An interesting Mif2Go project - will this work?

Fri Aug 9 06:27:32 PDT 2013

It's been a big project, but we were successful!
Here's the skinny:
I need to import unstructured FM content into a new SalesForce Knowledge
knowledge base. Individual procedures written in FM11 get published out via
Mif2Go as Standard HTML (not help), and then imported by SalesForce with
the help of a .CSV file. Overall it required about a 30-step procedure to
get the content into SF, but now I plan to trim down the process. Then I
will write it up and present it at the STC Summit or some other place.
The first question is: Why is this so difficult? I think it's because it is
a technically challenging project that demands a lot of up-front work on
the FM side, so no knowledgebase provider wants to develop and support it,
and Adobe doesn't see the value in it for the neglected FrameMaker product
(and market!)

The trick is to produce what SalesForce needs from what FM can give it.
SalesForce's importer is pretty primitive and inflexible. AFAIK this is not
unusual; last year I tried the same thing with a MindTouch knowledge base
and that could import only from a .CHM, and even that was plagued with
problems.
SalesForce needs a set of HTML pages saved in a particular nested file
structure, accompanied by a .CSV file that provides the title of each
article, its address, and some other information. The HTML, folders, and
CSV must all be provided in a .ZIP along with a Project file created by the
SalesForce admin.

FM's Save as HTML is buggy, barely supported by Adobe, and its HTML is not
very clean. I could not generate good individual HTML pages from RoboHelp.
Mif2Go offers the flexibility I needed.
To develop the CSV was a different adventure. I needed a list of article
titles mapped to the HTML file names, which are autogenerated with names
like aa100543.htm. I could open each file and copy the title (there is a
Mif2Go setting to make the title match the FM Heading 1 or Heading 2), but
that would be tedious and error-prone for hundreds of files.

Jeremy had a workaround to get my titles and file names together. After
generating the Standard HTML output, I generated OmniHelp output just to
get a single .JS page with the list I needed. I deleted all the rest of the
output, keeping only that file.
Then I edited the file with several search-and-replaces and saved it as
.CSV.

Then I was able to zip together the HTML and the .CSV and hand it off to
the SalesForce Admin, who (after a few false starts) finally reproducibly
imported 24 and then 56 files. We have some bugs, but we think we know how
to fix them.

Now I have to refine the process, learn how to optimize my FM content, and
document it because once the knowledgebase is launched with my existing FM
content, I am committed to updating it forever!

Thanks everyone for all your input on this complex project!
john

On Sun, Aug 4, 2013 at 5:24 PM, John Sgammato <john.sgammato at actifio.com>wrote:

> Thank you for all the guidance! I hope to get to it tonight
>
> On Sunday, August 4, 2013, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 4 Aug 2013 16:20:31 -0400, John Sgammato <
>> john.sgammato at actifio.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I have no [OmniHelpOptions] at all.
>> >I renamed the HTML version, changing nothing but the name.
>> >That failed, so I tried editing Config= to point to he OmniHelp file -
>> >see below.
>> >I know something's not right, but I don't understand this path well
>> >enough to figure it out.
>>
>> The path looks fine.  I gather you aren't using the
>> Documents template for HTML either?  That's OK,
>> as long as the two projects are the same with that.
>> The rest of your settings look OK.  Oh, add:
>>
>> [HelpContentsLevels]
>> Title=1
>> Heading1=1
>> Heading2=1
>>
>> If you make them all level 1, your first replace
>> will always be of "[1,", no wildcard needed.
>>
>> See par. 7.4.3, "Including contents entries in
>> HTML-based Help".
>>
>> Perhaps I should have been more explicit about
>> what to do in the Choose project dialog.  Select
>> the HTML project, but don't push any buttons yet.
>>
>> Change the name in the top field, and for the
>> second field push [...] and choose the new
>> Omnihelp output directory,  Then select Omnihelp
>> in the last field.
>>
>> NOW, press Add, then OK.  It should go on to the
>> Export dialog, just continue as usual.
>>
>> -- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
>>   <jeremy at omsys.com>    http://mif2go.com/
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> --
>
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>
> *John Sgammato  *
>
> Documentation Architect
>
> *e* john.sgammato at actifio.com
>
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-- 

*John Sgammato  *

Documentation Architect

*e* john.sgammato at actifio.com

*w* +1-(508) 927-2083

    *Recover anything instantly for up to 90% less than you're paying now.*
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