Batch DHTML Exporter

Tired of sitting in front of the computer for hours "feeding" it tbks to export and then going through the Export dialog boxes if you have a project that involves a lot of books? Well, there is a better way!    

Someone that has made a tremendous contribution to the ToolBook Community is Peter Jackson of Australia. His Website ToolBookDeveloper.com contains a vast amount of Freebies as well as some really good Commercial Products that you can purchase.  One of the the best Freebies is the Batch DHTML Exporter.  The version for ToolBook 2004 is much improved over the one for ToolBook 8.6.  We can now select multiple files from a folder.  Normally you would still have to set the Export Properties which means you spend some amount of time the first time you use this tool on a book. But then the settings are saved so that the other times you might export the same books, you just click Add, Multi-Select files and click the Start button.

In a large project I have coming up, I have written some code for a Utilities System Book I have been enhancing for years.  On a dropdown menu, I have an item titled Set Export Properties.  It calls this routine:

to handle setExportProps
        ASYM_DeploymentMethod of this book=HTML
        ASYMI_TargetPlatforms of this book="MSIE 5.0"
        ASYMI_LaunchPageType of this book=automatic
        ASYMI_useEncryption of this book=true
        ASYMI_useCompression of this book=true
        ASYMI_EncryptJava of this book=true
        ASYMI_ProjectDir of this book="C:\mccc"
        ASYMI_ExportOnlyChangedPages of this book=false
        NB_MultiDHTML of this book=true
end

I can now run this routine before saving the book. Note in this case I am setting the book or books up to export only for Internet Explorer but I could include the setting for Netscape. I could also set any of the other Book Properties that are common to all the books, but the ones above are those that most directly relate to the Export process. The NB_MultiDHTML of this book=true setting allows me to go immediately to the Export process once I add the books.  If I did not preset the Export Properties, then the first time I add the book, I would have to go through the normal process of setting the Export Properties.  If later I find I have missed a Property, I can just go back and add that one to my routine. To be totally truthful, I have another routine that searches a folder of tbks and sets the properties of each book in the folder and saves the changes to the book. A big time saver for a project where there might be 50+ books. To summarize, I have a batch processor for setting the Export Properties and then use the Batch DHTML Exporter.

When I am ready to go to bed, I add the books and press the Start button. If I am lucky in the AM, I have all the books successfully published.

Of all the tools I have and of all the ones that are out there, this is by far the most useful and greatest time saver of them all.