WebHelp deployment: our server but to the world

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Dave Gehman
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

WebHelp deployment: our server but to the world

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Just noticed that there is verbiage around JavaScript content in WebHelp that is possibly going to be blocked by EI and Chrome. The scary words:
"Without a web server environment, browsers like Internet Explorer and Chrome are unable to confirm the security of active features in HTML files and they block them to be on the safe side."

(No, I don't know what a "web server environment" is or how that might affect the security blockages.)

If we deploy our WebHelp on our server for public consumption, does this mean that our users (who could be using any browser) will have features blocked from them by their browsers?
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Martin Wynne
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Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: WebHelp deployment: our server but to the world

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Dave Gehman wrote:If we deploy our WebHelp on our server for public consumption, does this mean that our users (who could be using any browser) will have features blocked from them by their browsers?
Hi Dave,

No. What the scary words mean is that if you open the local published HTML files directly in your browser on your own computer (File > Open... menu item in your browser), some features may be blocked or go wrong.

To avoid that, while it is running H&M provides a "web server environment" called HM2GO which runs on your computer and pretends to be serving the local files from the web. When you use the option to display your project after publishing, H&M uses that pretend server. While you have H&M running, you can use it yourself by opening local files as http://127.0.0.1/C:/...

Note that it is a bare bones web server. For example if you use PHP files instead of HTML (avoids any caching delays), HM2GO won't run the PHP content if any (and the only browser which will render the HTML content of local PHP files is Microsoft Edge -- 3 cheers for Edge!).

regards,

Martin.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp deployment: our server but to the world

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Thanks again, Martin.

I'm more concerned about using our server to publish to the world - not with publishing from, say, my own computer to me.

I don't know how the Web works any more.

The question I have to get answered is: if we place our WebHelp on our server and link to it from our public, Web-based software, will the users of our software have problems with the JavaScript or other content in the WebHelp?
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Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: WebHelp deployment: our server but to the world

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Dave Gehman wrote:The question I have to get answered is: if we place our WebHelp on our server and link to it from our public, Web-based software, will the users of our software have problems with the JavaScript or other content in the WebHelp?
Hi Dave,

See the first word of my previous post. Here it is again: No. They won't have any problems.

This assumes they haven't switched JavaScript off. But no-one outside GCHQ does that nowadays because 90% of the web would stop working. And 99% of users wouldn't know how to turn it off.

Martin.
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