Examples—Related Information

Example

Desired Characteristics

• Dynamic (i.e., uses search engine in output)

• Displays in topic content

• Displays the best matches

• Filter 1: Pulls from only certain micro content files

• Filter 2: Uses only certain micro content phrases based on meta tag values

Steps

1. Create a meta tag set with a list of meta tag values representing the PDF links (see Creating Meta Tag Sets). In our example, we have a meta tag set called "Resources," with a meta tag named "PDFs," and values that look like this.

   

2. Create micro content files containing phrases that match the names of the meta tag values (see Creating Micro Content). In our example, we have our PDF phrases in two different micro content files, although we easily could have put them all in one.

   

3. In the template page you are using for your topics, add a responsive layout, placing the Topic Body proxy in the left cell (see Template Pages and Responsive Layouts). Then, place your cursor in the right cell, and select Insert > Proxy > Knowledge Proxy.

   Note A responsive layout isn't mandatory, but it helps us get the structure we want in the output, with the topic content on the left and the micro content on the right.

4. In the Knowledge Proxy dialog, click in the Proxy Title field and enter Additional Resources. This is optional, but we'll do it in this example so we can give our users an indication that we're listing some PDF links that they might want to open. In the first filter, select Specific micro content files and select the two micro content files containing our PDF links. Then, in the second filter field, select Meta tag value and choose PDFs (the name of our meta tag). Finally, set Limit number of results to 3. Even though we have more PDFs than that, we want only the top three matches to display. Click OK when finished.

   

   In our example, the responsive layout in the template page is designed to use two-thirds of the space on the left for the regular topic content, and one-third of the space on the right for the micro content (i.e., PDF links).

   

5. Click to save your work.

6. Right-click a topic where you want related PDF links to display, and select Properties. On the Meta Tags tab, select the meta tag values associated with the PDF links that you want to display. Here is how we did it for two of our topics.

   

   

   If we wanted to display more or fewer PDF links in a topic, we could easily edit the Knowledge proxy and change the Limit number of results field.

Output

Example

Desired Characteristics

• Dynamic (i.e., uses search engine in output)

• Displays in topic content

• Displays results randomly

• Filter 1: Pulls from only certain micro content files

• Filter 2: Uses only certain micro content phrases based on meta tag values

Steps

This example is nearly identical to the previous one. The main difference is that we are using a Promotion proxy instead of a Knowledge proxy. So use the same steps, but select Insert > Promotion Proxy when editing the template page. The settings in the dialog would look like this, the same as the settings in the Knowledge proxy dialog.

When viewing the topics in the output, different PDF links might display each time the topic is opened or the page is refreshed.

Output

Example

Desired Characteristics

• Static (i.e., compiled at build time)

• Displays in topic content

• Displays predetermined content

• Displays micro content in alphabetical order

• Filter 1: Pulls from only certain micro content files

• Filter 2: Uses only certain micro content phrases based on meta tag values

Steps

This example starts out the same as the Knowledge proxy scenario above. Create a meta tag set and micro content files, with values the same as described above (see Creating Meta Tag Sets and Creating Micro Content).

Once you have the template page open with the responsive layout created (see Template Pages and Responsive Layouts), continue with the following steps.

1. Place your cursor in the right cell of the responsive layout, and select Insert > Proxy > FAQ Proxy.

2. In the FAQ Proxy dialog, click in the Proxy Title field and enter Additional Resources. In the first filter, select Specific micro content files and select the two micro content files containing our PDF links. Then, in the second filter field, select Filtering by topic meta tag value. In the first drop-down field, select PDFs (the name of our meta tag). You can leave the second drop-down field as it is. Finally, select Sort phrases in alphabetical order. Click OK when finished.

   

3. Click to save your work.

4. Just as with the other examples above, you need to associate the desired meta tag values with topics. In this example, we'll assume you've done this as described in the first example above.

5. We also need to associate the micro content phrases (i.e., their properties) with the appropriate meta tag values. So open each micro content file being used, right-click each phrase, select Properties, and on the Meta Tags tab, select the corresponding meta tag value. In our example, one of the micro content phrase properties would be set up like this.

   

6. Click to save your work.

7. Each type of proxy displays in its own default view mode. For the FAQ proxy, it uses drop-downs. But in this situation, we probably would like to use a different view. So open the skin being used for the output (unique skin components can also be associated with proxies). On the Setup tab, in the Proxy Options section, click the FAQ Proxy View Mode field and select Plain Text.

   

8. Click to save your work.

Output

Proxy Differences

In the examples covered in this topic, the big differences between the FAQ proxy and the others are: (1) With the FAQ proxy, you're going to get exactly the PDF links you tell Flare to show (without limiting the number), and (2) the PDF links can be sorted alphabetically (according to the micro content phrases).