Can I change the Relative Location of Topic Files?

[JonathanS]

My organization is working to put our several help documentation projects into a git repository, and take advantage of the version control functionality in H&M 9 (floating license). Our current structure has a src and a Published folder under the root folder, and in SRC we have parent folders for each of the Help Projects for our various software offerings. Up to this point the .hmxp file has been stored in a folder two levels down from root (src/super-cool-software/super-cool.hmxp) with Topic files stored in a peer folder.

Our build pipeline looks for changes in the Published folder and triggers jobs to update our WebHelp when new content is checked in. We'd like to continue to have the Published folder under version control so authors can decide when their work is ready for the public (with some review) but still save work-in-progress. We also have some linking between projects that makes having them all in the same repository helpful.

Checking out the top level of the repo doesn't allow (as far as I can figure) H&M to recognize the individual projects as being under source control, because the hidden .git folder is only at the top level, not in the folder with the .hmxp. One of the solutions we thought to try was to move the several .hmxp files to the root, and adjust each Project's Search Path to include the Topics folder (and sub-folders) but that doesn't seem to work. (we also lost mapping to the Maps/toc.xml file)

Is there a way to define a new relative location for the Topics folder? (and the Maps folder) Or is there another suggestion to accomplish what we're trying to do here, aside from a separate Repo for each Help project? (if that's the best solution, we might teach our writers to use an external version control tool...)

Also, it's been about 12 years since I posted here. It's kinda cool to see Tim still here. There's also @Martin Wynne. Do you remember when they tried to name us MVPs? You said you didn't want to have that title, and they took it from all of us.

[Tim Green]

Hi Jonathan,

Theoretically, you can map the sub-folders of the projects to other locations in the .hmxp file, which is just another XML file. However, that wouldn't help you because the main project file would still be in the lower location, and that is what defines the project location. It's also not a good idea to move the project components like that, as it will probably come back to bite you sooner or later.

At the moment, only the rapidly-becoming-deprecated SVN can handle projects stored within a larger repository. (we have a special SVN script available for that). It hasn't yet been implemented for Git, so for the time being I'm afraid you do have to locate your project in its own repository.

PS: Yes, it has been a long time, hasn't it. ) I don't remember any discussions about MVPs, however -- or was that just directed at Martin?

[JonathanS]

Tim, thanks for the reply. That was about what I thought.

Somewhere between 2005 and 2010 there was a brief moment where me, Martin, and one other user (can't remember the name) were replying to posts pretty regularly, and as I recall, there was the idea of giving certain users the MVP tag on their profile to indicate that they were proficient with the software and helpful. I think this was before I did a vendor booth for H&M and a UX Conference in Long Beach CA, USA. Martin, humble fellow that he is, didn't seem comfortable with the attention, and the idea died.

It was shortly after that that I moved out of documentation and into an engineer role full-time, so I wouldn't have been much help, anyway (as evidenced by my extremely long hiatus from this forum). It's kinda fun to have my documentation hat back on in my new position, though my boss doesn't want me wearing it too often.

[Tim Green]

Hi Jonathan,

Somewhere between 2005 and 2010 there was a brief moment where me, Martin, and one other user

Ah, I think I remember that now.