Where can variables NOT be used?

[Tobias Escher]

The manual has a section which explains where variables can be used.
Is there a similar section that says where they can NOT be used?
It seems the Description is onw such place. When I enter variables there, they are not resolved.

[Tim Green]

Hi Tobias,

Almost all of the fields in Help+Manual now support variables, and it's generally easy to add the support to fields that don't have it yet. I've asked Alexander about the Description: field -- I didn't test it myself yet. I'm afraid there probably isn't a list yet because this has been added step by step over the years, but I've asked about that too.

[Tim Green]

Update: The variables should actually work in the description. That's a bug and will be fixed in 7.2. Otherwise there are two main categories of fields where variables don't work/aren't allowed:

• File name references
• IDs, like the Topic ID

[Tobias Escher]

That's great news!
Is there a changelog somewhere so I can see when the issue is fixed?

[Tim Green]

Is there a changelog somewhere so I can see when the issue is fixed?

There's no public changelog during the beta phase but I'll let you know when it's updated.

[Tobias Escher]

Great, thanks a lot!

[Tobias Escher]

Should this issue already be fixed?
You said it would be fixed in 7.2, but I still have it.
Slowly but surely I need to think about the next public release of our documentation

[Tim Green]

Hi Tobias,

Should this issue already be fixed?
You said it would be fixed in 7.2, but I still have it.

I just checked this and variables in the Description field are working fine for me (7.2 Build 4029).

[Tobias Escher]

Weird - 4029 here, too, and it does not work (using the new 3.2 PP Skins).

[Tim Green]

Weird - 4029 here, too, and it does not work (using the new 3.2 PP Skins).

There it entirely where and when you look. If you look in the HTML files you will see that the variables in the description have been entered with the <%TOPIC_DESCRIPTION%> variable, and that is what matters for search engines because they index the HTML files.

[Tim Green]

Update: I just checked and it seems that HM is currently not outputting the description to the hmDescription attribute in the JS versions of the topics in WebHelp 3, so that the description isn't being updated when topics are loaded while browsing. We're looking into this.

[Tobias Escher]

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean... I have no issues with search engines. I don't even care about Google and others
My problem is that when I use a variable in the Description (in H+M, not the description HTML tag), it is not resolved.

[Tim Green]

My problem is that when I use a variable in the Description (in H+M, not the description HTML tag), it is not resolved.

Where? The description will only appear in your output if the <%TOPIC_DESCRIPTION%> variable is used. Where is this being used and not being resolved?

[Tobias Escher]

I'm using the PP3 Minimalist_Plain_White skin.
When I use a variable in the Description field within H+M to be displayed overlaid with a featured image (for example http://helpdesk.orchestraltools.com/index.html), the variable is not resolved.
In the link above there is no variable used, that is just to show you where it happens when it goes wrong. The text "Orchestral Tools - finest symphonic sampling project | HELPDESK" is the description part. if I were to use a variable in that description, it would not be resolved.

[Tim Green]

Hi Tobias,

Thanks, I've now located it. Variables in the description are being resolved in the page template but not in the compressed JSON version of the page. This will require a fix in Help+Manual itself, which I'm sure will be coming soon.