Using snippets and conditonal tags to single source content within the same deliverable.

[David Kinyon]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to use snippets the way I want to, and I haven't been able to locate any help on the matter. Here's what I'm trying to do:

Documenting two features that are 90% identical:

1. Create a snippet.

2. Create two condition tags, called FEATURE1 and FEATURE2.

3. Apply the condtional tags as required to the content of the snippet.

4. Place the snippet into topic called FEATURE1_TOPIC.

3. Place the snippet into another topic called FEATURE2_TOPIC.

I want only condition FEATURE1 to appear in topic FEATURE1_TOPIC, and only condition FEATURE2 to appear in FEATURE2_TOPIC. But I cannot figure out how to tell the snippet, "Only display FEATURE1 conditonal," or, "Only display FEATURE2 conditional."

Same problem with variables. If I were to attempt to use variables instead of conditions, I don't see how I could set the value of the variable at the snippet insert level.

In RoboHelp parlance, I believe what I'm wanting to do is to apply a "condition expression" to a snippet, and/or apply a "variable set" to a snippet.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Not quite sure why it's not working - your snippet has text that applies to each conditional tag; you place the snippets in their respective topics - then you apply the condition to the topic. In your preset you say which condition you want to see - that's what you should get.
What are you seeing? maybe some screenshots would illustrate it better?

[Peter Grainge]

I'm not clear on what you are trying to achieve. Is this it?

You need two outputs each with a topic that is 90% the same but certain parts vary. Correct? You only need one topic.

The main part of the content needs no tagging. The rest needs to be completed with snippets where in one output Feature 1 snippet will display and in the other output Feature 2 will display. 

Ignoring variables for now, then you put both Snippets in the topic and apply the appropriate tag. It's best to think of a NOT condition expressions so apply

• The Feature 1 tag to the Feature 2 snippet.
• The Feature 2 tag to the Feature 1 snippet

Next create two expressions, NOT Feature 1 and NOT Feature 2.

To generate the Feature 1 version you select the NOT Feature 2 expression. That way it will exclude the snippet with the Feature 2 tag and your output will contain the Feature 1 snippet. The other way around for the other output.

The variables within the snippets should then sort themselves out.

Try that and let us know.

________________________________________________________

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I know I've done what I described - I have several snippets that have mixed content that is conditioned depending on what product is being used (I create separate help outputs for each product). Then I have separate topics (that I also condition by product) because the positioning in my TOC changes depending on which product is in play (e.g. in one product our CRM module stands alone; in the other it sits as a sub-module to our A/R module).

[David Kinyon]

As I understand RoboHelp operations, me being a fresh newbie to the product (with plenty of experience using other similar products), I can only apply condition expressions at the "output preset" level. The problem I have is that I only have one output preset (this is all one deliverable), so I cannot use conditon expressions, unless I can apply them at a level lower than the output preset.

I haven't had a chance to try to follow what Jeff has recommended yet, being busy with other work for the latter part of yesterday and continuing this morning. I'll get to it as soon as possible, it's possible that I'm missing something very basic here.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

No, if you're only creating one output, then what you want isn't going to work the way you think - you'd be looking at the Dynamic filtering that Peter talked about - but that would only work if you're ok with allowing the consumer of the output to be able to see both FEATURE1 and FEATURE2 content.
Have a look at Peter's site if you haven't already (grainge.org)

[David Kinyon]

I'll be very specific. 🙂 Consider one product line with two models. Both models share many features, which are often identical, but one important difference is that model 1 has one radio, and model 2 has multiple radios.

Because customers will be purchasing and installing both models at the same time, we are providing them with one documentation deliverable (in both HTML and PDF), with one chapter describing model 1, and another chapter describing model 2.

For those features that are identical between the two models, using snippets to single source the feature content works great. However, there are features that are identical except for information related tto the radio(s). Then the content varies, but only a bit: different screenshots of the UI, different CLI output, and simpler stuff like "determine if the radio..." v. "determine if all radios..."

I want to use conditions in the snippet (SINGLE_RADIO and MULTI_RADIO), so that one snippet can be used, and put that snippet into both chapters but govern how it appears in output. One chapter should only output SINGLE_RADIO (i.e., it should exclude MULTI_RADIO), and the other only output MUTLI_RADIO (exclude SINGLE_RADIO). And these two chapters are in the same deliverable, so as best I can tell, I can't use condtion expressions, which apply only to the output preset, whereas I only have one output preset.

I briefly looked at dynamic filtering, thinking it was probably what I was aiming for, and ran a couple of tests but it kinda made my head spin. I don't want customers to have to select which of the two models they're looking for, I just want to produce the correct conditionalized output for each chapter.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Admirable for trying to single-source this - but RH isn't really built to handle component content management like other sorts of software do. I'd just use snippets for the 100% common to all topics parts, and then create unique content in the same topics for the different bits.

[David Kinyon]

Cool. Most of it (the screen shots and CLI output) aren't really "single-sourced" in the traditional way, those can just be dealt with normally. Plus there's other content (several of the procedure steps for example) that are identical and can be "snippet-ized" (there's a verb for ya!), it just requires a series of snippets rather than one single snippet.

I will say, to anyone at RoboHelp who may be reading this, having this level of condition and variable control at the snippet level is super handy and ramps up the ability to single source. It would be very handy to add this (I can create a feature request, but given the difficulty I had in describing it to you all, I'm not sure I could create a feature request that would make any sense!).

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Try using the Tracker (https://tracker.adobe.com/) with some screenshots of what you're trying to accomplish - that would probably work better.

[David Kinyon]

Thanks, Jeff. I opened a feature request. 

Thanks to both of you for your time and help with this.

Cheers,

Dave

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Post the link - others may vote on it too.

[David Kinyon]

Here's the link: https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/RH-12546

I also created another feature request, requesting that the standard Windows right-click context menu be added to the "Source" mode (XML editing mode), so that we can cut, copy and paste via the expected menu from within the Source mode. Otherwise, you have to use the keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste. https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/RH-12547

[Peter Grainge]

I'm still missing the objective. Are you wanting two outputs for different audiences or one output that almost duplicates a topic but with some difference and in the same output?

You can duplicate a preset and then make just the changes you need for a different audience. There is also a Dynamic Content Filtering feature that lets users apply whichever filter applies to them. Somehow that doesn't seem to be what you want though.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

The condition expression will apply to all topics but your setup requires different expressions for different topics. I can't readily see a way of doing that.

By now you have probably spent more time than just creating two topics for the different models. 🙂 A setup with one topic giving a link to two others and the user chooses the required model.

Tags and expressions are essentially to create different outputs or to work with DCF and I agree the latter is not really what you want.

________________________________________________________

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