RH7 CLI insists project is from RH5

[ESTaustin]

BACKGROUND: We're using Javadocs to generate API documentation from source code, and we've built a script that creates the basic files that RH5 wanted in order to create a project (the XPJ, HHC, HHP, FPJ files used to define the file structure). The old process then had me manually opening the script-generated XPJ file in RH5 and using the GUI to generate the WebHelp help module. Worked like a charm.

Now, we've updated to RH7 to leverage the command line interface. However, using the CLI to open the script-generated XPJ file generates an error (I don't have the error text handy, but it's related to the XPJ being from a previous version). If I open the project using the GUI, it prompts me to update the project (a simple single click dialog does this), and from that point any further uses of the CLI works fine. There are slight variations between the RH5 and RH7 versions of the XPJ and FPJ files, but even if we update those files to the RH7 version, the CLI still spits out an error unless I manually open the project in the RH7 GUI first.

Unfortunately, we want to use this in our nightly build process, so we don't want to regenerate the whole project folder anew every night, so the "GUI first" approach isn't an acceptable solution. We want this to be automated.

SO, MY QUESTIONS:
- Is there a way to tell the CLI to automatically update the project (i.e., ignore errors & warnings)?
- Is there some magical combination of required project files for the CLI to work properly?
- There's an annoying CPD binary file that now gets generated in RH7 projects. Is that the culprit?
- Is there some other way of tackling this process so we can achieve full automation of the Javadocs output into WebHelp help modules?

Thanks in advance for any help y'all can provide!

--eric
austin, tx

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

Am I reading this correctly? If you open the project once in RH7 it upgrades and then runs fine from the CLI? Thus the only time there is a problem is the first time you run the CLI.

It also seems you have a script that creates the X5 project files so that you would then create your output. The problem is the script is producing X5 project files so not surprisingly RH7 doesn't like them and want to upgrade them.

Isn't the flaw in the process that the script has not been updated to create RH7 files?

The CPD files is something that was also created for X5 projects. It is a Microsoft Access Database with a different file extension.

[ESTaustin]

Yes, it is true that once I update the project, it opens up fine in RH7 from then on. But the project files get regenerated nightly, so that means I have to manually open the project in the GUI every time. Thus, not automated.

It's not as simple as just updating our script to create the RH7 version of the "core" project files (i.e., the base files that the GUI needs to create the remaining support files on its own). If we replace the RH5 version of our script-generated files with the same files that were updated using the RH7 GUI, the CLI still is unhappy. It seems that the CLI expects every single support file (the ones that the GUI is intelligent enough to create on its own) in order to accept the project.

Unless the CLI is monumentally unable to dynamically create missing project support files, I'd be willing to bet that we'd be just fine and dandy if we could configure the CLI to ignore errors and warnings. From your response, I take it there is no way to do so. Is that correct? If so, is there a list somewhere of the complete project support files that the RH7 CLI requires in order to accept a project without returning a warning?

[Peter Grainge]

I'm no expert on the CLI but logic tells me that if there were such a switch, you would end up with a bunch of files that do not work. That is what the warning would be about.

The CLI was designed to generate an output from files authors had worked on during the day. It was not designed to generate an output from files not generated within RH.

The old process required you to open the generated files in X5 first so presumably the steps were the files were created overnight, you opened them in X5 and created an output, that output got uploaded. It seems that now the process would be simply that you open the project in RH7, no need to generate the output as the CLI can do that after you have opened the project.

[MergeThis]

The publish locations must be entered inside the RH project AND they must be enabled (checked) for the RHCL to recognize them and complete the process.


Good luck,
Leon

[jtNYC]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I believe my question is along these lines. Specifically, I have lots of old help docs that need to be updated to RH7. I was hoping to automate this process with the CLI and not waste my time having to open up ~50 or so projects. Is there a way to do this?

JT

[Peter Grainge]

jtNYC

I think it is clear enough from the thread that we do not believe this is possible.