eWriter performance

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John Johann
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eWriter performance

Unread post by John Johann »

I have ca. 100MB spread across ~30 H&M projects which are output to separate CHM. It's been pointed out once or twice :-) that CHM is old and creaky. Given the need for a local installation and the number of image and topic files involved, eWriter would appear to be an interesting alternative.

I created a parallel master project pulling the individual projects together to output to eWriter without breaking the current set-up. The eWriter file (without exe) is ca. 110MB in size (will probably grow), but is actually quite snappy when I click through the menus and topics. TaskManager shows around 50MB memory load in comparison to ~20MB in the case of the run-time merged CHM.

Has anyone else made the switch from multiple CHM to a single eWriter file?
How has performance been?
Anyone have larger projects?
For those using local webhelp, do you install thousands of files?

Thanks
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Tim Green
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Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

Which skin type are you using for eWriter? The V3 skins from the Premium Pack will make quite large files because of the way the V3 WebHelp is saved. This is something that is going to be improved in a future update. If you need more compact files I would recommend trying the older V2 WebHelp/eWriter skins or one of the standard HM skins.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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John Johann
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Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:35 pm

Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi Tim,
I'm still on H&M V7 last build. I first used a slight variant of HM7-Help-WebHelp-Responsive. I then tried an original PP_DEMO_V2WebHelpEwriter which resulted in an eWriter file about 2MB smaller. Original PP_DEMO_V3_ewriter_Minimalist_Blue_Diamond is about 10MB larger.

Do I need to set anything specific to test the file from the command line:
If I enter

Code: Select all

 path\filename.ewriter index.html?topicname.htm
at the command prompt, I only ever get the intro page. The eViewer app is installed.
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Tim Green
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Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

You need quotes around all the arguments:

Standard skins and V2 skins:

Code: Select all

<path>eViewer.exe "<path>mybook.ewriter" "index.html?this_page.html#anchor"
V3 skins:

Code: Select all

<path>eViewer.exe "<path>mybook.ewriter" "this_page.html?anchor=anchorname"
See this page for more details:
https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_w ... tions.html
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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John Johann
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Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi Tim,
I'd seen that page and tried a variety of combinations with/without quotes and with/without "index.html" to no avail.
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Tim Green
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Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by Tim Green »

John Johann wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:35 am I'd seen that page and tried a variety of combinations with/without quotes and with/without "index.html" to no avail.
This definitely works fine. Please mail me a small demo project at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and I'll test it for you.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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John Johann
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Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi Tim,
Seems to have been a problem with the eViewer app. It wasn't in my H&M default install directory, so I had downloaded it from the store. Launching an eWriter file via double-click worked fine.
Entering the path to the install directory and the name of the exe plus file and target topic gave me an access denied ("Zugriff verweigert").

I then downloaded the app from the eWriter homepage and installed. Calling it from the command line with file and target topic works.

The info above is pretty much all in your help, however, I would expect it to work when the official app has been installed and that the developer-required install is more a fallback if the user hasn't already got the app.
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Tim Green
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Re: eWriter performance

Unread post by Tim Green »

John Johann wrote: Sat Sep 12, 2020 10:35 am The info above is pretty much all in your help, however, I would expect it to work when the official app has been installed and that the developer-required install is more a fallback if the user hasn't already got the app.
This isn't quite correct. See the page for using eWriter for software documentation:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_p ... _help.html

This should probably also be included in the general eWriter chapters as well to make it easier to find. :?

The point is that the Windows Store app is really only for people opening the files by double-clicking on the file in Windows Explorer. If you're going to be calling eWriter files and topics from your application you need to do it from the Win32 application.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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