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Context sensitive WebHelp not working, or not with all browsers

Participant ,
May 15, 2009 May 15, 2009

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We are creating WebHelps on Robohelp 7 (7.0.145.0). Context sensitivity is done by having the application call a file path or server location: something like

file://C:\Program%20Files\file_path\Help\start.htm#folder/Target.htm

or

file://///server_name/file_path/language_identifier/start.htm#folder_name/Target.htm

Generally, the help opens but not on the page that we want: the Front Page is opened, instead.

What exactly happens, seems to vary between what Operating system (= Windows version), browser, or even individual PC is used.

We have mainly been testing with XP (32 and 64 bit), Vista (32 and 64 bit), IE6, IE7 and Firefox 3.

Any suggestions on how to fix this or where to look for the problem?

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Community Expert ,
May 25, 2009 May 25, 2009

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Investigate whether it is true that the servers where this does not work are Unix based. If that is true it is likely that there is a difference between the case of the file names you use and the links to them.

If the help is from a single project, you could select the option on the first page of the wizard to automatically apply lower case names. RoboHelp will then change the file names in the output and, importantly, it also changes your links to them.

Please post back indicating whether or not that was the problem. It helps others seeking answers.


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New Here ,
Jun 08, 2009 Jun 08, 2009

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We are seeing the same issue with the Start page loading instead of the context help topic. Have made some progress in narrowing down the issue. Here is what I know. Callling webhelp using to open a new window

It appears to be a combination Vista and IE8. I also suspect it is RH8 related as another project compiled on RH5 does not have this issue. We skipped RH7.

XP + IE8 = OK

XP + IE7 = OK

Vista + FF = OK

The project is compiled with the Mark of the Web and Use Lowercase File names options checked. I also have Synchronize TOC enabled. Breadcrumbs OFF, and DHTML > Java Applet > Pure HTML selected in the Nav Pane format.

If you manually copy/paste the URL in the address bar then everything is OK. Will try a few compile option variations over the next few days and report back results - Unless someone can provide some guidance?

Terry

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2009 Jun 11, 2009

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TtotheB

Have you tried without Use lowercase filenames ticked?


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New Here ,
Jun 12, 2009 Jun 12, 2009

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Hi Peter,

The Use Lowercase filenames option is checked. I believe I've already tried the backslash without results but may try again. We've got a senior developer on the case and his investigation points at the problem being related to going from a Trusted to a Non Trusted site and not necessarily browser related. The help files are located on a hosted Server.

From my IE8 Security settings, if my Internet and Trusted Sites Zone use the same "Enable Protected Mode" option then the problem goes away. The problem surfaces when one is checked and the other unchecked.

I will update the post when I have more information.

Terry

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Community Expert ,
Jun 12, 2009 Jun 12, 2009

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I know the box is ticked, my suggestion was to try without it being ticked to rule out any mismatch of case.


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New Here ,
Jun 12, 2009 Jun 12, 2009

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Sorry, and understood.

Can't try this today. Will try sometime next week.

Terry

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Participant ,
Jun 09, 2009 Jun 09, 2009

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I have not found out what OS the servers use, not sure it is relevant in my case.

Now it looks like context sensitivity does not work on Vista:

- Vista 32 with IE7

- Vista 64 Business + SP1 with Firefox 3

IE on XP seems to work fine.

In these tests the WebHelp was on the user's computer.

-------------------------

With Firefox 3 on XP or Vista, ToC fails to respond in many cases, but not all, when help is opened from the application. Index and Search are fine.

-------------------------

If the address of the help is typed on, for example, email

( file://C:\Program%20Files\file_path\Help\start.htm#folder/Target.htm )

clickin it always opens the Start page. I cannot figure out what the difference is there.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2009 Jun 11, 2009

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Perttime

Have you tried folder\target.htm? Backslash as you are running it locally. IE is more tolerant of using the wrong slash.


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Participant ,
Jun 12, 2009 Jun 12, 2009

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Looks like the link example I put in the original post was not correct. The SW is using backslashes.

Now I am getting the help to open the correct page on XP, both in IE and Firefox. Don't know what is different.

Not sure about Vista yet. Vista 64 has been the most troublesome so far.

