ToC, Index, Search appearing blank in RH8 Webhelp

[Guest]

Hello - I have been reviewing the forum questions and answers for about a year now - some great advice - but I can't seem to find an answer to my current problem, so I need to post it here.

I have recently upgraded our help system from RH7 to RH8. I generated Webhelp this week and all was well on my local system in both IE7 and FF3. The long list of every possible number and letter which was appearing in FF in the search column had disappeared and search was behaving exactly as I hoped. Nothing else looked anything other than perfect.

I made the submission to our engineering team and when it was integrated, I tested again. IE remains fine, but in FF, we get the "welcome" page, but an empty column where the ToC should appear. Same with the index - I can enter a keyword, but I get no results. Ditto for search.

Our test and production environments are different, obviously, than my local environment - I put the Webhelp output on an Apache server and all was well. It only breaks when it goes into the production environment.

I was told to tell you that our Apache server does a rewrite rule to Weblogic (9.2.3) - where, with the exception of the UGLY search results in FF from the RH7 Webhelp, all worked well with RH7 output. Our environment hasn't changed, so we believe that we may need to change something in a config file to accommodate changes in RH8. ( We made the changes to UTF-8 as recommended in earlier posts some months ago.)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Marla

[Guest]

Hi again -

Doesn't anyone have any thoughts about this issue? Or has it been answered elsewhere and I missed it? If I missed providing some critical piece that might solve the puzzle, please let me know. We're releasing today and I'm being forced to say we do not support FireFox, due to the lack of online help. I'd like to get it figured out soon.

Thanks for your thoughts on the problem.

Marla

[Izamal1]

Sorry, no solution to offer.

I have a similar problem with Firefox.  With a merged project, two "children," the TOCs do not show.  I click on the Index and see the combined index.

A Java void (0) error shows at the bottom of the screen.

However, when I click on the browser's"reload current page" icon, the two project TOC titles display under the TOC.  When I click on them, they expand.

I have selected the options, on the Webhelp (primary) output generation, to have the child TOCs to show. (Rightly or wrongly I've done that for the parent and the two children.)  I've been playing with all sorts of combinations, and doesn't seem to matter whether I check these or not.  I've left Mark of the Web unchecked, as in Peter Grainge's RH8 merge project sample files.

Naturally I'd like the TOC to show without having to communicate somehow to user that they should click on the reload icon.

Alan

Washington, D.C.

[Guest]

Thank you very much for the response. I immediately tried your workaround on our help, but alas...

I'd already unchecked MOW due to issues with links to external locations. Very frustrating.

Marla

[Captiv8r]

Hi Alan

Question here.

Does the TOC of the master project contain any references to content inside the master? Or is it simply a container used to serve as the master?

My thought here is that if all it is is a container, perhaps you could configure a splash page as the default topic. Maybe even have it in the TOC of the master.

I'm not certain this will work but thought it would be worth trying to see if it changes the outcome.

Don'tcha just love the browser incompatibiities? Sheesh...

Cheers... Rick

Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 within the day - $24.95! Click here for Adobe Certified Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training Click here for the SorcerStone Blog Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

[Izamal1]

Captiv8r,

Thanks for the response.

No, the TOC of the master (parent) topic is blank, as is the sole parent topic (except for, in the html meta language, the redirect).

Yeah, love the varietyof browsers, real choice, but can be a pain.  In Firefox my TOCs open with closed books, in IE the top book is open to show the topics therein.  I think I read that I should have the intro topic be before (not within) any book to get Firefox to open books.

My very experienced direct boss tried all day yesterday to crack this.  It's gotta be something in the browser controls.

Marla, sorry the reload didn't work for you. For Firefox, are there any blocks on scripts (Javascript) on your network. (For IE, we had to permit ActiveX.)

(By the way, I love that the best way to find what I want in the Adobe forum is to Google it. Adobe's search doesn't do it for me.

Regards, Alan

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

For the Adobe forums search, I find you have to search twice. The first search shouldl bring back some results. What you want is to get to the initial results page.

Click the image below to see at full size.

Now you see a different page.

Again, click the image to see at full size.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 within the day - $24.95! Click here for Adobe Certified Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training Click here for the SorcerStone Blog Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

[Izamal1]

Captiv8r,

Thanks!

[Izamal1]

Marlajmc,

I see that whthost.js contains the javascript that loads the TOC, as best I can understand it not knowing javascript.

My direct boss is working with that file to find clues why Firefox might not automatically load a merged TOC.

He had looked in whver.js, which address the different browsers (grandfather Mozilla for Firefox).

He's trying to pinpoint any difference between the files in a single project output as opposed to the output of merged projects that could explain the need to reload in Firefox to see the TOC (a combined TOC of all projects). Like doing Adobe's work.

Alan

[Guest]

Alan, thanks -

One of our engineers is looking at the same file. If we find anything interesting, I'll post back.

Marla

[Peter Grainge]

If you press F5 after the help is opened, does the TOC then display?

Is everything OK in IE?

If yes to both, then I have the answer.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Izamal1]

Peter:

Yes, indeed, the answer to both is Yes.  (We'd been keying the Reload icon to see the TOCs of the two children.)

Now, sitting on the edge of our chairs, an answer?

Regards, Alan (Izamal1)

[Peter Grainge]

One other question, in the parent default topic you are using a redirect as described on my site?

If the answer to that is yes, then change the refresh value from 0 to 1.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Izamal1]

Peter,

Yes, indeed,

where the sole parent topic's  meta language in the HTML had read (I omit our url in the following):

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=

I just changed it to

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=

and, hurrah! the TOCs display, one after the other, beautifully (as they should) in Firefox 3.0.10.  And yes, the TOCs remain fine in IE 7.   (Our OS is Windows XP SP2.)

Thanks, very much.  Other nagging RH 8 problem solved by the master from the UK!

Regards,

Alan

[Peter Grainge]

I have noticed that although changing the refresh rate fixes the load problem, the TOC is not autosynchronising immediately. It does start to sync after the user has clicked some topics but that is not really satisfactory.I have found an alternative method.

Remove the redirect.

Paste the following above the </head> tag, amending the path to the same as you had in the redirect.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[
<!--Script courtesy of http://www.web-source.net - Your Guide to Professional Web Site Design and Development //-->
var time = null
function move() {
window.location = './mergedProjects/child_1/child_1_topic.htm'
}
//]]></script>

Amend the body tag as below. Change the timeout if required, it is set in milliseconds.

<body onload="timer=setTimeout('move()',100)">

This gives the same redirect but the TOC will sync OK. It works OK in IE as well.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Izamal1]

I had not bothered to report the synchronization issue, so happy were we that your merge solution works!

Just tried out the redirect you recommended from www.web-source.net, with the refresh rate you recommended, and -- it works like a charm!  Thanks again!

Now I have to look at all references from you, Peter, and others to see how to get a merged printed output. We want to generate a Word 2003 output so I can then clean up the document before converting to a pdf.  I of course can generate the Word output for the two children separately and then merge the TOC and pagination within Word, but think I should be able to do that directly from RH 8.

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but you cannot generate a single document. You have to create a printed output from each and then merge them in Word.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

In my case, no, the contents do not appear in FF after I press F5.

All is okay in IE - no need to press anything.

Marla

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but I think your problem is server related and I cannot help you on that.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Yes, I suspect that you are correct. I appreciate the suggestions.

Marla