On Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:44:00 +0930
B Bruen <bbr...@paddys-hill.net> wrote:

> some stuff that was probably not well expressed.

So I will try again.  What we have is:
* some text files in many of our projects that describe "how to" do something 
in that application
 - by "how to" I mean stepwise descriptions of what actions need to be done to 
complete a "business" level activity that is supported by the application.  
These activities are not capable of, say, being driven by a wizard control or 
similar as they involve external parties and may take hours, days, ... to 
complete.  The text files are there to provide (and this is really the best 
description I can give them) an aide-mémoire for the user's to go through the 
entire business activity.
* up till now we have used these doc files internally to reply to user queries 
on these things, i.e. we reply by phone, fax or email with a "these are the 
things that have to be done" message.

What I want to do is provide a do-it-yourself solution so the users can access 
the aide-mémoire files themselves. So it's sort of like a gambas help browser 
thing I am trying to build.  The aide-mémoire "pages" are fairly simple. A 
topic, a title and a list of the steps needed. As an example, to change the 
ownership of a registered racing thoroughbred, which is required by the "rules" 
here in Australia, the registered trainer must submit a paper or fax form of up 
to 20 pages length to the national registry organisation.  To prepare this 
paperwork could take the trainer an hour or so.  Our gambas application does 
this in a few seconds. The steps (manual) are:
1) prepare the ownership change form
2) submit the form to the registry
3) wait ... .... ... until the registry confirms that the change has been 
approved and registered, or denied, or queried ...
4) file the ownership papers appropriately.
Our application takes care of 1,2 and 4.  But looks more like:
1) use menu item blah to prepare and submit ownership change documents to 
registry
   * the horse owners records will be updated, but marked as "pending"
2) when the change confirmation is received, use menu item blah2 to update 
owner records
  * the pending status will be removed and emails to the (changed) owners will 
be sent automatically.
  * the new ownership schedule will be printed so you can file it appropriately.
3) if the change is denied or queried by the registry see the following how-tos:
  * etc

 And this is one of the simplest (haha) things one could imagine for the arcane 
and bureaucratic ways things are run here. (You dont want to see other 
examples.)

So:
I want to build a how-to form in our trainer application that (simply) has an 
index page and a set of dynamically generated pages (based) on some simple text 
files. The index page will be static with just a set of links that access the 
topic page.  I don't need or want anything fancier than that... yet.
We are doing the following:
* these files are being actively converted to the gambas "markdown" syntax.  
Very simple, but time consuming due to the number of them (~300)
* trying to figure out the best way to build the "how-to" form.

This last bit is what I am asking about.  I am "wishing" that there is a really 
easy way to achieve the goals outlined above without having to re-invent the 
wheel so to speak.
 
Any input will be (really) gratefully recieved.

tia
Bruce

-- 
B Bruen <bbr...@paddys-hill.net>

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