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.
OK, but if access to the application is restricted and you're using WebHelp or a .chm that links from the application, then the Help is by nature restricted. It doesn't seem to make sense to further restrict it.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+kay -dot- robart=tea -dot- state -dot- tx -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kay -dot- robart=tea -dot- state -dot- tx -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2013 9:42 AM
To: Technical Writing
Subject: Re: Hosted Help - server specs?
I've argued for having the Help visible to everyone, especially since several of my former employers have all of their doc available online. The last thing I wanted to do was restrict our Help to a limited number of users (one of the suggestions was to host on SalesForce, but not all of our customers have access to our Support site).
It needs to be locked down because one of our products is just transitioning from beta to GA, and I got the "we don't want the competition to be able to see it" when I tried to argue for opening the docs to everyone. Which I can kinda understand, since that product is all new features at this point. So we're looking at ways to pass the license information or the user authentication with the Help call.
On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>wrote:
> There's no architecture, really. Web help is just HTML and JavaScript.
> You dump the files in a directory. You don't need anything but Apache
> or some other standard web server. Send the IT manager some sample
> output. Here's the information on making the help calls:
>
>
>http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare7/Content/CSH/WebHelp_CSH_Calls
> /CSH_Calls_WH_WHP.htm
>
> I strongly recommend using alias files rather than letting developers
> hard-code calls to specific pages.
>
> If you want to limit the help to registered users (what's the
> marketing case for not letting prospective customers see it?) then
> just put the help files in the application, or if for some reason you
> want to use a separate server, use the same authentication method you
> use for access to the application. If the help is password-protected,
> then I don't think you can use Google Analytics.
>
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 2:10 PM, Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
> > The subject line says "server specs" because our IT manager replied
> > to my initial inquiry with "We may have to build a new server for
> > it. It all depends on how this thing is architected." I've usually
> > had to maintain help that was already coded into the product, so
> > being asked "how this is going to be architected" rather baffled me.
> > The application makes a call to the Help URL (Welcome.html or some
> > such). The call might include some sort of token or password if
> > we're locking down the Help to registered users only. What else am I missing here?
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Robert Lauriston
> ><robert -at- lauriston -dot- com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> The subject line says "server specs." Hosting web help generally
> >> requires relatively little additional horsepower from a web server
> >> that's already handling a SaaS application.
> >>
> >> You might look into replacing Flare's default web help search with
> >> something more robust, such as Google or a Google Appliance.
> >>
> >> You'll probably want to use Google Analytics or something similar
> >> for metrics.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Julie Stickler
> >> <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >>Web help is not very resource-intensive as web applications go.
> >> >
> >> > Not sure what you mean by this?
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Julie Stickler
> > http://heratech.wordpress.com/
> > Blogging about Agile and technical writing
> >
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for
> authoring.
> >
> > Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as robert -at- lauriston -dot- com -dot-
> >
> > To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> > techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> >
> >
> > Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
> > http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources
> and info.
> >
> > Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our
> online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
> >
> > Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our
> > public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
