Robohelp issues (folders & files are missing)

[VeetsDavis]

Hi there,
We're running Robohelp 7 HTML.
We have 3 users using this product. All client PCs are running Windows XP (fully patched). They access their Robohelp project/documentation on a Windows 2003 dev server (also fully patched).
Robohelp was working fine until several days ago. At this point, our users starting receiving Microsoft Visual C++ runtime errors & complained that they could no longer edit their files. Additionally, the .xpj file was missing. If it matters, there are 1774 files & 67 folders in the project. The project itself is only 38MB.
After checking the server logs, I realized that several 'old' office updates were pushed to the server the night before. After further investigation,  it looked like KB904018 was the guilty update (more info here -> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7497D7F0-BEF5-4054-B854-B1240B5135F5&displa...). Basically, this update removes the functionality in Access 2002 that lets users add new data to or edit existing data in a linked Microsoft Excel worksheet. Figuring that was the culprit, we uninstalled the update (normally we don't do this but it isn't a critical update).
After rebooting the server, we ran a full restore (which included the .xpj file), Robohelp started working again & everyone was happy.
Several days later however, we started receiving complaints again. This time some of the directories & files within the Robohelp project had disappeared. I've double-checked the server logs, client logs, AV settings (on server & client), etc, but I don't see anything relevant. At this point I'm not sure what to do but I'm guessing there's some kind of corruption in the project now. What should I be looking at? Any advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated.
TIA
Regards,
VeetsDavis

ps: I've never worked with Robohelp before so forgive my ignorance

[Peter Grainge]

Running projects from a network, other than under source control is the kiss of death. See Snippet 120.

http://www.grainge.org/pages/snippets/snippets.htm

There's information about Opening Projects on my site as well.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Follow me @petergrainge

[VeetsDavis]

Thank you Peter,

Based on the number of users (3-5 max), which product would you recommend we use?

Regards,

Veetsdavis

[Peter Grainge]

You mean what source control product? I am the last person to ask as I studiously avoid it.

First of all, do any of the users work on the same project at the same time? If not, then source control is not essential from that point of view. The way we work is that each day a simple backup program creates a zip  on the network while we are updating a project. When complete a clearly labelled zip is put on the network. That ensures there are good backups at all times. From time to time we trash a bunch of zips so that there is say one per month retained. We don't trust you IT guys as whenever we have asked for a backup, somehow it's going to take too long, the tape isn't available etc etc.

I would guess you don't have multiple authors on a project at any one time as without source control you would have hit problems before now.

If you must have source control, why not use the source control that comes with RH? It installs from the same CD.

Bear in mind that the author checks out files to work on them and if they do not check them back in at the end of the day, there is no backup of the topics checked out.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Follow me @petergrainge

[Guest]

Peter -

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have to ask...why do you "studiously avoid" source control?

Thanks

Dave

[Peter Grainge]

No better reason than to avoid all the problems I see in the forums from people using source control.

We use a cheap backup program that zips the project to a network drive every night and adds the date to the zip file name. Gives me all I need.

If we shared authoring across projects we would have to look at source control for that reason. As a means of backups though, I find it unnecessary.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Follow me @petergrainge

[VeetsDavis]

Thanks again Peter.

I'll discuss some different options with the team.