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Missing Navigation Pane in WebHelp Project

New Here ,
Nov 20, 2006 Nov 20, 2006

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We are switching our help system for our Mac product to WebHelp and have just managed to hook up the context sensitivity - all seemed well at first. But now, we have noticed that the Navigation Pane and, in fact, the entire skin is missing on most machines. The topic opens, but there is no way to show the pane - the "show" button is either missing or dead (seems to depend on the machine). Works fine on my XP machine and my OS 10.4.7 Mac on safari.
Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this?
Thanks for your help,
-Mark

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 20, 2006 Nov 20, 2006

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Mark,

Those other machines -- are they all running the same environment?

If they have the same Mac OS, are the browser privacy and popup blocker settings the same? Are some machines running filters against ActriveX or other Web devices?

Harvey

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New Here ,
Nov 21, 2006 Nov 21, 2006

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Harvey ,

I have tested this on a bunch of machines of various OSs in our lab without finding a clear cut distinction - works on some but not others.

I did find two machines that are basically identical - Mac Minis OS 10.4.8. The navigation pane appears after clicking "Show" on one but not the other. There are no filters or other web devices on either machine and identical privacy settings (I Chose the Safari Menu > Reset Safari on both machines.). This is only a problem in Safari (always works in FireFox).

I can't imagine why this works on one on these machines but not the other.

-Mark

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 21, 2006 Nov 21, 2006

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Mark,

Interesting that it works OK in Firefox but not Safari. This suggests it's not a "Mac problem."

I have Mac at home but haven't tested WebHelp there.

It runs on OS 10.2.x. Do you think there would be much difference between 10.2 and 10.4?

Harvey

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New Here ,
Nov 21, 2006 Nov 21, 2006

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Harvey,

Well, I can see what's happening sort of. When linked from the app, the address doesn't always insert the ".htm#"...

file:///Applications/OurApplication/Help%20Files/dialog_boxes/topictitle.htm

file:///Applications/OurApplication/Help%20Files/OurApp.htm#dialog_boxes/topictitle.htm

I'm going to talk to the engineer who set up the context sensitivity. In the mean time, let me know if you have any ideas.

-Mark

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New Here ,
Nov 21, 2006 Nov 21, 2006

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Okay, I think we figured it out. It only works if the hard drive name does not include any spaces. So, it has something to do with how our app links to the topic, which our engineer guy should be able to handle. Thanks again for taking a look Harvey, -Mark

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New Here ,
Nov 27, 2006 Nov 27, 2006

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quote:

Originally posted by: MarkAJohnson
Okay, I think we figured it out. It only works if the hard drive name does not include any spaces. So, it has something to do with how our app links to the topic, which our engineer guy should be able to handle. Thanks again for taking a look Harvey, -Mark


Greetings. I'm the engineer working with Mark to get our WebHelp up and running. Thought I'd chime in with my $0.02 here. Thanks to this forum, I just learned about adding "withnavpane=true" to the URL to show the nav pane... So that part's solved.

But the rest of it remains a mystery. Here are some relevant points:
1. We're accessing these as local files, not Web URLs - so it's "file://", not " http://".
2. We access "<appname>_csh.htm", so our path would be something like:
file://Macintosh HD/Applications/MyApp/Help Files/MyApp_csh.htm#TopicNumber=33005,withnavpane=true
3. The problem exists on Mac in Safari, but NOT in Internet Explorer.

If you remove the space from "Macintosh HD" (and rename the drive) it works fine. With the space in it, we just spin. I've tried it with an actual space and a %20; neither one works. Since the _csh.htm file calls into a bunch of Java Scripts, I have a feeling that's where it's breaking down. While of course the browser plays a part in this (since it works in IE but not Safari) I know that Safari normally handles spaces just fine - and since Safari is the default browser on Macs nowadays, we're very eager to find a solution/workaround.

Questions:
1. Is this the right way to open context-sensitive help?
2. Do other people do this? If so, does the script fail?
3. What kinds of things could I try for workarounds?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff Nordquist

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 21, 2006 Nov 21, 2006

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Mark,

I see. The first example will open just the topic in an ordinary window or, in a layout specified in the call from the main app.

The second method opens WebHelp frames showing the called topic rather than the designated welcome topic.

But I'm still not clear on something--

You say that clicking the "Show" link in the plain window sometimes does and sometimes doesn't expand the window to open the navpane?

Harvey

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Community Expert ,
Nov 27, 2006 Nov 27, 2006

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Hi Jeff and welcome to the forum

I can't help with your specific problem with Safari but there are some topics on my site about calling webhelp. Maybe one of them or the links they contain plus your engineering knowledge will help.

If they do, please post the solution for the benefit of the next man along.

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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New Here ,
Nov 27, 2006 Nov 27, 2006

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Hi Peter,

Wow - what a comprehensive site! I learned a lot on my brief tour. The main thing I learned is that this wouldn't be the only non-IE bug out there...

I ran the Safari Tidy plugin on some of the pages, and tried fixing the pages mentioned at http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/browsers/browsers.htm but to no avail. Without any tools to debug the javascripts I'm somewhat at a loss; there are so many files, and some of them are quite cryptic.

It's obvious that the volume name is being changed during the redirect - the name "Macintosh HD" is coming through "macintosh hd" but the capitalization of the rest of the path remains unchanged. And I can get it to work if I avoid passing the volume name altogether (i.e. file:///Applications/etc.) but that would cause problems if the help files were on a mounted volume.

What I really need to know is which javascripts are called when you pass "withnavpane=true" (or which scripts are called if you don't pass it but then click "Show"). I could probably stumble through fixing that routine, if I had a clue which one it was. :)

I'll keep looking through that site, though - it's possible that something seemingly unrelated could be the culprit.

Thanks again,
Jeff

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Community Expert ,
Nov 27, 2006 Nov 27, 2006

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Wow to you too! An engineer acknowledging software may have bugs rather than features. :-)

Another site you might want to look at is http://www.robowizard.com. Download Tips and Tricks.

Also try throwing some of the keywords relating to this problem into Google. Often comes up with surprisingly useful information.

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 27, 2006 Nov 27, 2006

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Jeff,

You'll find code containing "toLowerCase" in the following output files:

whcsh_home.htm (19)
ehlpdhtm.js (8) -- and "safari" (13)
whstart.js (6)
cshdat_robohelp.htm (6)
cshdat_webhelp.htm (4)
whfhost.js (3)
myhelpproject_csh.htm (2)
myhelpproject_rhc.htm (2)
whlang.js (2)
whver.js (2) and "safari" (3)
whphost.js (2)
whthost.js (2)
whskin_tw.htm (1)


"strUrl" appears frequently in the first five files above and in
myhelpproject_csh.htm
myhelpproject_rhc.htm

I don't have enough depth here to find the right place(s) and to modify code.
If you figure it out, please post the solution here.

Harvey

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