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RH7 Hangs on "Closing Database"

New Here ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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I'm using RH7, sole author, working from a local copy.  I was using SVN as an external version control system, and still plan on doing so, but I don't have the project in an SVN repository at this time.  Even if I did, I don't see how RH7 would know, but perhaps someone can educate me.

At any rate, my problem is that RH7 cannot close my project.  Every time I go to close the project at the end of an authoring session, it hangs and the status bar reads, "Closing Database."  Can anyone tell me why I might be locking up?  THe issue has not yet resulted in any data loss, but I've had data loss issues with RH7 in the past that lead me to work locally, and I don't trust it not being able to close gracefully.

Thanks,

Heath

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LEGEND ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Hi Heath.

I'm not sure if this is any use but I have been experimenting with SVN as our source control app. From my experience so far, the SVN menu items are available on all files regardless of whether they are inside or outside the SVN database area. You don't say where this project is, so maybe it is worth seeing if you can copy the files to another location and seeing if that makes a difference. You might also try renaming the projectname.cpd file before opening the project.

Let us know how you get on as I for one would be very interested to know.


Read the RoboColum(n) for mutterings on RoboHelp, Technical Communication Suite and technical communication.

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Thanks for the response.  I would be very interested to see what you've discovered so far working with SVN, and to discuss best practices or what my best approach might be.  I like SVN, but have found it a bit tricky to use with RoboHelp projects.  Not for the topics, but for the project files.

I'm using Tortoise for my SVN GUI.  The SVN menu items (i.e., the Tortoise menu) do appear, but I believe you have to have the directory imported into the SVN repository before SVN does anything with the directory.

I'll try moving it to another location/renaming it and see what happens.  More to follow.

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LEGEND ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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You are right on both counts from what I've discovered. We have only just started to look at it - we use Visual Source Safe in a production environment - as our Developers use it. First impressions are that it is a lot more fiddly with RH projects as we update files in a very different from developers. It seems to work but we'll have to change our procedures fairly significantly.


Read the RoboColum(n) for mutterings on RoboHelp, Technical Communication Suite and technical communication.

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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All right.  I finally got some time today to work on this problem again.  I moved the project to a new directory--still hangs.  You had advised me to rename the .cpd file.  What does that file govern?  Should I rename just that file?

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Renaming that file didn't do the trick.  I created an entirely new project and imported some of my old topics in.  It hangs when I try to close it, too.  That tells me it's something on the topic level . . . but what?  Any ideas?

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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I finally discovered my problem, though I'm still not sure what "Closing Database" refers to.  I'm trying to import an external style sheet into default.css.  When I comment out that line of CSS, the project closes cleanly.  Anyone have any idea why?

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Community Expert ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Comment out what line in the CSS?

You cannot have an external CSS. Copy it via Windows into the project root directory and then link your topics to it.

Alternatively, open both CSS files in Notepad and copy from the external one into default.css.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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 ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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I'm sorry.  I should have been more explicit.  My directive from my manager is to use the same style sheet that our web-based product uses so that development only has to maintain one style sheet.  So I added the following line to the beginning of default.css:

@import url('../../../../our_style_sheet.css');

With the path being the relative path from my publshed help project to the stable, permanent home for the style sheet I've been asked to use.  This works, but depends on the existence and availability of that style sheet in that location.  What I had noticed was that the project would sometimes fail to open when the server that offers that style sheet was unavailable.  So I went to referencing a local copy temporarily.

I happened to remember that freezing issue and comment out the above line of CSS.  Works like a dream.  It's a bit strange, but not illogical.  The relative path from the working project to the style sheet is not the same as from the published output to the style sheet.  But I still don't know what database it's trying to close.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Well if it works for you good luck but I would expect issues, albeit not the database issue you mention.

RH has a database, the CPD file but I don't think it ever reports a problem closing it, in the way you describe. That sounds more like the source control.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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 ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Yeah.  I'm not feeling too good about it so far.  That's the second issue it's caused, so I'm going to suggest an alternative to our development team.  Thanks!

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LEGEND ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Hi there

In addition to what my esteemed colleague Peter wrote, I'm wondering if it would be possible to construct the link so it pointed to a URL instead of the ../../../ shorthand. Maybe RoboHelp would accept that. Might be worth a try to see.

Cheers... Rick

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New Here ,
Jun 19, 2009 Jun 19, 2009

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Good suggestion!  I'll see if I can get a qualified URL from our Development team.

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Guest
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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just for snorts and chortles, can you check to see that the folders that contain your program and/ or data files haven't mysteriously become Read Only for you?

If you create a new project and create just one new topic in it, can you save that?

And you do say that you are working with a local copy - I assume that means the program is installed on your lcoal hard drive.

Is your data on your hard drive (strongly recommended), or on a network drive (BAD, YUCK, NEVER EVER DO IT)?

Did I miss that detail?

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Nope.  I have full access to all of them.  I'm using a local copy of RoboHelp installed on my hard drive to work on a local copy of my project, also living on my hard drive.  If I create a new topic I can save it just fine.  I never lost any data, I just couldn't close my project.  RoboHelp would hang until I instructed windows to kill the process.

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