The more serious issue, right now, seems to be the ToC freezing in Firefox, when the help opens context sensitively. Only the top book is displayed and clicking on it gives no response.

If I open the help to the front page (from SW help menu, or double clicking the file) ToC works.

Changing the "Navigation Pane Preferred Format" to "Pure HTML" seems to keep the Contents from freezing in Firefox 3 on XP.

The result does not look as nice as the more advanced options but the Contents seems to work. However, in my Finnish test help Index and Search are a mess, then...

edit:

The English help gives a similar result with "Pure HTML": ToC works but does not look nice; Index has the alphabet in Capitals at the top and the Index content appears with pretty random indents; Search pane shows the alphabet, some number sequences, and a list of words followed by numbers.

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Participant ,
Jun 15, 2009 Jun 15, 2009

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Another observation on ToC freezing in Firefox, when the help opens context sensitively:

When I open the help from a SW section that is not handled in the ToC yet (but a placeholder page exists), the correct help topic opens also in Firefox 3 on XP, and the ToC works.

If I open a topic, that is included in ToC, context sensitively in Firefox, the ToC is always frozen. Only exceptions have been when I select "Section 508 Compliant Output" or "Pure HTML" for generation: then Index and Search panes appear totally unacceptable: a mess.

The result is no better when I Generate the help as WebHelp Pro.

The address of the context sensitively opened helps appears like this in Firefox (edited for anonymity):

file:///C:/Program Files/File Path/Help/Start_page.htm#Folder/Target_topic.htm

(the slashes, spaces and capitals now follow what I really see in Firefox)

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Community Expert ,
Jun 15, 2009 Jun 15, 2009

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Not sure what you mean by

When I open the help from a SW section that is not handled in the ToC yet (but a placeholder page exists), the correct help topic opens also in Firefox 3 on XP, and the ToC works.


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Participant ,
Jun 15, 2009 Jun 15, 2009

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I have an unfinished help project. Some sections are not included in ToC yet, but the help topics already exist, also in the Generated help.

When the SW calls a topic that is included in ToC, the correct topic opens but ToC freezes in Firefox. - Possibly a "Show Stopper" problem.

When the SW calls a topic that is not included in ToC, the correct topic opens and ToC works.

When the SW calls a topic that does not exist, no page is displayd and ToC works. (as expected)

When the SW calls the starting page, everything works fine.

--

edit:

Just tried opening the help in Opera 9.64: help opens without issues, except it opens on two tabs simultaneously...

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Community Expert ,
Jun 16, 2009 Jun 16, 2009

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I don't think I have seen that one before where the topic must be in the TOC for the call to work.

Assuming that when the topic is called when you click the topic in the TOC manually, this has to be something in the call. Does the topic open OK that way?


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Participant ,
Jun 16, 2009 Jun 16, 2009

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I think you got it backwards:

If I press F1 to open a topic that is in ToC, ToC freezes.

If I open the front page of the help (from Help menu, for example) I can browse to that topic, and away from it, OK.

Everything also works fine if I press F1 in a place that opens a topic that is NOT in ToC.

Things seem to work fine in IE and Opera

Now I am wondering:

- Is this a Firefox problem

- Is this a RoboHelp 7 problem (how well does it cope with new browsers and Vista? Is RH8 better in that respect?)

- Is this our SW developers' problem

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Community Expert ,
Jun 16, 2009 Jun 16, 2009

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OK, both methods open the topic but calling from the application freezes the TOC. Correct?

That still points to it being something in the call as otherwise everyone calling the help from an app would be reporting this problem. Agreed?

****************************************

Now I am wondering:

- Is this a Firefox problem

- Is this a RoboHelp 7 problem (how well does it cope with new browsers and Vista? Is RH8 better in that respect?)

- Is this our SW developers' problem

****************************************

1] I don't think it is FF or we would all have this problem.

2] Same answer. Browser support is better in RH8 as the code is W3 compliant. Vista has not been an issue for me with either version.

3] It is pointing that way.


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Participant ,
Jun 16, 2009 Jun 16, 2009

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"OK, both methods open the topic but calling from the application freezes the TOC. Correct?"

