[p4] Integrating Perforce with RoboHelp

[Mark Ridgwell]

Here the Technical authors use Robohelp and other tools. We create a 
separate depot //Documentation which the technical authors use to 
save/manage their source files in.

Underneath documentation we have separate folders for each project split 
into two, Source and Deliverables which are the compiled chm files. that 
the build can pick up or can be integrated into a release branch. e.g.:

//Documentation/Project1/Source/English/...
//Documentation/Project1/Source/<other languages>/...
//Documentation/Project1/Deliverables/English/...
//Documentation/Project1/Deliverables/<other languages>/...

We have tried various other methods in the past, including:

* One big dumping ground where things for releases got put (original 
version before source control, and initial transfer into source control)
          -> Didn't work for obvious reasons

* Project specific as part of the release/source branches
          -> Worked apart from the fact that documentation continued 
after the release e.g. for known issues, release notes

* Project specific with sharing to release branches (in SourceSafe)
          -> Confused everyone.

The current mechanism works by far the best, although there are 
occasional synchronization issues with builds e.g. documentation have 
removed a file but build process still expects it to exist

The first thing I'd suggest is finding out how they work and see if they 
have any requirements that you haven't thought of and then come up with 
a strategy that will both help them and the developers.

Regards,

Mark

James Prolizo wrote:
> All,
>
>  
>
> I would like to get our documentation team to use Perforce so that the
> docs are more version controlled rather than them copying them to a
> share and development having to get them from the share.  The doc team
> uses RoboHelp to generate help files.  Does anyone have a good working
> practice when it comes to getting doc teams using source control?  Any
> specifically with Perforce?
>
>  
>
> I appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
>