Self Help Desktop Studio - The Publish Mode
The publish mode is used to access the published of Self Help projects for the active domain.
It comprises a set of dedicated panes for:
- managing Self Help projects;
- creating a new version from a Self Help published project.
Notes
- The version numbering is automatic. It identifies the version nature:
- major version: scheduled version.
- minor version: anomaly and bug correction.
example Major version v3.0 / Minor version v2.1
- A version can be created only from an active version of the Self Help project.
- Published versions can be activated and and deactivated individually.
- Unpublished versions are accessed from the [edit mode>>doc:SelfHelp - Edit Mode Studio]] Publish where they can be modified.
Best Practice
- Arrange your panes according to your work habits.
- Carry out your version publishing off-line (in deferred mode) to avoid server slowdown.
See the How to publish a project procedure.
Screen description
Access: via the Mode > Publication menu
In the standard configuration, the version manager displays 3 areas:
- (1) Title bar and menu bar
- (2) The Explorer pane: project versions managed as a tree structure
- (3) Panes to configure and define the properties of the object selected in the Explorer pane
- (4) The Properties pane
Title bars and menu bar
BarsDescription
(1) Title bar: Information on the current Self Help session, i.e. server name, domain, logged-in user.
(2) Menu bar (Note: Certain menu options can also be accessed via a contextual menu specific to components in the Explorer pane).
Description of the menu bar
File menu: Commands used to:
- Create a new object.
- Import an archive to the domain or export a Self Help project to an archive.
- Publish a Self Help project.
- Modify the email address and password of the writer logged in to the Desktop Studio.
- Change the domain.
Edit menu: Commands used to:
- Undo and redo modifications.
- Copy and paste text.
- Rename and delete objects.
Procedure menu (Note: Only if a procedure is displayed in the Conception pane): Commands for performing actions on the steps of a procedure.
View menu: List of views available in the Explorer pane and Description pane.
- Click one of views to show or hide it.
- The active view is highlighted by an icon displayed on a blue background.
- The Explorer pane includes three views: Explorer, Properties and Overview.
Mode menu: List of modes available in the Desktop Studio. The active mode is highlighted by an icon displayed on a blue background.
- Edit mode: Access all versions of Self Help projects currently being modified in the current domain. See the description.
- Publish mode: Access all published versions of Self Help projects in the current domain. See the description.
- Admin mode (Note: Only for domain administrators and owners of Self Help) projects. See the description.
Help menu: Commands used to:
- Access documentation containing step-by-step procedures on how the Desktop Studio works. See the description.
- Return to the Self Help) Home page.
- Define preferences:
- List of users automatically created by SSO displayed in the list of visible users, via the Admin configuration option (Note: Only domain administrators and system administrators can access this functionality)
- Languages for translation
- Programs for opening documents if they are different from those used by the operating system
- Default configuration of macros
- Display the error log.
- View the server version and Desktop Studio version.
Explorer pane
It displays all the projects in the active domain, for which versions have been published, as a tree structure.
Display pane: View > Explorer
Toolbar
: Select the display language for the Explorer pane components.- To add a language in the list: Help > Preferences > Allowed Languages.
Project tree structure
- Expand the tree structure by double-clicking the project name or click
.- The project components are grouped together in folders.
- The icon shown opposite each component identifies its nature: procedure, variable, form, etc. - see Project contents
- The project version is shown in brackets after its name.
- Only published versions are shown in the publishing manager.
: active version of the project.
: inactive version of the project.
- The active versions:
- can be accessed by the members of the publishing groups via a URL;
- can be used to generate new revisions (minor/major).
- The unpublished versions can be accessed from the graphic editor in which they can be modified.
- Only published versions are shown in the publishing manager.
- The actions that can be carried out on each component of the project can be accessed from a context menu.
- Right-click a version to create a minor/major revision.
Properties pane
Procedure: How to create a new version of a project
See the detailed step-by-step procedure in Self Help.
Step 1: Create a new minor/major version
1. Go to the graphic editor.
2. Expand the project tree using in the Explorer pane.
3. Right-click an active version of the project, identified by , and select Create a new major/minor revision from the context menu.
The Edit new version action dialog box is opened.
Step 2: Information on the version planning
- Start creation immediately using the Execute now option; or
- Defer creation using the Delay execution at:
- Enter the start date and time.
The new version is shown in the Explorer pane.