[Framers] FrameMaker and Salesforce

John Sgammato john.sgammato at actifio.com
Wed Mar 9 20:13:36 PST 2016 

Gavin attended my presentation in Phoenix, and we spoke at length
afterward. Salesforce had at that time no way to improve upon our method.
He was going on a sabbatical right after the Summit, so we never got to
follow up.

On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 6:57 PM, <gill6034 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Robyn,
>
> Contact Sales Force directly. Go on LinkedIn and connect with Gavin
> Austin. He's a tech pubs manager there. He's speaks at a lot of STC events.
> Tell him your problems and ask him if he can suggest or find a solution for
> you.
>
> -Gillian
>
> ------------------------------
> *From: *"Robyn Chittister" <rchittister at vlocity.com>
> *To: *"John Sgammato" <john.sgammato at actifio.com>
> *Cc: *"framers" <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
> *Sent: *Wednesday, March 9, 2016 2:04:01 PM
> *Subject: *Re: [Framers] FrameMaker and Salesforce
>
> Wow! Thank you all for the lightning-fast responses.
>
> What we know about Salesforce doc is that each department seems to use
> something different to create and deliver its content. Their developer
> docs, for example, are created using Flare. (That's one pro in Flare's
> favor.) Their Help Center is based on Knowledge with custom Visualforce
> pages. But we don't know what they use to create that Help, which would
> really be nice to know.
>
> We are considering divorcing the support and help, creating a Help Center
> that does not run on Knowledge. It's just a thought at this stage though.
> We're supposed to explore a path with Knowledge and a path without
> Knowledge.
>
> If anyone else has any input, I'd love to hear it.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 1:05 PM, John Sgammato <john.sgammato at actifio.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In the credit where it's due department, the whole project would have
> > failed except for Rick Quatro's scripts and knowledge.
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Art Campbell <art.campbell at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Yves, I helped John put together his solution, and while Salesforce may
> >> use
> >> DITA for its own doc, to import into the Knowledge product (this is not
> >> the
> >> parent Salesforce product), you have to package the content in a
> suitable
> >> format for importing into a proprietary database using well formed HTML
> >> and
> >> package it in small chunks, with a CVS map file, into a ZIP that the
> >> Knowledge import tool can parse.
> >>
> >> It isn't anywhere nearly as easy as just picking the right standard to
> >> adhere to and to which to prep the documentation unless you're writing
> in
> >> a
> >> database-based system already.
> >>
> >> It can be done, and John's solution is as elegant as it's likely to
> get...
> >> but it's still a lot of hoops.
> >>
> >> The real solution is to lean on Adobe to support database export or a
> >> database CMS such as WordPress as a Publishing target.
> >>
> >>
> >> Art Campbell
> >>           art.campbell at gmail.com
> >>   "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
> >> and
> >> a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
> >>                                                       No disclaimers
> >> apply.
> >>                                                                DoD 358
> >>
> >> I support www.TheGrotonLine.com, hyperlocal news for Groton MA.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 3:47 PM, Yves Barbion <yves.barbion at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hi Robyn
> >> >
> >> > Salesforce uses DITA for their documentation. Just google "salesforce"
> >> and
> >> > "dita" for more info. FrameMaker supports DITA, and you get enhanced
> >> DITA
> >> > support with Leximation's DITA-FMx plugin. oXygenXML supports DITA too
> >> and
> >> > runs on Windows and Mac, so DITA seems like an obvious choice to me.
> >> >
> >> > Kind regards
> >> >
> >> > Yves Barbion
> >> > www.scripto.nu
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 9:26 PM, Robyn Chittister <
> >> rchittister at vlocity.com>
> >> > wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > Hello,
> >> > >
> >> > > Does anyone use FrameMaker and then integrate that documentation
> with
> >> > > Salesforce?
> >> > >
> >> > > I'm 1 of 1-1/2 technical writers at a start up that creates cloud
> apps
> >> > for
> >> > > Salesforce. We are currently using Salesforce Knowledge to create
> and
> >> > > deliver our documentation. Knowledge is possibly the worst
> >> documentation
> >> > > tool I have ever used. We've been looking at various single-sourcing
> >> > > solutions, and we're down to MadCap Flare and FrameMaker.
> >> > >
> >> > > I'm a FrameMaker user from way back - I started with FM+SGML 5.5 in
> >> > 1999. I
> >> > > developed templates and tools for FM+SGML and FM+XML from 1999-2005.
> >> I've
> >> > > used FM 12 in an unstructured environment, and am happy to see the
> >> > > improvements. I'm not sure how many improvements there have been in
> >> the
> >> > > structured environment, however. I've tried to contact Adobe, and
> have
> >> > > gotten a human being to say he'll give my questions to a solutions
> >> > > specialist to answer. Knowing Adobe, I'm not going to hold my
> breath.
> >> > >
> >> > > My questions are:
> >> > >
> >> > >    - Is anyone here writing doc for Salesforce or Salesforce apps?
> If
> >> so,
> >> > >    what tools do you use?
> >> > >    - Is there a good comparison of the most recent versions of Flare
> >> v.
> >> > FM?
> >> > >    The only ones I've been able to find are from several years ago.
> >> > >    - Is anyone here using FM+XML (either v12 or 2015) who could
> answer
> >> > some
> >> > >    specific questions I have about it?
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > We're a Mac house, so I can't just download the trial versions. We
> >> > > understand that we will need to get me set up with a VM and Windows
> to
> >> > use
> >> > > the software we choose.
> >> > >
> >> > > Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
> >> > >
> >> > > ~Robyn
> >> > >
> >> > > --
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > *Robyn Chittister  |  Senior Technical Writer*
> >> > >
> >> > > E: rchittister at vlocity.com  |  P: 925.695.5710 |  W:
> www.vlocity.com
> >> > > <http://www.vlocity.com/>
> >> > > _______________________________________________
> >> > >
> >> > > This message is from the Framers mailing list
> >> > >
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> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Yves Barbion
> >> > www.scripto.nu
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> >
> >> > This message is from the Framers mailing list
> >> >
> >> > Send messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com
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> >> >
> >> _______________________________________________
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > <http://www.actifio.com/>        *John Sgammato, Documentation
> Architect*
> > *e* john.sgammato at actifio.com  *c* 508.927.2083
> > *t* @actifiodocs <http://twitter.com/actifiodocs>
> >
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> --
>
>
> *Robyn Chittister  |  Senior Technical Writer*
>
> E: rchittister at vlocity.com  |  P: 925.695.5710 |  W: www.vlocity.com
> <http://www.vlocity.com/>
> _______________________________________________
>
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-- 

<http://www.actifio.com/>        *John Sgammato, Documentation Architect*
*e* john.sgammato at actifio.com  *c* 508.927.2083
*t* @actifiodocs <http://twitter.com/actifiodocs>

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