Integrating two webhelp outputs

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syed
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:34 pm

Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by syed »

Hi,

There are two different products. However, product B also gets packaged with product A. What is the best way to integrate or package two different docs into one so the top menu remains the same?

For testing purpose, in the ditamap of product A doc, i added a topicref with a relative path to product B doc. After building webhelp responsive output for both the doc sets separately, i copied product B doc plugin to the 'out' folder of product A doc.

When i open index.html of product A doc, there is a top menu entry for the product B doc. However, when i click that, the top menu changes completely according to product B doc. I would like to retain the top menu according to product A doc.

Is there a better way of handling this use case?

Thanks...
Syed
alin
Site Admin
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:21 am

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by alin »

Hello,

You could use a third DITA Map (supermap) that includes the maps for each product.
For example:

Code: Select all

<map>
    <title>SuperMap</title>
    <topicref href="publication-A-dir/a.ditamap" format="ditamap"/>
    <topicref href="publication-B-dir/b.ditamap" format="ditamap"/>
</map>
Afterwards you can publish the supermap.
Be aware that for everything to work smoothly you should create your super above directory hierarchy of all included submaps.
For example:

Code: Select all

main-publication-dir/
    supermap.ditamap
    publication-A-dir/
        a.diatmap
    publication-B-dir/
        b.ditamap    
This way you will have the same menu in the entire publication.
We are using a similar solution for our User Manuals.

Regards,
Alin
Alin Balasa
Software Developer
<oXygen/> XML Editor
http://www.oxygenxml.com
syed
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:34 pm

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by syed »

Thanks Alin.

Correct me if i am wrong, is the expectation that the doc source for both the products should reside in the same repository? In our case, the doc source for the products is in two different repos.

In the case of Eclipse help, i think if navref is used in the source, the output jar can be added after the transform for the TOC to work. In Webhelp, the top menu seems to be part of each topic, so it's difficult to emulate the Eclipse help behavior.

Syed
alin
Site Admin
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:21 am

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by alin »

Hello,
Correct me if i am wrong, is the expectation that the doc source for both the products should reside in the same repository?
Yes, you are right. Although this would be the ideal solution for the use case you have described in your first post, it is not necessary that you store both of your projects on the same repository.
After you check out both projects on your local system, each in its own folder, you should create the extra DITA map in a folder path above those folders and reference from it the original DITA maps associated with your products.

Note that this is only an workaround to help you achieve the same menu and TOC structure throughout the entire publication.

We already have an issue registered in our system regarding the possibility to aggregate multiple publications. I have contributed your use case to this issue. The issue's reference ID is WH-2070.
In the case of Eclipse help, i think if navref is used in the source, the output jar can be added after the transform for the TOC to work. In Webhelp, the top menu seems to be part of each topic, so it's difficult to emulate the Eclipse help behavior.
Unfortunately you cannot emulate the Eclipse help behavior. WebHelp does not provide such level of extensibility. You cannot add extra content to the already generated WebHelp Responsive output and have it contributed in the publication's TOC. The TOC is generated based on the topic references that exist in your main DITA Map at transformation time.


Regards,
Alin
Alin Balasa
Software Developer
<oXygen/> XML Editor
http://www.oxygenxml.com
Alex Thornton
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:02 am

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by Alex Thornton »

We already have an issue registered in our system regarding the possibility to aggregate multiple publications. I have contributed your use case to this issue. The issue's reference ID is WH-2070.
Please add my vote for this functionality!
Thanks,
Alex
Costin
Posts: 828
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:04 pm

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by Costin »

Hi Alex,
I've just added your vote for this feature on the issue that is open in our internal tracking system.
Thank you for the feedback and rest assured you will be notified when an implementation for that becomes available, as we will notify this thread.
Regards,
Costin
Costin Sandoi
oXygen XML Editor and Author Support
chrispitude
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:32 pm

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by chrispitude »

Hi Costin,

Am I understanding WH-2070 correctly in that the request is to somehow reference one independently-published WebHelp collection from another one?

Is the idea for the left-side navigations to be inlined/merged, or just to include single links that lead to the other collection? (Or is this part of the investigation to be done?)
Costin
Posts: 828
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:04 pm

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by Costin »

Hi Chris,

The issue is logged and our development team is still investigating the way this will be implemented.
We do not have any specification yet, as it is under current analysis.

Regards,
Costin
Costin Sandoi
oXygen XML Editor and Author Support
chrispitude
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:32 pm

Re: Integrating two webhelp outputs

Post by chrispitude »

Hi everyone,

Today one of my writers mentioned that some product teams are talking about combining our three largest help collections into an even larger collection. This would put total publishing runtime at several hours.

I mentioned this discussion and shared a link, and she pointed out that if such a capability existed to join the navigation of multiple builds together, it would also be necessary to join the search indexes of the builds together. So I figured I would mention that aspect here for others to comment on.
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