When the application calls the front page, or a page that is not in ToC, ToC works OK.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 16, 2009 Jun 16, 2009

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Ignoring pages that do not exist because no one expects them to work and ignoring the start page as that is not an issue, you say

When the SW calls a topic that is included in ToC, the correct topic opens but ToC freezes in Firefox. - Possibly a "Show Stopper" problem.

When the SW calls a topic that is not included in ToC, the correct topic opens and ToC works.

So both methods display the topic but if it is in the TOC, the TOC also freezes in Firefox.

My previous answer stands, assuming this applies to all topics and not just some.


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Participant ,
Jun 16, 2009 Jun 16, 2009

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OK,

I'll put this to our developers again. They are developing on QT ( http://www.qtsoftware.com/products/ ) which may or may not have unique issues.

I'll also test the RH8 trial version.

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Participant ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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I just generated a help with RH8 trial version...

... and it seems to be working perfectly on Firefox 3, when I copied the output onto my XP laptop.

edit:

... now ToC and Search fail in Opera.

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Participant ,
Aug 14, 2009 Aug 14, 2009

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No progress...

And I have an observation that points towards a help problem:

- I open a help topic (HTML file) from the output folder structure.

- it has a "Show" link at the top, and I click this link.

-> Navigation Pane opens on the left and toolbar appears at the top.

In IE6 on XP, ToC opens correctly expanded and works fine.

In Firefox 3 on XP, I only see the top level book, and ToC does not respond.

Index and Search work fine in both.

--

Same thing happens, whether the files are on server or on my desktop.

---

edit:

If I just leave the help sitting there on Firefox, for a while, ToC seems to start responding. Not sure yet if this is consistent.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 14, 2009 Aug 14, 2009

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Can we step back a bit.

Opera is not a supported browser so whether or not help will work is hit and miss.

This is now a long thread with differing results. It might help to create a table setting out what works with what.

Is RH itself installed on a 32 bit machine? If not all bets are off.

Do some tests with the supplied sample projects to see if you get the same or different results. If different, it might help to include the differences in the table.

Also how about trying a later version of FF? I realise you might have to support earlier versions but testing in a later version might reveal something.


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Participant ,
Aug 17, 2009 Aug 17, 2009

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OK, this thread is getting awkward and it is getting hard to understand the situation.

Maybe I should start a new thread, with the latest results.

- Opera is not important, just something I tried after running out of ideas.

- RH is on a 32 bit XP, nothing weird going on there.

- One thing is: my PC is not really standard. The company has some tweaks on our SW packages, I do not know what exactly.

  I'll try to find out if this has been tested on "standard" PC's.

- I opened the RH7 help in Firefox 3

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Adobe/Adobe%20RoboHelp%207/RoboHTML/Help/en_US/index.htm

It worked OK, until the ToC books (or plus/minus squares) stopped responding. I was just clicking on everything including ToC items, Index and Search tabs, and the Firefox "Reload" button. "When" the RH Help ToC stops responding, seems to be a bit random.

It works fine after closing Firefox and reopening the help, until I overload (?) it again by clicking on everything. Usually the Reload is the last drop.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 17, 2009 Aug 17, 2009

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Are you clicking and giving things time to respond or clicking to see if it breaks? Chances are it will.

I don't think you need to start a new thread, just clarify where we are now with this one.


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Participant ,
Aug 17, 2009 Aug 17, 2009

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The problem as I see it right now:

ToC works fine on IE6

ToC books do not respond (expand or collapse) on Firefox 3, when I open the help context sensitively.

This is not quite constant:

I can open help topics that are on the root level of the ToC, even when the books are jammed.

If I start the help, context sensitively, from a help topic that is on the ToC root level, ToC books work fine

If I start the help from the starting file (call it sw_name.htm) ToC books work fine.

Occasionally waiting a while helps and the books start responding. Sometimes not.

--------------

The latest I did to jam the Robohelp help:

Open it in Firefox

- click on a (+) to expand

- click on three topics, and wait for content to appear

- click on Index and Search, waiting for the tabs to open

- click Reload on Firefox.

Doing a similar sequence on my own WebHelp also jammed the books.

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