Flare 2021 r2 Release Notes

 Article #: GEN1067F  Product: Flare   Version: 2021 r2

Build 17.1.7881

Release Date: 8/02/2021

New Features and Improvements

Create and build interactive eLearning courses

Create multiple choice questions and knowledge checks

Convert existing content into course/quiz content

Create xAPI (Tin Can) or SCORM packages for LMS

Insert IFrame support for media and web-based content

Pass publishing credentials via command line builds

"Master" replaced with other terms

Changes for HTML5 Output

This release includes several changes in HTML5 output to support the new features for eLearning elements, LMS integration, topic toolbar, and tripane toolbar.

Several new JavaScript files are now included in HTML5 output to support eLearning elements. These files are linked to the output files as purify.min.js, MadCapLms.js, and MadCapELearning.js. The latter two files are combined into MadCapAll.js when using the target option to condense JavaScript files. If any eLearning elements are added, an additional lmsapiwrapper.js is included in the output.

The structure in the topic toolbar and tripane toolbar elements in HTML5 output has changed significantly for this release to support improvements and new features for the toolbar buttons.

In prior versions of Flare, toolbar buttons were included in the output as button elements with nested img tags. In Flare 2021 r2, toolbar buttons will be included in the output as button elements with nested div elements to support new features such as text labels for each button. The changes applied to the toolbar buttons may be different for different projects as the upgrade process is determined based on the prior configuration. Below are examples of changes.

  • Images that were previously set as background images on the button element may be moved to be a background image in a nested div element with a role=”img”.

  • Accessibility labels for the button image are now applied to the new div with role=”img” instead of the prior img tag.

In addition, skins modified with Flare 2021 r2 will automatically be upgraded with new markup for the new features. There are also numerous changes to the Flare-generated stylesheets to support styling for the upgraded toolbar buttons.

It is highly recommended to backup your project or skin files prior to making edits with the new Flare version. Depending on the skin customizations, the upgraded skins may not be compatible with older Flare versions.

Please note that with the above changes, there might be slight changes in the position and/or look of the toolbar and/or other button elements when an output is rebuilt with the new release. Please reach out to our technical support team for guidance on any adjustments needed if there are undesirable changes in your output.

Bug Fixes

The changes in the Flare 2021 r2 release focused on the addition of support for eLearning content, knowledge checks, quizzing support, generation of SCORM and xAPI packages, 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 r2.

HTML5 Output Fixes

  • 80960 - Unable to automatically synchronize TOC when HTML5 tripane output is inside an iframe.

  • 104243 - Images with max-width property applied are resized when the option to resize images is disabled.

  • 135808 - Build fails due to glossary term used within a tag with a namespace attribute.

  • 160028 - Unnecessary space above the header when printing from top and side navigation output with a fixed header.

  • 165935 - Incorrect highlighting for the selected heading in the menu proxy for side navigation output.

PDF Output Fixes

  • 52167 - Auto-created bookmarks to heading with non-breaking space or hyphen result in broken.hyperlinks/cross-references.

  • 55309 - Incorrect vertical alignment for disc and square markers for lists in PDF output.

  • 105916 - White spaces are inserted between text in PDF when using justify text alignment.

  • 169709 - Heading colors transfer to other content when using specific fonts and SVG as a background image.

  • 170193 - Issue with direct hyperlinks to topic files in PDF output.

  • 170617 - Missing warning for unresolved links when building PDF output.

MadCap Connect for Zendesk Fixes

  • 170059 - Incorrect display of categories and sections due to differences between the Zendesk profile and guide language.

  • 170062 - Issue with publish log when publishing to a Zendesk guide language that is different from the user profile language.

Miscellaneous Fixes

  • 54710 - Incorrect encoding used in CSV files when exporting from TOC and browse sequence entries using some languages.

  • 164072 - Issues when using conditions with names containing a non-breaking space.

  • 166103 - Issues when simultaneously opening topics with many questions.

  • 168007 - Performance issues when synchronizing to external resources.

  • 168880 - Improvements to runtime merging topics in the online Help.

  • 170018 - Build fails for clean XHTML output when a topic includes both a list excluded via conditions and a code snippet.

 

Last updated:

8/02/2021

Author:

Marvin Mallari

Contributions by:

MadCap QA