Flare 2021 Release Notes

 Article #: IAR1066F  Product: Flare   Version: 2021

Build 17.0.7807

Release Date: 5/24/2021

This Flare update includes some changes for default PDF target options, adjustments for the MadCap Connect for Zendesk publishing process, and miscellaneous bug fixes.

PDF Target Changes

The options to generate a tagged document for PDF/UA and selection of Document Title for the PDF title bar will now only be enabled if the target file markup includes the following attributes in the markup. The XML markup for a target file can be viewed by opening it in the Internal Text Editor.

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Tagged="true"
TitleBar="DocumentTitle"

Both of these options are required to generate PDF/UA-compliant output. In the first Flare 2021 release, the attributes in the markup were not required to enable the options. However, they are now required with this update. To ensure you are generating PDF/UA-compliant files from Flare, please follow the steps below.

  1. Open Project Organizer > Targets folder.

  2. Locate and open your PDF target.

  3. Click on the PDF Options tab.

  4. In the PDF Tagging section, select the checkbox next to Generate tagged document for PDF/UA.

  5. In the Initial View section, click on the dropdown next to Title bar and select Document Title.

  6. Save the changes and build the target to view the applied changes.

MadCap Connect for Zendesk Publishing Changes

Publish log ZIP files and other non-image attachments are now included as block attachments to articles in Zendesk. This change was necessary to support an upcoming change in the Zendesk API.

Zendesk displays all block attachments at the end of each article, along with size information and a download link. This is visible from the help center view for the article.

If you prefer to hide this log file from readers of the article, it can be done in several ways:

  • Apply a style to hide the div with style class article-attachments. This is the container div for all of the block attachments displayed for an article, and using this method will hide all of the block attachments, regardless if it is the log ZIP file or other file type.

  • This can be either applied to the project stylesheet, which is then included in the generated theme, or by modifying one of the stylesheets used in an existing Zendesk theme.

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    div.article-attachments
    {
        display: none;
    }

 

  • Use the new theme that is generated with this Flare update, which includes custom JavaScript to hide only the log ZIP files from the block attachments. This solution allows for all other file types in the list of block attachments to remain visible from the help center view.

  • Include custom JavaScript designed to hide only the log ZIP files generated by Flare while keeping the other block attachments visible.

  • Below is one example of JavaScript that can be used and applied to custom themes, but you may want to consult with your developers to find a solution which works best for your Zendesk theme.

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    //Function to hide logs published by Flare
    function hideMadCapLog(){
        var attachmentItemsNodes = document.getElementsByClassName("attachment-item");
        var attachmentItemsArray = Array.prototype.slice.call(attachmentItemsNodes);
        attachmentItemsArray.forEach(ai =>{
            var links = ai.getElementsByTagName("a");
            var linksArray = Array.prototype.slice.call(links);
            linksArray.forEach(link => {
                if(link.attributes["href"] && link.attributes["href"].value.endsWith(".zip") && link.attributes["href"].value.includes(".log-"))
                    ai.hidden = true;
            });
        });
    }

    //Run the function above
    hideMadCapLog();

    The code snippet above can be copied and pasted to the end of an existing JavaScript file currently used in the theme. The customized JavaScript file needs to be one that is loaded each time an article is opened in Zendesk.

There were also a few other updates made for the publishing process.

  • New log files are now attached to an article before old log files are removed.

  • Details have been added to the target build log, which includes the specific log attachment being added for each article and the old log attachment being removed. These steps occur at the end of the publish process.

Bug Fixes

The following is a list of customer-reported issues that are fixed in Flare 2021 build 7807.

  • 169103 -Issue with table style links for topics returned from Central reviews.

  • 169288 - PDF/UA compliance build warning is sometimes displayed when not relevant.

  • 169088 - Pseudo-class nth-child selectors for second and greater children were not applied in PDF output.

  • 169118 - Tagging and title bar default options were changed for projects built with Flare 2021.

  • 169277 - PDF/UA compliance build warning appears inconsistently due to differences in target file content.

 

Build 17.0.7762

Release Date: 4/5/2021

New Features and Improvements

  • Markdown Import

  • Layout Resizer for XML Editor

  • PDF/UA Accessibility Enhancements

  • Image Support for Central Reviews

  • FrameMaker® 2020 Import Support

  • Start Page Enhancements

  • Updated Table Style Preview

  • Easy Access to Proxy Server Settings from File > Options

Changes for HTML5 Output

There are no structural or JavaScript changes for HTML5 output in this release.

Bug Fixes

The features in the Flare 2021 release focused on improving PDF accessibility, XML editor improvements, the ability to accept images inserted by reviewers using MadCap Central, and support for import of Markdown documents and more. To read more about the new features, please visit our What's New topic in the online Help. The following is a list of customer-reported issues that are fixed in Flare 2021.

Code Snippet Fixes

165955 - Font name with multiple words do not work in the editor and PDF output when applied to MadCap|codeSnippetBody.

166207 - Indention is incorrect for code snippets when the line starts with a tab and highlighted text.

PDF Output Fixes

38306 - Unable to use option “Use TOC Depth for heading levels" to create levels lower than heading 6.

45048 - Error in accessibility scan for some tables in PDF output.

45052 - Errors in accessibility scan when using See and See Also links in PDF output.

56546 - Inconsistent spacing between characters for small fonts in PDF output.

91303, 128576, 156519 - Table of contents and index in tagged PDF output do not pass accessibility scans.

126530 - Image alt text is not included in PDF output when the image is floated.

134736 - Font size is increased in PDF output when text is bold and using a non-integer point size.

135442 - Leader dots do not appear to be round in PDF not round.

142504 - nth-child selector styles do not work in PDF output.

155861 - Named destination links to PDF files in separate folders do not work when a file is opened from Ubuntu systems.

158777 - Hyperlinks to external local PDFs do not work due to some security measures on some PDF readers.

MadCap Connect for ServiceNow® Fixes

166150 - Default knowledge base and category settings are lost when the destination file is reopened.

167373 - Publish fails to Quebec ServiceNow instance with error “failure to decode payload type of response.”

168285 - Publish fails to ServiceNow when using option to "Use TOC to define categories" and user has admin role.

Miscellaneous Fixes

101918 - Preview incorrectly covers up settings by default when opening a table style for the first time.

135667 - Build fails when there is a broken glossary link.

147880 - Clarify prompt when using option display project and target stylesheets for a selected topic.

158527 - Clip-paths are incorrectly updated within SVGs when the file is moved.

162835 - Reimport from FrameMaker files sometimes does not bring in updated content.

163671 - Error when opening a topic in print layout if it has a snippet within a table that breaks across a page.

165167 - Incorrect behavior when a table within a list is dragged into another list.

165321 - Table style class is incorrectly applied to paragraph lists within tables.

165388 - Nested definition lists appear differently in the XML Editor compared to the output.

165795 - Custom list format is not applied when creating a new list.

165812, 168645 - {pageref} cross-reference format is missing a space for some non-English language skins.

166578 - Build fails in some cases when there is an undefined variable.

166739 - Table of contents file created from Confluence import is always overwritten upon reimport.

166994 - Incorrect behavior when there are elements using percent values included within a table.

168721 - Publish to Zendesk fails with Unprocessable Entity error due to API change in attachment handling.

 

Last updated:

5/24/2021

Author:

Marvin Mallari

Contributions by:

MadCap QA