Flare Desktop Features Not Supported in MadCap Flare Online

There are certain features in Flare Desktop that are not fully supported when you generate targets from MadCap Flare Online. However, a few of these features are supported when publishing directly from a local project in Flare Desktop up to Flare Online. See Publishing Directly to Flare Online.

Automatically Get Latest Files

If you are working in a dual-bound scenario (see Dual-Bound Projects) and you select the option in the target to automatically get the latest version of files before generating (see Updating or Getting the Latest Version of Source Control Files), this option will not work when you build from MadCap Flare Online. Instead, you must first synchronize your files with source control in Flare Desktop and then push those changes to Flare Online.

Batch Targets

Batch targets cannot be generated from MadCap Flare Online.

Custom Build Log Folder

In the Options dialog (File > Options), Flare Desktop has a feature that lets you choose a custom folder to hold the log file after generating output (see Options Dialog). This feature is not supported when building from MadCap Flare Online. Instead, the log file is stored at the root level of the output folder.

Custom Fonts

If you are using custom fonts in your project locally in Flare Desktop, they are not supported when you build output from Flare Online.

Custom Output Folder

Flare targets let you choose a custom location for your output folder (see Specifying the Output File and Folder in a Target). However, this is not supported when building from MadCap Flare Online. You must use the default location.

Date/Time Variables

Target generation occurs on a server with Flare Online, so date/time variables are not supported. See Creating Custom Date/Time Variables.

Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is one of the search engine options that you have in Flare Desktop (along with MadCap Search and Google Search). Currently, using Elasticsearch in your HTML5 output is not supported in targets generated from Flare Online.

However, Elasticsearch is supported when publishing directly to Flare Online from a local Flare project.

Global Ignored Warnings

You can tell Flare to ignore certain warnings so that they do not display as such in the Builds window pane when generating output. This can be done globally for all targets in all projects. You can also override those global settings for a specific target in a project. However, if you generate output from Flare Online, global settings to ignore warnings are not supported; instead, you must ignore warnings in the target. See Ignoring Warnings When Building Output.

Linked Mimic Movies and Projects

When building from MadCap Flare Online, external links to Mimic movies/projects will not work (see Videos). However, embedded movies in a Flare project are supported.

MadCap Pulse

MadCap Pulse is not supported in output that is generated from Flare Online. In order to use Pulse with your output, it must be hosted outside of Flare Online.

Pre- and Post-Build Events

If you create pre- or post-build events in your Flare target, they will not function when building from MadCap Flare Online. See Creating Pre- and Post-Build Events.

However, pre- and post-build events are supported when publishing directly to Flare Online from a local Flare project.

Publishing to Outside Servers

Flare Desktop lets you create destination files for the purpose of publishing to external servers (see Creating Destinations). This feature is not supported when building from MadCap Flare Online. Instead, live builds are always published in Flare Online.

Viewing Some Output Formats

The following types of output can be generated from MadCap Flare Online, but they cannot be viewed (output files are downloaded to your computer):