The RoboColum(n)

The arrival of RoboHelp Server 8 signals a statement of intent from Adobe. Having been subject to criticisms of problems installing and using previous versions of RoboHelp Server (or RoboEngine as it used to be known) Adobe have come up with a version of this server based help engine that addresses most of these issues.

For a start, they have completely reengineered the code using Java in line with the client RoboHelp 8 application. It also offers a much more robust installation which automatically creates the permissions required by users to access the server. This was a major issue in previous versions as although the permissions were well documented, it required a certain level of network expertise to set them up. All that is now gone.

The server software can be set-up on lots of different server platforms including Linux and is no longer dependant of Windows IIS, although it can still co-exist there. The application is installed on Apache Tomcat Server, a free open source server application. The Java Runtime Environment is also required to be installed.

As with previous versions, the reporting capabilities of RoboHelp Server is one of the major selling points. The reports use data collected in a database that is updated with user activity inside the help. With RoboHelp Server 8 there are a number of options for setting up your database. An inbuilt Microsoft Access database is provided, but it is recommended that in a production environment that you use SQL Server or SQL Server Express.

If security is an issue, there is a new concept to meet any concerns. Using the RoboHelp Server Administration panel, you can set-up areas to which you can publish. These can be protected with access limited to different users. In addition you can control what each user can do once they are there. For example, say you have a finance or human resource application containing sensitive information that you want to limit access to those who work in those departments. Set-up an area with the required access permissions, publish the help to it, and you have a help system in a self contained area of the server that no one else with access to other help systems can access.

Finally the Apache Lucene search engine that is automatically installed is a significant step forward over previous versions. Results are ranked and display a snippet of the text, thereby allowing users to see the relevance of the topics before opening them. Using such open source applications cements the view that Adobe is willing to embrace such open source technologies.