Two people one Project published to RoboHelp Server

[sia09]

• We are two people in a team working on Robohelp 2017 on the same project.
• We have two different licenses of Robhelp installed but working on same project on different topics
• When we publish to Robohelp server, the server overrides the last published project. So the result is that the last published file shows the updates done by the person who has published overriding the previous project published.

This is not we expect from Robohelp server. It should merge the updates done by both of us. Is it possible?

[Title fixed]

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hang on - the title says you have 2 projects & you're merging them, but the body of your question says that you have 2 people both working on the same project - which is it? If you have 2 projects, then merging is done before publishing it to the RH Server (see Peter Grainge's instructions about merging on grainge.org). If it's just 1 project and 2 people working on it, you must have some sort of source control in play because it will never work with 2 people trying to access the same project at the same time. Once you have checked in all your changes, you would then check the project out for generating and publishing to your RH Server instance.

[Peter Grainge]

Just to pick up one point Jeff has made, although I don't think it affects you based on the body of your post, I understand RoboHelp Server can merge two separate projects rather than using the merge method you would use without RoboHelp Server.

As Jeff has said, you should not have two people working on a project without source control. The only way you might get away with it is to copy a correct version of the project from the lead author to the second author. The second author can then edit topics or create new ones but the lead must never work on those. At some point you copy the edited topics back into the lead author's project and they import the new ones. The lead must do all work related to the TOC, index and suchlike. It's a bit prone to error but if you must, that could work. It would need tight management.

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See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[sia09]

So you mean it is the way the robohelp server works...when two people work on the same project and publish...The latest one overrides the previous one published...

[Peter Grainge]

As I said earlier, you have two options. The correct way is source control

and the hack is what I outlined.

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

[sia09]

Could u explain me the steps for using source control?

[Peter Grainge]

I don't use source control but I think you would have to speak to your developers to set it up and understand how to use it.

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See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[sia09]

So it has nothing to do with the RoboHelp software ?

[Peter Grainge]

It is separate software and there are many options. RoboHelp links to it so that it can get the required files out of source control and check them back in. Whilst checked out, the other author is prevented from working on the checked out topic but is free to work on others.

I'm not trying to push you away but I think a chat with your developers will help you understand it better. There is also a separate Source Control forum.

Don't be frightened away by what I have said but there is a learning curve and it needs to be set up properly.

---

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

RH integrates with various types of Source Control software so that when you open a file in a project, it checks out a copy of the topic for you to work with while leaving the original version of the content back on the server (or share or repo - wherever your projects are stored).

[sia09]

The problem is that we need to work on different topics of the same project....

[sia09]

Pls provide an easy solution to this

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

The solution is that you need to implement source control so that both people can work on the same project at the same time; then when it comes time to generate and publish your content, you only generate with those topics that are checked back in. Topics still being worked on by the other person will remain in their original state when they were checked out.

[sia09]

Sorry for creating the confusion. ..It's one project worked by two people.