Question on excluding content from publishing

[AnahidMA]

I read here about using Conditional Tags from publishing, and have set that up. But here is my issue - I publish content to a test site first for review. After review, I publish to a production site. 

The new content I'm building covers several subjects, all with different areas. I'm working on several at a time. I *can* tag them all, but it will be a drag when I publish to test to untag them, then retag.

Is there any way to tag my Books in the TOC? I haven't found a way yet, but that would be much simpler. Is there a better way to handle this? I *could* have two different Projects, but then would have to copy over data and add the screenshots, which would also be a lot of work. Very open to any of your suggestions.

Thank you, stay healthy!

Anahid

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What version of RH are you running? Classic or New UI (RH2019/2020)?

[AnahidMA]

Hi Jeff,

I was just adding that - realized as soon as I posted. I used to be able to edit/delete questions, but cannot. This is Robohelp 2019 - Classic.

Also, is there a way to extract all topics with a conditional flag to track them? It would be nice if it displayed in the list of topics. I suppose I could print all based on that flag, but I just want the topics not the content.

many thanks,

Anahid

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yeah, editing has been disabled for all except moderators.
So I'm unclear as to what the problem is - you've got content that is applicable to one tag (A) and other content applicable to another tag (B), right? You can apply tags within topics to have one or the other appear in the output & you can tag entire topics to include/exclude them in the output. In either case, you build your TOC to include everything and then apply a condition in the output layout. The TOC will not show any topics that are excluded by your expression. Likewise, any bits of content within the topics won't appear if your expression excludes them. The easiest way to manage this is to set it all up with a build expresion filtering out one tag (like B), then copy it and edit it so that it filters out the other (like A).

[AnahidMA]

Hi Jeff,

I didn't see where I could actually tag a book until now. So if I want, I could tag topics Windchill PLM and Product Hierarchy AND tag the entire Supply Training book, and none would write to the production KB, correct? I was looking at the Properties for the book, but now see that I can apply a conditional tag to the entire book, so I assume that covers everything I've added to that book. I looked a little further after reading your response, so thanks in advance 🙂

Stay healthy 🙂

Anahid

[Amebr]

For web based output in Classic you must tag your topics if you don't want the entire topic in the output. Tagging the table of contents only excludes the table of contents entry. You would still be able to find the topic using search.

So I don't have to tag and untag content and topics, I have two outputs defined. A Review output which publishes to my test server and a Production output which publishes to my production server.  They have different conditional build expressions: 

• The 'Review' build express excludes tags that I'm still working on and aren't ready for review
• The 'Production' build expression excludes all tags that aren't production ready. (If you can, I recommend removing tags from content when the content is ready for production, otherwise things can become a bit of a mess. Also, anything untagged will always be included, which simplifies things significantly.)

This way I only need to update the build expressions, not every topic.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Amebr]

Oh and you can show condition tags in the Topic List by right-clicking on one of the column names and selecting Topic Build Tag and Content Build Tag.

Also look at the Reports. The Topic Properties report has an Options button that lets you select what information is included. The Build Tags report lists each tag and the topics with that tag assigned (either at content or topic level.) 

[AnahidMA]

Hi @Amebr , 

Thank you - yes, I have one output which publishes to my test site, and another to the production site. I send out the specific URLs for review, so my main concern is publishing to production. I will tag each incomplete or review needed topic to ensure this is kept correct, then exclude from publishing.

Kind of surprised/embarrassed I never did this before, but usually we develop completely before publishing. This project will last 2-3 years.

Stay healthy!

Anahid