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RH8 crashing after opening project

New Here ,
Mar 09, 2009 Mar 09, 2009

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Boy, am I ever having problems with RH8!!
I just posted a problem with one project today and now I'm having a big problem with another project.

In this new problem project, I opened it and started getting long error message about topic files having illegal characters in them. There were quite a few of the same type, so I checked the box to silence the warnings and figured I'd check things out when the project opened.
Well, it opened alright and then it just crashed. It crashed before I could even look at anything!

Can I delete any files and try reopening the project? Something must have gotten polluted.

Wow, I never had any problems with X5, which I upgraded from. I love RH8, if I can just move through these problems....what a headache!

Thanks! Hope to hear from someone soooooonnnnn!!!
-Deb

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New Here ,
Mar 09, 2009 Mar 09, 2009

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I am totally in a pickle here.
This project is getting ready to release and now I can't even try to investigate because it crashes before I get a chance to do anything.
Wish I took a screenshot of the error message and darn if I didn't.

I remember that once a while ago I received a similar message about a topic having illegal characters and when I looked at it, I realized that my usual style sheet (nothing fancy, just default.css)was not applied to that particular topic because the fonts were different. So I reapplied the style sheet and all was OK. Maybe my style sheets got screwed up but that doesn't seem serious enough to crash RH.

So now I am no longer getting the messages when I open the project because I selected the checkbox to silence them.
Is there a way to "unsilence" the message in the registry so I can maybe get a screenshot before it crashes?

Before the project crashes, everything seems normal. It is just opening like any project opens. In the status bar, is Ready. Then, in Project Manager, I right-clicked on the TOC and selected Edit and crash!
I opened it again, got the Ready in the status bar and tried to click on an HTML file in Project Manager and crash again!
So it seems to be crashing as soon as I attempt to do anything.

I need some guidance on what to do next.
Please let me know if I more info is needed and I'll try to provide it.
Thanks!
-Deb

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New Here ,
Mar 09, 2009 Mar 09, 2009

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I am totally in a pickle here.
This project is getting ready to release and now I can't even try to investigate because it crashes before I get a chance to do anything.
Wish I took a screenshot of the error message and darn if I didn't.

I remember that once a while ago I received a similar message about a topic having illegal characters and when I looked at it, I realized that my usual style sheet (nothing fancy, just default.css)was not applied to that particular topic because the fonts were different. So I reapplied the style sheet and all was OK. Maybe my style sheets got screwed up but that doesn't seem serious enough to crash RH.

So now I am no longer getting the messages when I open the project because I selected the checkbox to silence them.
Is there a way to "unsilence" the message in the registry so I can maybe get a screenshot before it crashes?

Before the project crashes, everything seems normal. It is just opening like any project opens. In the status bar, is Ready. Then, in Project Manager, I right-clicked on the TOC and selected Edit and crash!
I opened it again, got the Ready in the status bar and tried to click on an HTML file in Project Manager and crash again!
So it seems to be crashing as soon as I attempt to do anything.

I need some guidance on what to do next.
Please let me know if I more info is needed and I'll try to provide it.
Thanks!
-Deb

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Community Expert ,
Mar 09, 2009 Mar 09, 2009

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Deb

Not ignoring you.

I will read through later. Main problem is that ordinarily I would say "send me a project". I cannot do that this time as I do not yet have a working copy of RH8.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 10, 2009 Mar 10, 2009

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Can you create a new project or open one of the sample projects? Can you add topics to them?

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New Here ,
Mar 10, 2009 Mar 10, 2009

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Hello.
It appears that only this one project is behaving badly.
I've opened other projects after having this problem and so far so good.

I should mention that I believe that the original error messages that I was receiving prior to the project crashing are invalid messages.
The topics that the error messages were referencing have been untouched for months. There were also many messages, so many that I got tired of clicking OK on each one and turned the messages off. I
If there was a legitimate problem with the file, I think I should have received the message after the last time I worked on the topic or after working on it and compiling--not several months later.

Unless my files are corrupt for some other reason.

-Deb

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New Here ,
Mar 10, 2009 Mar 10, 2009

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Hello.
I'm making some progress fixing my problem with some help from tech support and just wanted to check in.
First of all, I still had RH X5 files on my computer and had to do a lot of clean up in the registry.
I also uninstalled RH8 and reinstalled it.
After that, I deleted the .xpj & .cpd files and opened the project from the .hhp file.
Voila, now I'm in the project again.
The same "illegal character" messages that I received before start showing up and I'm making note of the file names.
So, now I can see in the topic list that there is no style sheet assigned to the problem topics. As it turns out, many of my file names are too long. So I shortened them and reapplied default.css.

Although I still have concerns. First of all, I have numerous files that have names that are longer than 25 characters and they are not being complained about (yet). A few of the files being complained about did NOT have names over 25 chars. A couple had borders around special verbiage, which I deleted and was then able to re-apply the style sheet again. One file I couldn't have anything wrong with it, so I just deleted it and created it again. So it seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. So I'm working through this.
Do you think I should start going through the project and rename all the long file names? Wow, what a job, there's tons!! I wonder why RH allows long names to be created in the first place if it's a problem? I wasn't even aware that it was a problem until today.....

Still some problems are lingering....
My old primary layout appears to be missing. When I compiled the chosed layout was WebHelp, which I don't use. I use HTML Help and when I open HTML Help from Single Source Layouts, it is not the one that I was using before the problem cropped up. All the rest of my special printed documentation layouts are also missing.
Is there a way that I can find them in an older copy of the project and copy them over? I don't have a clue.
Also, I was using conditional text, but when I open the pod, it looks like the conditional text names that I created are gone. Although I see the colored hash marks in the topics. Can I copy them over from an older copy of the same project? Again, not sure how I would do that.

