Short URL in the browser address bar

[ChiruPawan]

Hi we are using Robo Help product. we launched it on Apache Tomcat server.

When we publish a project in an area and try to view that, the URL in the address bar is displayed very long with % characters and other junk.

can anyone please let me know how to customize the URL? a user friendly URL in place of the long URL. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Mayank_Agrawal]

You can try customizing the URL using the following pattern

http://<SERVERNAME>:<PORT>/robohelp/robo/server/<AREANAME>/projects/<PROJECTNAME>/<PROJECTNAME>.htm

Mayank

[ChiruPawan]

Hi Mayank can you please be a bit more elaborative? where should i give this path? I mean in which file? we tried many things in the rewrites file but nothing is working. this is an urgent issue which needs to be resolved by Friday. Please help.

[Mayank_Agrawal]

This is the user friendly URL that can be used to refer the help system hosted on a RoboHelp server. No file needs to be updated to access this URL.

where <SERVERNAME>:<PORT> refers to the server name and port where you have hosted the help system

<AREANAME> is the name of RoboHelp project area where you have published the help system

<PROJECTNAME> is the name of the RoboHelp Project

[RoboColum_n_]

This sounds like you are trying to view the project through the Web Administrator. When you do this you get all sorts of additional information included in the URL (e.g. window definitions). When the help is called (e.g. through an API call) the end user sees a much shorter URL along the lines of what Mayank has provided.

If you are wanting to shorten the actual URL that is returned by your browser, why would you want to? I wouldn't even go there as it will depend on the browser being used.

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Vamsi_Kiran]

Hi Colum,

can you please explain these 2 points from  your posts. I am very new to Robohelp so I am not able to understand  some of these terms

1. When  the help is called (e.g. through an API call) the end user sees a much  shorter URL along the lines of what Mayank has provided.

2.  If  you are wanting to shorten the actual URL that is returned by your  browser, why would you want to? I wouldn't even go there as it will  depend on the browser being used.

I  am attaching the screenshot which explains you clearly about my  requirement in a sequence.

1 st screenshot shows you the login screen

2nd screenshot shows the projects window where in if we click on that displays the projects

3rd screenshot shows the project 'CCC' and when we click on View Project opens 4th screenshot

If you see the URL in screenshot it contains lot of % characters and other junk. I want a user friendly URL in place of that. can you please help me? I have to put this in place Friday, anyhelp on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for looking into this.

[tuls_garg]

Hi Vamsi,

In case you are looking for a small URL  that you want to share with your users using which your help hosted on  server can be accessed, you can use the URL as :

http://172.26.98.50/compass2/server?prj=CCC&area=general

Actually when you click on "View Project" from Web Admin page, the URL generated is the above one only.

And as Colum correctly mentioned, when this request goes to  server, server appends some more information to this URL about the  window/skin etc.So you see an expanded URL with a lot of % signs. And  this happens so fast that you don't see the above URL.

But  for the user viewing help, he need not worry about that expanded URL.  He only needs the above URL and server will auto expand it.

@Mayank:  The URL provided by you will work but then it will not work as help  hosted from RoboHelp Server. If user crafts the URL the way you have  mentioned, it will bypass RoboHelp Server and serve help content  directly from Tomcat. As a result of which, no analytics will be  captured by RoboHelp Server and none of the server functionality will  work for that project.

Tulika

Adobe RoboHelp Team

[Vamsi_Kiran]

Hi Tulika Thank you for the reply. I understand what you told. Actually it is the user who wants the small URL in the address bar. they dont want to see such a long URL in the address bar. Hopefully you understood my problem now. Is there way to avoid appending the % symbols in the URL and put a customized URL? Please let me know.

[RoboColum_n_]

Sorry Vamsi. The simple answer is "No". I guess you could use some sort of redirect but that would only affect the initial part of the path - the part Tulika mentioned. The only other way to avoid the % is to avoid spaces in file / directory names.

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Peter Grainge]

Wonder if the user has complained to Google about their links?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Captiv8r]

@Peter - LOL!

I've just returned home from a trip and am catching up on threads. Apologies if this has been mentioned already and I missed it.

What about using a URL shortening service such as TinyURL or Bit.ly?

Click here to visit TinyURL

Click here to visit Bit.ly

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Vamsi_Kiran]

Hi Tulika,

Can you please let me know how you got that short URL?

[tuls_garg]

Hi Vamsi,

RobooHelp Server documentation has information on the format of the URL to be used to view projects.

For a flashhelp project named "<prjname>", published to area named "<areaname>", can be viewed at following URL:

http://<Host Name>:<Port Number>/robohelp/server?project=<prjname>&area=<areaname>&type=flashhelp

For a webhelp project named "<prjname>", published to area named "<areaname>", can be viewed at following URL:

http://<Host Name>:<Port  Number>/robohelp/server?project=<prjname>&area=<areaname>

Please note, as Colum correctly mentioned, there is no way you can escape from the longer URL showing up in the browser. These short URLs will ultimately expand into the longer ones.

Tulika

[MeWrite]

Tulika -- I tried using the url you suggested for WebHelp Pro, however, using that URL gives me another issue.  The URL you suggested resolves to this url string:

http://{IPADDRESS}:8080/Orig/server?%26area%3Dlibrary%26mgr%3Dagm%26agt%3Dwsm%26wnd%3DDevOrigHelp%7C...

The Windows does display correctly, however, the TOC does not render correctly.  The Following screen shot displays the TOC that is rendered using the URL you suggest.  As you can see it hides some topics and books and moves others to a different location all together.  Is there another URL that I can call that would display the custom window and call the TOC correctly for WebHelp Pro?

This is the TOC that should be displaying:

We also noticed by using this link when we click on a book that it displays the topic above that book instead of the last topic that the user was on.  This is very confusing for the end users.

Regards,

CJ