.

Hope this helps
john

[JJG10101]

Great information, thanks for the post. One question: don't you think Adobe could eliminate at least some of the confusion by indicating "Note: does not include RoboHelp client." on the RoboHelp 7 Server page? I guess I'd call this an "error by omission." Just my two Euros.

[johndaigle]

I guess their thinking is that they are two completely different products with one being called a server to distinguish between the two. But your point is well taken and I'll pass it along.
john

[JJG10101]

Thanks John. From where I sit (a soon-to-be customer), it's a touch confusing. My boss asked me to assess the various RoboHelp products, and until this morning, I assumed the Server package included the client app. Thank goodness for the forums!