Browse sequences in merged WebHelp

[MSCaroline]

Hi all,

I'm working on a merged WebHelp project and I've noticed that in the output each child project's browse sequence is handled individually. That is, there's a full stop at the end of the browse sequence for each child project and I have to select the first topic in the next child project within the TOC to start that browse sequence. Is there a way to integrate these so that the browse sequences are handled consecutively?

Incidentally, has anybody else noticed a long delay in loading the TOC in Firefox when one of the child project outputs is missing? This help file contains information for 3 separate but related software products, so users may have between 1 and 3 of the products (and, consequently, between 1 and 3 of the child help files) on their machine. If anyone has any ideas on how to kick Firefox into displaying the TOC in a more timely fashion, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks,
Melinda

[Peter Grainge]

No.

If you have more than one browse sequence within a single project, they don't run on. It's the same across projects.

Browser support has improved in RH7 but I don't know if it will help on this issue. Perhaps someone else can comment?

[Captiv8r]

Hi Melinda

I agree with Peter on the Browse Sequence bit. But I have something that may help. What you might be able to do is to create as the last topic in each sequence a redirect topic that simply points to the first topic in the next sequence.

Might be worth exploring if you really want that seamless connection. It's also worth noting that there could be issues if a project were missing.

Cheers... Rick

[MSCaroline]

Peter, you raise a very good point about these being separate browse sequences. When you put it that way, it occurs to me that I should have realized that.

Rick, that's one heck of a smart solution. It would work very well for what most people seem to be using merged projects for, which is basically modularity. Because I'm trying to use it in a case where not all modules might be installed, it won't really help me. Impressive, nevertheless, and I don't think that this browse sequence issue is a real deal-breaker in my case.

A day further on, though, I'm more concerned about the possible issues with missing modules-- both Firefox's delay in loading and one other thing I've noticed. In testing this project with the CSH Test tool, I've found that if I remove one of the child project outputs, I get an IE script error message stating that access is denied to this URL: file://C:\ProjectFolder\generate\whskin_pdhtml.htm. Anyone have any experience with that, or any knowledge of whether this problem shows up when using actual context-sensitive help calls? (Note that this particular error is generated on a machine running IE6. I did some preliminary testing on a machine running IE7 and ran into different problems-- notably a security warning asking to run active content followed by a runtime error debug notice that seemed unrelated.) I guess I'm questioning how true to user experience my results in the CSH Test Tool will be...

Thanks,
Melinda

[Peter Grainge]

That'll teach you to leave one of the children behind!

I just renamed a child project and it does then delay opening the help in Firefox. That has been reported to Adobe.

I didn't get any errors. Maybe you are viewing the help locally without having applied the Mark of the Web, introduced in RH6.

[jsibley1]

Hi there

I am having the same problem with browse sequences in merged projects so this has been really helpful, however, I am new to robohelp to could someone please explain how I create the redirect topic so that the browse sequence does work as I am getting complaints from the users!

Thanks

Julie

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Julie,

If you click here you can download Rick's tips n' tricks file. In there look for an index keyword of redirect you'll find a topic that explains all in its wonderful technocolour

[jsibley1]

Fabulous

Thanks Colum

[MSCaroline]

Reviving this thread, unless anybody would prefer to see a new thread. Peter, on 9/18, you said:

I just renamed a child project and it does then delay opening the help in Firefox. That has been reported to Adobe.

Any further word on this? I'm (finally) going to present a proof of concept on all of this soon, and this delay could be a sticking point.

Also, I'm running into a new(?) issue in Firefox: When I open the main page (index.htm) in Firefox, I don't see the Table of Contents at all. It will appear as soon as I refresh the page, but not until I do so. Has anybody seen this? Any insight into the source of the problem?

Thanks,

Melinda

[Peter Grainge]

I haven't heard anything further.

What version of RH and what version of FF are you working with?

The new problem (would have been better in a new post) sounds like something I have seen. Is it the case that it works locally but not on the server?

[MSCaroline]

I'm using RH 7.03.001, and Firefox 3.0.10.

