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Automating Help BuildsUsing WebWorks AutoMap

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All help volumes include Output/wwhdata/info.txt /wwhelp folder and index.htm file are ... Repeat for each help volume. wpuba.exe helps, but only a little ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Automating Help BuildsUsing WebWorks AutoMap


1
Automating Help Builds Using WebWorks AutoMap
  • Don TopazKronos Incorporated

2
  • Our help system
  • Dynamically merging help
  • Planning for automation
  • Pitfalls, Brick walls, and Close calls
  • Lessons learned (maybe)

3
The Kronos Help System

4
(No Transcript)
5
Help features
  • 15 Products, each with its own help volume
  • Cross-references
  • Popups 2 varieties
  • Link from help to the application
  • Supplemental customizable content for each help
    screen

6
Dynamically merging help
  • Available with WebWorks help
  • Can be any combination of help volumes
  • Contents, Index, and Search are all integrated
  • Merge can occur at any time, as long as
    individual volumes are mergeable
  • Available only at help volume level

7
Merge Requirements
  • All help volumes built with the same WebWorks
    Help template
  • All help volumes include Output/wwhdata/info.txt
  • /wwhelp folder and index.htm file are copied to
    the same level as help output folders

8
Our help outputs
  • 15 products
  • English help
  • Plus Spanish and French
  • Plus a 3rd-party reseller who needs special
    branding
  • Plus 80 PDF manuals also produced as HTML output
  • each for both Kronos the 3rd-party reseller

9
Source file features
  • A single FrameMaker template for all docs (help,
    books, single-sourced)
  • Use variables for products terms that change for
    Kronos/reseller and for book titles
  • Global and local conditions
  • Creative methods to allow inter-volume
    cross-references

10
The Challenge

11
Build process before automation
  • Open the book file in FrameMaker
  • Apply the appropriate variables and conditions
  • Run AutoMap client
  • Modify output folder name and title.js file
  • Repeat for each help volume
  • wpuba.exe helps, but only a little
  • As product line grew, our building workload grew
    geometrically

12
Needs
  • Build more help
  • Build help consistently without manual error
  • Log and identify build errors
  • Avoid manual intervention

13
Planning challenges
  • How long does it take to create something that
    you havent created before?
  • Tell me what it is that you dont know
  • Keeping the patient alive during the operation
  • Do we do the job ourselves or seek outside help?

14
Planning decisions
  • Choose a methodology that we could understand
  • Recognize the difference between Ideal and Good
    Enough
  • Identify clear and attainable milestones, with
    short distances between them
  • Deal with toughest issues first, not last

15
The thorniest issue Accessing FrameMaker
programmatically
  • Need to set conditions and variables before
    running AutoMap.
  • Need to generate index with correct settings

16
What we knew and what we didnt
  • The subjects in which we were expert-
    FrameMaker WebWorks- Putting together batch
    processes
  • The subjects in which we were clueless-
    FrameScript- Any other mechanism to
    programmatically access FrameMaker

17
Options for the FrameMaker problem
  • FrameScript
  • Prostration and supplication before Engineering
    deities
  • Use a semi-automatic process and declare victory
  • Hunt for other solutions .

18
BuildFire
  • BuildFire 2005 assists you in the production
    process by providing the means of pre-configuring
    output profiles that you maintain independently
    of the FrameMaker source files. Output profiles
    include
  • Conditional text settings
  • Variable definitions
  • Help Script and XML definitions, including
    automatically triggering post-processing scripts

19
The Answer wpjob.exe
  • wpjob, the other callable interface to AutoMap
  • Uses a job file in XML format
  • XML job file specifies variables, conditions,
    context (for context-sensitive help), top-level
    title, etc.
  • Batch file specifies output folder name, location
    of log files, post-processing steps

20
How it works
21
Job file
22
Batch file
23
The good stuff
  • It works!!!!!
  • Easily searchable logs of all builds
  • We can maintain it ourselves

24
The stumbling blocks
  • Documentation for job files and wpjob
  • Long variable list cant import a file
  • Special characters
  • WebWorks garbles my XML file!

25
Lessons
  • Maximize elements that you know how to do,
    minimize elements that you dont
  • Good Enough can be better than Ideal
  • Test at each step, and keep a backup of anything
    important
  • Accept WebWorks for what it is

26
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