Output file names change, causing problems with CMS
Question:
Each time I compile my files, ePublisher re-recreates all my filenames, making it impossible for me to check-in my files in our source control. Is there a way of keeping the same filenames?
Answer:
ePublisher uses a simple convention to assign names to the HTML files created in your output. The scheme uses the name of the original FrameMaker file, along with some numbers representing the position of that source file in the project, and the position of the page split in that document. The file names should not change when you regenerate output unless the source files themselves have been changed. When you insert source documents in the middle of a project, or if you insert headings in a document, resulting in additional page splits, then all of the output files occurring after the change will be updated with new numbers. The unique numbers are important, as they ensure that no two HTML files have the same name in the output.
There are options for redefining the filenames in your output, though. You can use Filename markers throughout your documents to specify a custom name for each page split, though this becomes quote tedious with an increasing number of splits. The other option is to customize the automatic naming scheme itself, choosing perhaps to name a file based on the text of the heading paragraph at which the page was created.
Both of these options are discussed in an article on our public wiki, here: http://wiki.webworks.com/HelpCenter/Tips/CustomFileNames
For version control purposes, though, the recommended practice is typically to generate output, and then ZIP it into a single archive before checking it in. This way, the names of individual files in the output have no effect on the content management system's ability to store, recover, or compare complete versions of your WebWorks Help output.