Multiple versions

Add multiple versions

1. Add a new Git branch, preferably with the same name as the version.

2. Open writerside.cfg.

3. In the instance element, add the version attribute with the version number.

   <instance src="ab.tree" version="2.0" web-path="/your-help"/>

4. Set a different version for other version branches.

For each branch that you build and publish, Writerside will display the corresponding version in the header next to the main help instance title and in the URL.

Add version selector

To make it easier for your readers to switch between version, you can add the version selector to the header of your published help instance.

1. Create the help-versions.json file that describes all versions of the product, web paths to them, and which one is the current stable version:

   [ {"version":"1.0","url":"/docs/1.0/","isCurrent":false}, {"version":"2.0","url":"/docs/2.0","isCurrent":true} ]

   Host this file on a publicly available URL, for example, on GitHub or with your company's other resources.

2. Specify the URL to the help-versions.json file in buildprofiles.xml. For example:

   <versions-switcher>https://my.company.resources.com/help-versions.json</versions-switcher>

Your readers will be able to access the current help version without specifying any version in the URL. The version in the URL is required to access other versions, which all have a banner redirecting to the corresponding article in the current stable version help.