create chm files from batch files?

[Stefan Kuhr]

Hello everyone,

we are in the midst of the process of completely moving away from good
old winhelp-based .hlp files to compressed html files in .chm/.chi files
as the help files for our windows based products. In the past, I as the
buildmaster (and as a developer and non-writer) set up batch files for
the .hlp files to be built in the daily build process, so everything was
fully automated and we had help files that fit to the software with each
daily build and our help authors and technical writers only had to check
in their rtf and bmp files. Today, our writers say: "With chm help
files, an automated build is not possible, just forget about all the
automation of the past". Can anyone here in this group confirm if this
is true? Or point me to a more suitable newsgroup for this question? Or
even give me some pointers where to look up for more information on this
topic? I would hate to have our writers check in big blobs of chm in our
version control software and I would like to have every aspect of the
software be built in the daily build process on our build machines.

Oh, yes: Our writers used in the past for hlp (and today for chm)
RoboHelp.

TIA,

[Mark R. Blain]

Post by Stefan Kuhr
we are in the midst of the process of completely moving away from good
old winhelp-based .hlp files to compressed html files in .chm/.chi files
as the help files for our windows based products. In the past, I as the
buildmaster (and as a developer and non-writer) set up batch files for
the .hlp files to be built in the daily build process, so everything was
fully automated and we had help files that fit to the software with each
daily build and our help authors and technical writers only had to check
in their rtf and bmp files. Today, our writers say: "With chm help
files, an automated build is not possible, just forget about all the
automation of the past". Can anyone here in this group confirm if this
is true? Or point me to a more suitable newsgroup for this question? Or
even give me some pointers where to look up for more information on this
topic? I would hate to have our writers check in big blobs of chm in our
version control software and I would like to have every aspect of the
software be built in the daily build process on our build machines.
Oh, yes: Our writers used in the past for hlp (and today for chm)
RoboHelp.

A quick search indicates that the best group to ask in would be
<news:microsoft.public.helpauthoring>. Microsoft's free HTML Help
Workshop includes a command-line help compiler "hhc.exe".

References: (click "complete thread" to read answers)
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=OSobepPrBHA.1892%40tkmsftngp03>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=uDkWegkbCHA.1700%40tkmsftngp10>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=ufCXLuX8%24GA.240%40cppssbbsa05>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=b42s8r%24isb%2405%241%40news.t-online.com>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=Pine.LNX.4.44.0307181325100.2180-100000%40much-magic.wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=eleRplq6CHA.2300%40TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl>
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=e%23RmHVr%23CHA.2452%40TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>
<http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?st=b&View=en-us&na=82&qu=%22html+help+workshop%22>

[Pete Lees]

Stefan,

Post by Stefan Kuhr
we are in the midst of the process of completely moving away from good
old winhelp-based .hlp files to compressed html files in .chm/.chi files
as the help files for our windows based products. In the past, I as the
buildmaster (and as a developer and non-writer) set up batch files for
the .hlp files to be built in the daily build process, so everything was
fully automated and we had help files that fit to the software with each
daily build and our help authors and technical writers only had to check
in their rtf and bmp files. Today, our writers say: "With chm help
files, an automated build is not possible, just forget about all the
automation of the past".

In theory it should be quite possible to set up batch files to compile
the .chm files. The help authors can provide you with all their source
files, which you can then compile into HTML Help files by using the
following command:

hhc <filename>.hhp

However, if the authors have used proprietary RoboHelp features such
as conditional builds, the Glossary tab, and browse sequences then I
believe you'll run into some problems. For these features to work it's
necessary to compile the help project from within RoboHelp; compiling
from the command line (or from HTML Help Workshop) causes these
proprietary features to be jettisoned, possibly with multiple error
messages, because the standard help compiler has no knowledge of them.

For the definitive answer on this, you could post your question to one
of the RoboHelp user forums:

Help Author Forums:
http://www.helpcommunity.ehelp.com/forums/wbpx.dll/~robohelp

Developer Forums:
http://www.helpcommunity.ehelp.com/forums/wbpx.dll/~developer

--
Pete (Microsoft Help MVP)

[Stefan Kuhr]

Hi Pete,

<snip>
However, if the authors have used proprietary RoboHelp features such
as conditional builds, the Glossary tab, and browse sequences then I
believe you'll run into some problems. For these features to work it's
necessary to compile the help project from within RoboHelp; compiling
from the command line (or from HTML Help Workshop) causes these
proprietary features to be jettisoned, possibly with multiple error
messages, because the standard help compiler has no knowledge of them.

Just talked to our authors and they say they use exactly these features
(especially conditional builds) and this is why they need to compile
from within RoboHelp. I guess I have to look at how RoboHelp creates its
temporary source files from comparing sources of a decompiled chm file
with the source files that were used for the generation - maybe this is
just a matter of writing a filter program.


Thanx for your reply.