As I'm currently still testing, I'm running it only locally, not on a server at all. Actually, I don't know if these things are related, but the full story now seems to be that when I open the index.htm file I see no TOC. F5 causes the TOC to display, but it is not synched with the topic that is displayed (and yes, I've made the change to the whthost.js file to force synchronization). In addition, no breadcrumbs are displayed in the topic. Those display only when I go into the TOC and click the topic therein. I'm hoping that perhaps all these things might be related, and that the constellation of issues might point to the problem for somebody a bit more clever than I...

[Peter Grainge]

OK this is not the problem I thought it might be.

Your TOC does not display, Your breadcrumbs do not display. Try a new test project to see if that has the same issues. Also try renaming / deleting the CPD file and reopening.

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[MSCaroline]

I went with the deletion of CPD and reopen first-- seemed easier. No luck. So I created a new merged help project from scratch, following the steps at http://grainge.org/pages/authoring/merging_webhelp/merging_method_rh7.htm. Still doing the exact same thing I described above! This is only an issue for Firefox-- the project behaves itself admirably in IE.

[Peter Grainge]

Please download the sample project that I provide. The output has already been generated and published. Run the parent index.htm and tell me what you see. I know that works with IE and Firefox.

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[MSCaroline]

Ah, now that tells us something. I have the same problem with your project, so the issue must lie with Firefox, yes? Is this the sort of thing that I should report to Mozilla, do you suppose? It's certainly worrisome-- if I present a nice little demo project to my superiors to persuade them that WebHelp is the way to go and it doesn't work correctly in Firefox, they'll almost certainly nix the idea!

[Peter Grainge]

As I said, I know that sample runs in Firefox.

Are you definitely running index.htm in the parent project output.

Please post some screenshots using the camera icon, don't attach the images.

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[MSCaroline]

I unzipped the sample to a folder on my C drive, as shown here with the index.htm file in question selected:

I then opened index.htm in Firefox, with this outcome:

Pressing F5 yields this:

Are we running the same version of Firefox?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

I have 3.0.7 and had hoped to get 3.0.10 installed today but things did not go according to plan.

Hope to do it later, Meantime test the output on some other machines. I have a hunch this is something unique to your machine.

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[MSCaroline]

I've just tested on some other machines running 3.0.10 and they're having the same issue. Very disappointing-- I'd really hoped it was just me!

[Peter Grainge]

Oh dear. I see the problem now that I have tried it with 3.0.10.

I don't know if the problem is with RoboHelp's WebHelp or with FireFox but I have noted it is only a problem with merged webhelp, single projects are OK.

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[MSCaroline]

Yes, something seems to have gone awry with this version of Firefox. (More than one something, in fact-- I also crash it semi-regularly when clicking reply in this very forum!) I'm not certain of the best way to make sure the developers are aware of it, and I have no insight at all into the problem, only a knowledge of the behavior. Do you have any thoughts on how I should proceed?

[Peter Grainge]

http://www.adobe.com/go/wish is the place to report bugs and feature requests.

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[Peter Grainge]

MS Caroline

Solution found!

I reported this to Adobe and they asked for a copy of my project as they could not replicate it. That made me think what was different about the way they would likely create a merged project and I realised it could be the use of the redirect.

I changed the refresh value from

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=./mergedProjects/child_1/child_1_topic.htm" />

to

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=./mergedProjects/child_1/child_1_topic.htm" />

and that fixes the problem.

I was also given this information.

FF has fixed a security issue related to the Refresh header in 3.0.9 the link of which is http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2009/mfsa2009-22.html

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[MSCaroline]

You, sir, are nothing short of amazing! I would never have figured that out.

Having applied that fix, it now becomes clear to me that the failure to sync with the TOC is unrelated to the failure to display the TOC. My TOC now displays, but still refuses to sync even with the js tweak applied. Any idea why?

Thanks SO much for all your help on this.

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but I am having to ration the miracles.

Beyond the tweak applied and Snippet 1, there's nothing else I can suggest.

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