Tagging articles for various publication

[grishutkina]

Hello!

We publish content on different websites while using one project in H&M. To collect the articles that we need for each website and publish them, we mark the articles in the table of contents with tags.

When one person adds a new article, the xml file is tagged correctly. Then, when another person syncs to the project, an untagged file is added because their local copy of the project does not contain this article. Each time we sync to the project, we have to look for new articles in the table of contents and manually tag them again. Since there are many people working on the project, new articles are difficult to navigate.

Could you advise how we can solve this problem when adding new articles. Is it possible to make the tag remain on the article, even upon the first synchronization with the project after this article has been added by another person?

[Tim Green]

Hi Grishu,

My guess is that by "tags" you mean the colored topic status settings. If you have defined custom settings for this, these are local settings for each user. They are for information purposes only, and are not suitable for what you are doing here. What you need to do is define build tags, which are referred to as "build options", which are designed specifically for this purpose and can be used to physically exclude or include topics and topic content when you are publishing.

For example, suppose you want a tag called CLIENT1. You first go to Configuration > Common Properties > Custom Builds and define a build option called CLIENT1. Then you select any topics that are only for client 1 in the table of contents and right-click on it. In the context menu you select Include in Builds and select ONLY the CLIENT1 option. Then when you publish you look in the Include Options box in the Publish page before publishing and select CLIENT1 if you want to include the topics tagged with that, or deselect it if you want to exclude them.

There is much more you can do with these features, see the More Advanced Procedures > Conditions and Customized Output chapter in the documentation for full details and instructions.

[grishutkina]

Yes, we use different build tags. Sorry for misleading.

When we add a new article we define the build tag. Then, when another person syncs to the project, this build tag only remains in the table of contents. While in the project files in the folder Topics this file does not have the required build tag.
So the correct list of articles is published on the website, but new articles also get into the build. This publishing makes following links between different websites work incorrectly. Maybe there is a way to remain build tags on the xml files of articles in the Topics folder even upon the first synchronization with the project?

[Tim Green]

When we add a new article we define the build tag. Then, when another person syncs to the project, this build tag only remains in the table of contents. While in the project files in the folder Topics this file does not have the required build tag.

How are you syncing, using what system? This behavior indicates that something is going wrong in your syncing process. The build option reference for the TOC entry is stored in the TOC file in the \Maps folder. The definition of the build option and the reference for the topic file are both stored in the main HMXP file.

If you still have the definition after syncing, but not the reference for the topic file, this means that the main project file is not being synced correctly for all your users. Some of them are getting the older version, in which the build option was defined, but not yet assigned to the topic file. The most likely scenario for this would be if you are using Help+Manual's native multi-user editing with all users editing the project directly on a network share. There are situations where this can experience errors:

• If your project is stored in managed cloud folder like OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive or iCloud drive. These systems are very primitive and do not provide any information on who is editing what. If you try to do multi-user editing here you WILL lose data and get corrupted projects.
• If you are trying to do multi-user editing remotely using VPN connections the same applies. Help+Manual will not know that anyone else is editing the project and users will be overwriting each other's work silently, particularly the main project file.
• Even if you are on a local network, you can have problems like this if users work for a long time without saving their work. You must always save immediately if you make any changes stored in the TOC or project file, including TOC entries and build definitions.

The most reliable way to do multi-user editing is with version control, particularly if any remote users are involved.

[grishutkina]

All users work with the project remotely using VPN to connect to the server and synchronizing the project via SVN. But we don't use multi-user editing. In this case, could saving the project after adding a new topic help with the needed build tag?

[Tim Green]

All users work with the project remotely using VPN to connect to the server and synchronizing the project via SVN. But we don't use multi-user editing. In this case, could saving the project after adding a new topic help with the needed build tag?

Then the problem will be somewhere in your SVN synchronization process. You need to do some checks to see whether everything is getting synchronized. It will definitely be an SVN issue, not a HM issue. For example, if a user adds a build option definition but doesn't save the project, that definition won't yet be saved in the .hmxp project file. If you synchronize with your SVN client at that point outside of Help+Manual (which would require saving before syncing), then the project file will be added to the main SVN repository without the build definition, and that will propagate to the other users.

Another possibility is that there might be some kind of lag or multiple copy problem in the communication with the SVN server via your VPN. For example, if there is a proxy server involved it could be sending older copies of files to the SVN repository.

Here are the locations of the relevant items:

• The build definitions are in the main .hmxp project file.
• The build references (i.e. tags on the files) for the project files are also in the .hmxp project file
• The build references for the TOC entries are in the TOC file(s) in the /Maps folder