TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Relative URLs/Query Strings as TOC/Index Links in HTML-based Help
Subject:Relative URLs/Query Strings as TOC/Index Links in HTML-based Help From:"Karen Casemier" <karen -dot- casemier -at- provia -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 9 Dec 2003 09:37:12 -0500
Let's see if I can make a really long story short for the purposes of this question. We are currently trying to develop a help system (HTML-based, not compiled) that will allow us to include dynamically generated content. The program this help system supports is a highly customizable web-based application. We want to use XML to create the screen-level help topics (other higher-level topics, such as task flow and conceptual topics, will be in straight HTML for this version of the help). When the user requests help on a specific screen, the system will select the appropriate content from the associated XML file and display it in HTML form to the user. Users will see the help information that matches their custom configuration (some users will only use a subset of all available fields and controls, and different clients will use different subsets).
We are at the stage now where we are trying to determine if we can link to the XML-generated topics directly from the help system's TOC and index. In order to do that, we would have to use relative links and query strings as TOC pages and index links, because the XML files are going to actually be stored within the program itself, not with the rest of the static help files (and because each customer will have different server names and therefore different paths to the information). Here is an example of what the programmers would like to do to link to the XML pages:
help.aspx?topic=partpage&xml=file.xml
Does anyone know if this is possible? We are not tied to any one tool, but ideally we wouldn't have to create the TOC and index completely by hand. Browser will be IE (we could potentially dictate browser version), and we don't have to worry about cross-browser compatibility.
If you need more information, please let me know. I have a pretty good understanding of XML in general, but this is really pushing the limits of my current knowledge.
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