I'd appreciate any tips anybody could give me. Thanks!
-Deb



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Community Expert ,
Mar 10, 2009 Mar 10, 2009

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Did Tech Support advise you of this 25 character limit? I am looking into that limit. Wait until I have more information. There is a limit on the overall path and filename, something like 256 characters and I am looking into that too.

There has been a bug since RH7 whereby some topics in the Topic List do not show the CSS. As long as there is a CSS showing in Topic Properties, that is all that matters.

See my topic on Opening Projects. There is some information in that about retrieving build tags and, I think, layouts.

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New Here ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Yes, it was Tech Support that said there is a 25 char limit.
I also wasn't aware of path/filename limitations either. That could also be causing a problem, my paths are a bit long.
I'll hold off until I hear from you again.
Thanks.
-Deb

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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I have been told on good authority the only limit was 256 for the whole path and filename, furthermore that limit does not apply to RH8.

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Guest
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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this rings a bell from a few months ago, when someone else was told by Adobe support that there was a 25k limit.

at that time, I suggested that it may have been a typo - I'll bet a cookie (again) that it really should say 256k in their little support script-o-prompter-thingie they are probably reading from. 25 characters is just such an arbitrary number, while 256k limits have some history and programming justification to them (don't ask me why - 256k was a frequent limit in DOS too, so it goes way back.)

still waiting on that first cookie - never heard back, that I remember, what happened the first time this came up.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Mmmmmm - Me like cookies!

I'll see your Chocolate Chip and raise you a White Chocolate Macadamia Nut!

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Guest
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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come ON Rick - it's a whole hour until lunch, and I have SIX boxes of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies in my desk drawer, waiting to go to people who ordered them. who's going to explain the empty boxes?

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LEGEND ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Mumph crunch -Empthtee Bosses? I domph no nuffinph bouno Emphtee Bosses... Crunch Crunch... Where see Empthtee Bosses?

You doan haph anny milk doo you? My fwoat ith sumpthtin dry!

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New Here ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Interesting....well I guess I don't have to rename all those long file names! That saves me some work.
Well it didn't make a whole lot of sense, because I have so many other long file names that were not complained about.
So I wonder what those messages were about then? Is there a way for me to attach a screenshot of the message for somebody to look at? I took one this time.
-Deb

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Post it here
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
and then add a link here to your image.

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New Here ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Tried to open the Web site and I'm getting "Unknown Zone" in the status bar.
Maybe it's just temporarily down. I can try again later.
-Deb

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Google "image hosting" and take your pick.

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New Here ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Wow, that was easy! Never posted a pic on the Web before.
OK, it's saying my URL is http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=illegalchars.jpg
although when I'm looking at it, I see
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=illegalchars.jpg&public_view=1 at the top of the page.
Thanks!!
-Deb

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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I now have RH8 up and running.

How big is the project zipped up?

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New Here ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Well, I have a copy of the project showing the errors and then after that it crashes. That is 93MB zipped.

And, I have the copy that I have been working on. This one is not using my normal HTML layout, which was wiped out and I have yet to replace (other stuff has been wiped out as well, see comment of 3/10). It's default layout is WebHelp now, which I don't use. (I was getting ready to try fixing that per Opening Projects on your Web site, but was busy interviewing today.) The size of this project is 95MB zipped. The project opens without the messages cropping up BUT I just checked out the topic list and see that all the topics that had problems yesterday (and I thought were fixed) no longer have the default.css assigned to them. So I apparently still have problems, which are just not being reported. PS this project also had about 6 broken links yesterday, because for some unknown reason files that had resided in the project just disappeared. Really. Like they are missing from the folder. Do not exist. (Where did they go? Who knows???) Since the missing topics haven't been updated for quite some time, I just imported them back into the project from a downlevel version that I had laying around.

I also have a copy of the same project before I upgraded from X5 to RH8. Copied all my projects to a file before I started.

What a mess....
-Deb



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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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It's too late here to read through all this again. Is it the case that this went wrong from the minute you upgraded to RH8?

If it is, then I would like to try the upgrade here.

Zip up the X5 version of the project and send it via http://www.transferbigfiles.com. I will upgrade it soon after receipt to see what happens but any further work will take longer. I have someone else ahead of you in the queue!

Email me via my site to say that you have uploaded the file to that site and include a link to this thread.



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New Here ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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Peter,
No, wrong case.
I upgraded from X5 to RH8 about a month ago and just started having problems recently.
All of a sudden, I started getting messages that my files had invalid characters and then the project crashes. Turns out that the style sheet goes missing from these 10 problem topic files. I think there were 4 files that just went completely missing and caused broken links--I have repaired this.
And as I mentioned earlier, my layouts and conditional text were wiped out. My next move, is to try to get those restored next using the instructions on your Web site.

So, I have 3 versions of this project:
1) before upgrading to RH8 (file is about 1 month old)
2) errors still showing & project crashing
3) Some repairs made, can open the project and use it, but style sheets will not "stay" assigned on the 10 problem files, although I am no longer getting the illegal character messages.

-Deb

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Community Expert ,
Mar 11, 2009 Mar 11, 2009

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So for a month the filenames were OK and then they were illegal?

Only ten files are giving trouble, always the same ten.

Four went missing. Just from Project Manager or also could not be seen in Windows Explorer?

In a copy of the proejct have you tried deleting these ten topics and then doing some more work to see if the project then behaves?

Also in a copy, try deleting the CPD and see how it fares on reopening, or did we try that already.

Put together the whole story covering stuff like that and email me offline. The thread is messy and I would like to start over.

Don't send project yet.
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LEGEND ,
Mar 13, 2009 Mar 13, 2009

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Just pondering if this could be a long path name issue?

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