2. PHPRunner General questions
  3. Suggestions for making online manuals, references and books
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Suggestions for making online manuals, references and books

 		2/28/2024 4:49:22 AM
PHPRunner General questions
P
 pmuckle authorDevClub member

Hi All,

I'm looking for suggestions or comments for making online manuals, references and books using phprunner.

I think the database structure would be simple, for each topic : ID, chapter, section, page title, contents, see also

I need to include images, text, internal links to other 'pages' (records) within the application as well as external links.

Also the ability to link to a specific page from other applications (for definitions etc).

I'm not sure whether to use html, maybe with images encoded to base64, to keep everything in one file.

Or maybe use rich text?

It must look good on mobile as well as desktop, work smoothly like html and be convenient like an ebook.

Could be one for a dynamic menu, or would it need a permanent menu for the chapter and section structure.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions

Pete
Sergey Kornilov admin 2/29/2024

Peter,

it is not clear why would you need to use PHPRunner for this task. There are better tools specifically tailored for this kind of task. We use Help&Manual for instance to maintain our own manual. It works great:
https://xlinesoft.com/phprunner/docs/index.htm

Help&Manual:
https://www.helpandmanual.com/
P
 		pmuckle authorDevClub member 2/29/2024

Hi,

Thanks, I already use H&M myself and agree it is great, but it can't be used for paid content.

Pete
fhumanes 2/29/2024

Hi Pete,

I think I'm not answering exactly what you are asking us, but I think the information of this URL: https://fhumanes.com/blog/guias-desarrollo/ayudas-contextuales-y-manuales/ where I explain how I do the interactive and manual aids of the applications, it can be of your interest.

Greetings,
fernando
Sergey Kornilov admin 2/29/2024

@Pete,

thank you, it makes an interesting use case. I still don't think that this is the best idea. Using PHPRunner as a manual authoring tool simpyl because you need to prorect your content doesn't sound like the best approach. Personally, I would rather still use Help&Manual to produce HTML or PDF and then use something else to protect access.

In case of PDF it is very easy to do with PHPRunner's help. In case of HTML you can use Basic HTTP authentication to protect your content.

P
 		pmuckle authorDevClub member 3/1/2024

Thanks.

I always find pdfs difficult to read on a phone.

How about an illustrated dictionary with internal links to other pages? Maybe like the 'see also' in the forum.

Pete
Sergey Kornilov admin 3/1/2024

It really depends. If your content needs to be read on mobile, probably simply HTML ( Rich Text Editor based ) would be enough.

Btw, maybe you can just use Forum template as a starting point?

M
 		MikeT 3/7/2024

I just did documentation for a phpr app. I was using mkdocs-material https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/getting-started/
If you're comfortable with writing markdown, try it. I think it's fantastic, and you can build it even statically for local use without a web server.