RH 2020 - condition expressions

[joannah98656944]

We are using condition expressions and having problems. I found this in the user guide.

Does this mean, that you cannot have both an include an exclude in the same condition expression? A condition expression must have all includes or all excludes?

Thank you

[joannah98656944]

We have this and it is not working. If you text with multiple condition tags applied, all the text is excluded. 

We have content that applies to more than one role (sometimes 4 or 5 roles - and that content has 4 or 5 condition tags applied to it) and steps that are different depending on your role. So how do we need to set up our condition expressions? 

 

[Peter Grainge]

At its simplest in 2020 anything in the TOC used is included so you only need to exclude what you don't want. Also historically in RoboHelp exclude expressions have always worked better.

See if this helps. Build Expressions (grainge.org)

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[Jeff_Coatsworth]

See Peter's topic on it? - https://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/build_expressions/expressions.htm

[joannah98656944]

So, in answer to my question, you cannot have a condition expression that contains both excludes and includes. I have tried it and you cannot. I notice that in your example project, Peter, all your condition expressions are excludes, which as you say, is what works.

I think that the software should not allow you to select this combination if it does not work. 

We are going to have to rewrite content to accommodate this now. 

[Peter Grainge]

Your question was can you have both and the answer to that is you can. My response was a general response advising that in most scenarios exclude alone works best for the reasons I gave. That is why I prefaced my answer "at its simplest".

There probably are scenarios where they are needed but I personally never found one. No doubt there is someone who can chip in.

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[Amebr]

"Include" would typically be used if you apply multiple conditions to the same piece of text. However, you then need to use OR, and also get your ANDs and ORs in the right order. And it gets mind-bending very quickly. And frankly my brain isn't big enough to figure it out or keep it straight once I do.

However, if you want to generate a standalone output that includes all unconditioned text and all text that is conditioned for Account_Administrator (regardless of any other tags that may be applied to that text), then setting the expression as "Include Account_Administrator" (no excludes at all), should produce what you want.

[joannah98656944]

You are right and it is mind bending! I am even struggling work out what it is we are trying to do! But essentially, we are trying to tag text for different roles. What you are suggesting works if you have multiple tags applied to paragraph tag for example. But when I have word that changes, depending on a role, this doesnt work. For example:

If you are launching a notification, do start > test settings 

• Start is tagged as both org admin and account admin
• Test is tagged as org admin and Settings is tagged as account admin

If I have condition tag that is for group manager (another role completely) which is just Include when Audience is group manager, then this is what is displayed: 

If you are launching a notification, do > 

That's not right is it? Because the text is tagged for other tags so why does it not display for Group Manager? Are we saying that we have to tag all text with some kind of tag? 

Are we trying to do something that Robohelp is not designed to do?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I've found it usually is clearer if you just repeat the whole sentence & tag it with the appropriate tag - then you never get partial bits hanging around.

[Amebr]

If you are launching a notification, do start > test settings 

• Start is tagged as both org admin and account admin
• Test is tagged as org admin and Settings is tagged as account admin

If I have condition tag that is for group manager (another role completely) which is just Include when Audience is group manager, then this is what is displayed: 

If you are launching a notification, do > 

This output is correct. When you generate for Group Manager only, any text that is NOT tagged will be included AND any text that is tagged for 'Group Manager' will be included.

When you tagged "Start" with 'Org Admin' and 'Account Admin' you said "this text is only relevant for 'Org Admin' and 'Account Admin' users". Therefore it is removed when you generate output for 'Group Manager' users as it is not relevant for them.