Link to external file (server)

[Aitch]

Thanks to Laurie's post http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtop ... 22&t=11250, I had a brainwave....

But don't know if this will end up in a headache or not.
Our release notes are generally sent out as a PDF on the installation CD, but... now that we're moving to more webhelp orientation, I thought it might be a good idea to have a link to the document in the help file.

Initially I was thinking of just doing a good 'ole copy & paste of the release notes document, but these tend to change at the 11th hour.

In an ideal world, I would love to have the full notes display on the help file - which means snippets.. or something similar. But, what is the best way for me to have a topic which shows the contents of the document, and links to the document which they can update ad hoc?

or am I trying to reach for the stars and hitting a tree?


*note: it seems that we can convert the pdf to html - which means I can use the #merge function, but that still means I need to copy the documents over to my local drive. I would like to have it automate through the server. Also, it would be great to use that option which will work with all the published files (html, chm and pdf)..

[Aitch]

My first try at a merge html worked okay... ish.. - although that is not really the way I want to go.

But don't know if it's a bug or just my editing that cause the header to not show properly.
See image

This is on the webhelp document and the header has now changed to a smaller size and text is visible behind it.

I have followed the #merge instructions and the document is included in the project folder. The content of the merged file is showing 100% correct though.

Maybe I'm trying to get blood out of a stone.

[Aitch]

Okay... so I thought 'Insert OLE object' will work..

which it did!!! but only for the first page

my 'test' document worked, because it was only one page. I noticed my mistake when I linked to a document with more than one page..

Back to the drawing board.

[Martin Wynne]

Hi Heidi,

Have you tried using an iframe tag? This will pull in your release notes page when the user views the topic -- whereas #MERGE pulls it in at compile time.

Then you can update the notes 5 minutes before the user reads them.

Insert an HTML Code Object something like:

<iframe width="100%" height="750" src="http://our_domain.com/release_notes.htm"></iframe>

which will put the notes in a scrolling box 750 pixels high.

regards,

Martin.

[Aitch]

Thanks for the reply Martin,

I've not thought about that (I'm not all that clued up with HTML code - contrary to popular belief).. will this only work on html webhelp though?

And, sorry for all the questions, can the link only be a url? - I guess I can use my process of elimination to answer those questions.

Thanks again for the help

*edit* - and - can that work with something other than HTML?

[Aitch]

Ohhh!!! I just managed to get the pdf (hosted on SharePoint for now) to show with the iframe!

Thank you Martin!
Now to get them to host the document somewhere public.

[Aitch]

One more thing..

If (and this is a posibility), the document is NOT available on a hosted site and only on our intranet, how do I go about entering the correct filepath so that it can be viewed by anybody viewing this?

The reason I ask is because I had a quick look on FF with my webhelp file, and because sharepoint only works on our IE, I had an error. The last thing I want is for the customer to click on there and get the "access denied" feedback.

[Martin Wynne]

If (and this is a possibility), the document is NOT available on a hosted site and only on our intranet, how do I go about entering the correct filepath so that it can be viewed by anybody viewing this?

Hi Heidi,

You can put the pdf file in your Baggage files, and then simply put the file name in the iframe source. But in that case you lose the advantage of live updating, so there is not much to be gained over #MERGE or any other direct import into your topic.

Bear in mind that with an iframe, the content will not be included in your Search. With #MERGE it will be.

regards,

Martin.

[Aitch]

So, the short and sweet answer to live update to a file on the server (not on a url), is no?

Maybe the good fairies will thing about this when they re-invent the wheel.

Thanks for your help Martin