WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

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Dave Gehman
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WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Using WebHelp with a skin that includes email feedback - exact PP3 skin still not decided, and I have yet to find out which ones actually include the email feedback option.

Is there a way to put a feedback form at the bottom of each topic, rather than having the capability in the hamburger menu?

If not, no big deal, but it would be preferable if we could mimic, say, Microsoft (and many many others), where the feedback form presents itself at the bottom:
Image
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Martin Wynne
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Dave,

That's an ordinary HTML form. Easily inserted as an HTML Code Object in specific topics. Or in the page template if you want it automatically in all topics (all topics using that page template).

But it needs a PHP or ASP file on the server to receive the submission, and send it to you as an email. Put that file in your Baggage Files. PHP Baggage files can now be edited directly in H&M.

Here's an example of what you can do like that: http://stourportlabour.co.uk/contact_us.php

That site all created in H&M.

cheers,

Martin.
Last edited by Martin Wynne on Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Dave Gehman
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Once again, thanks.

Still and all, the code is there (under the hamburger menu), and works however it works in Chrome. The HTML mailto: requires PHP or ASP somewhere?

I wouldn't know where it is on my own desktop system, which is what I'm using as a playpen.
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Martin Wynne
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Dave Gehman wrote:The HTML mailto: requires PHP or ASP somewhere?
Hi Dave,

HTML mailto: opens the user's email program.

The page you were asking about, and my reply, relates to typing a message directly on the web page. It works even for users who don't have any email, although that makes it difficult to reply to them.

cheers,

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Tim Green »

If you want something like that in your topic pages in V3 skins you must insert it on the pages where you want to use it in your project, NOT in the skin itself. You can't have that in the skin without full programmatic integration in the skin, because of the way the high-speed browsing works in V3. There is no iFrame for the topics -- that is why you can have the simple topic.html URLs -- and when you browse to a new topic you are not actually opening a new HTML page at all. Instead, the current content area of the topic is replaced with a compressed JSON source version of the topic you want to browse to, inside the current topic page.

This is massively faster than reloading everything, including all the CSS and JavaScript resources and so on. However, it also means that you cannot make changes in the topic content area in the skin, because that doesn't touch the content of the topic. Anything you put there would either a) only be visible when you first open the WebHelp and would disappear as soon as you browse to another topic or b) have to be interactively integrated in the V3 browsing system, so that it automatically picks up the information it needs for the next topic when you browse to it.
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Dave Gehman
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

I see.

What do we use if we want to put the email feedback into each relevant page? Insert HTML object?
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Tim Green
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Tim Green »

Dave Gehman wrote:What do we use if we want to put the email feedback into each relevant page? Insert HTML object?
Yes, and you would also need to add any referenced JS and CSS files to the baggage of the skin as well and add the necessary references to them to the page templates, and hope that they are going to be compatible with everything else the skin is doing.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of combining arbitrary components from different sources. It often causes problems and I can guarantee you from the outset that we won't support them if there are problems. That is the thin end of the wedge in a direction in which madness lies. :? Since there is already a perfectly good mail feedback feature, it would really be a lot easier to just refer to it.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Dave Gehman
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Tim Green wrote: To be honest, I am not a big fan of combining arbitrary components from different sources.... That is the thin end of the wedge in a direction in which madness lies. :?
Ah. Meet our CEO. He drives the bus in directions that drive many of us mad...
Since there is already a perfectly good mail feedback feature, it would really be a lot easier to just refer to it.
It is perfectly good. However, its position on the page is different from what has become general Web usage - and it's hidden, in effect saying, "Well, we will accept your feedback, but you have to do extra work to send it to us."

Probably we'll put a pointer at the bottom of each page reading something like:

"Feedback? Comments? Click on [hamburger icon], upper right, and click on 'Send Mail Feedback.' Your email client will open."
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Martin Wynne
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Dave Gehman wrote:"Feedback? Comments? Click on [hamburger icon], upper right, and click on 'Send Mail Feedback.' Your email client will open."
Hi Dave,

Why not just put an ordinary email link to open the email client?

Code: Select all

<a href="mailto:us@ourdomain.com?Subject=Blue%20Bananas">click here to send us feedback about blue bananas</a>
(NO spaces in the Subject, use %20 instead)

You can create all that as an ordinary H&M internet link, no need to insert an HTML Code Object.

regards,

Martin.
Dave Gehman
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Re: WebHelp email feedback - from hamburger to page bottom?

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Martin Wynne wrote:You can create all that as an ordinary H&M internet link, no need to insert an HTML Code Object...
Yes. I'm getting wrapped up in options and the simple 'mailto:' via H+M's Insert > Link is probably the simplest and best. Thanks again.
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