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SueC2009
Inspiring
May 5, 2011
Question

What's the difference between generating and publishing?

  • May 5, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1114 views

Hello all,

I am having some trouble understanding these concepts. I understand that the publishing feature allows you to publish to a web server, but if i am saving the output on my local PC and then providing that to developers for posting on a web server, then what is the difference? Can I just give them what gets generated in the SSL > Webhelp folder on my PC? Or should I really do a publish? What is the difference and when is the the best time to use each method?

Many thanks.

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1 reply

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 5, 2011
  • You generate to a local file.
  • You publish to a server.

It's OK to just generate and give that to developers. They will then have to upload everything you give them to a server and in some cases only they can do that, for instance where only they have access to the server or they are creating an installer that will go to the customer site.

Where you have or can be given access to the server, then there are advantages.

  • RoboHelp can be set to only change modified files.
  • When you generate, the folder is emptied first. That doesn't apply to the publish location. As a result you can place files there that can be accessed from your help but are not part of the project.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
May 5, 2011

Hi Sue

Hopefully my esteemed colleague won't mind my offering a little tidbit here.

As he explained, you generate to create the output. You then publish that generated output to the server. I noted that what was mentioned was that "It's OK to just generate and give that to developers".

My reason for adding to the post is to say that even if this is all you are doing, publishing can come to your aid. You may likely have the impression that once you generate you now have to make that content available to the developers. And often that's done by copying the content to an intermediate folder. You notify the developers it's ready and they go copy it from the intermediate folder to the web server. And it's at this point the Publishing process can actually simplify your life.

By defining a Publishing destination as the intermediate folder it becomes a single click operation to populate the intermediate folder with your generated output. You won't have to open Windows Explorer afterward, then manually copy the files.

Cheers... Rick

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Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 5, 2011

Maybe. In many places though it gets done the way the developers want, rather than what may be more logical.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge


In our case, the developers want the new build in a zip file that gets given to installers who visit the sites. They just want the new stuff in a zip file, nice and clean. They do the trashing, cannot be done by the developers or the author.

I don't think there is a right and wrong way of going about this. It depends on how each organisation wants to do it.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
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