Why do topic question mark icons have red x's?

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Report · Dec 30, 2010

Do you have patch 8.0.2 applied? If not, see Opening Projects on my site.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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Report · Dec 31, 2010

Hey, I've encountered the same problem. I applied the patch and followed the steps, however, when I run the report for unused files, I have a big list. My question is, where do I reimport the topics from? As far as I can tell, the topics are all still present in the SSL folder. Thanks in advance.

Jeff

Report · Dec 31, 2010

Hi there

If you see topics in the !SSL! folder you need to be leery about using those. LIkely they are WebHelp output topics. These topics share the same name as your source topics but are modified versions of the source topics. They will be rife with all sorts of JavaScript that will muck up your project if you repurpose them as source topics again without cleaning all the scripting out of them.

The best bet is to locate the true original source topics. So do more digging before resorting to WebHelp topics.

If you simply cannot find the source topics, you can use the WebHelp topics. Take a look at the link below for a method of dealing with that.

Click here to view

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Dec 31, 2010

Thanks for the reply Rick! Any suggestions on where these things could 'possibly' reside? Do I look within Robohelp or somewhere in the output folder? Thanks a lot.

Jeff

Report · Dec 31, 2010

Hi Jeff

Your question is not unlike approaching a total stranger and advise that your eggs have gone missing. Then asking if they might know where you put them.

By default, the topics should be found in the project location. One easy way to explore that location is to right-click topics in the Project Manager pod and choose Explore. Windows Explorer should then open at the project location. That would be similar to the stranger saying "well, eggs are usually kept inside the refrigerator. Have you looked inside the fridge?".

But projects are very much like eggs, As such, you are able to place them pretty much anywhere you want (within reason). So it's difficult to say "Try looking in this folder location" because when you (or whomever) set the folder up, it could have been placed anywhere. That's why the method I outlined earlier is probably the most reliable.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

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Report · Dec 31, 2010

Rick, great analogy! Sorry about the uninformed question. Believe it or not though, they were in the 'fridge' so to speak. All of my missing topics were right in the main project folder. I'm assuming those files are different than those that are in the SSL folder. I'll have to reimport them. Strange that they dsappeared from within the robohelp project itself. Thanks for your help!

Jeff

Report · Dec 31, 2010

Hello again

I believe early on in this thread, my esteemed colleague Peter Grainge advised that it's vitally important to apply the patches to RoboHelp. This is because an issue was identified a while back that I believe caused the issue you have encountered.

So... before you attempt to put the project back into working order, you really do need to ensure RoboHelp is fully patched.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Jan 07, 2011

Hi,

In the "fridge", the project location, there is an Ing file and an hhc file, a glo and an hhk. Under the Project Files folder, the Ing file is the only one there. However, in my folder for this project, all the html files are there. It seems that RH is not recognizing them. