Webhelp Links to Search Results

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Olivier Beltrami
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Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi,

In webhelp, when I do a full-text search, when I place my cursor over each result, I see a link such as:

https://www.qppstudio.net/webhelp_xv4/d ... b=vignette

When I click on it, it's great, it takes me to the right place in the topic, and highlights the search term (here "vignette"). But, If I copy that link and try to enter it afresh in a browser, then the part ?zoom_highlightsub=vignette is totally ignored.

This is a shame as it would be a nice way to send links to specific parts of a topic to my users, as some of my topics are rather long and, though I use anchors, my users have a knack of asking for stuff that I never though an anchor would be needed.

Is there any way to get the same result as in the serach results, from a "standalone" URL, as above ?

Very best regards,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
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Tim Green
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Re: Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

That's actually a security feature. When you click on a search results link in the search page, it "knows" where it is and allows itself to open the results in the topic container. Also, the URL to do this is not being opened in the main page, which is where it arrives when it is sent from somewhere else, but in the separate search page inside the main page. When you send a URL like that to the main page it looks at the query portion and rejects it because it is unknown there and could be a malicious script injection.

However, you can do this in the Premium Pack skins, which support special switches to allow you to access both search and the keyword index from the URL:

V3:
http://www.it-authoring.com/info/pp3hel ... nking.html

V2:
http://www.it-authoring.com/info/pp3hel ... witch.html
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Olivier Beltrami
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Location: Nantes, France
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Re: Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi Tim,

Thank you very much for your answer.

I did buy the Premium pack in the autumn of 2017, but I never used it as I have tweaked my skin through trial and error (mainly error) over the past 15 years and did not want to have to search for all the tweaks and retrofit them

I am correct in thinking that I cannot add these Premium Pack features to my skin, and that I have to choose a new one from the Premium Pack ?

Very best regards,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
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Tim Green
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Re: Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

Adding those features to the standard skins would be a significant amount of programming work, since they have different structure and scripts. :?
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Olivier Beltrami
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Re: Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi Tim,

Thank you very much.

I tested some of the skins in the Premium Pack, but I think that for the moment, I will not use them, thought they look fantastic. The reason is that after the initial CHM and WebHelp generation, I use the temp files generated to do a lot of post-processing (and then recompile the CHM manually) and this might get broken with a change to a very different skin.

What I would, however, like is to change the 2-tone 3D header used by my CHM and Webhelp, to a uniform-color one. Below is how my header currently looks. I'd like to change the header color to a uniform background of the color at the bottom, and also change the breadcrumb color, so it stands out more on this new uniformly light background.

I have played around with the shin I am using (since 2002), but could not get the desired result. Can you point me in the right direction to make these 2 changes (for both CHM and webhelp) ?

Very best regards,

Olivier

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Olivier Beltrami
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Tim Green
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Re: Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

If you've been using the same skin for so long I hesitate to provide instructions because the code has changed a lot internally over time and I can't be sure what yours currently looks like. Please just mail me the skin at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) along with the things you want to change and I'll let you know what you need to do right away. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Olivier Beltrami
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Re: Webhelp Links to Search Results

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Thank you very much, Tim.
I just sent you the skin by email.
Olivier Beltrami
https://www.qppstudio.net
Worldwide Public Holidays and Calendar Data
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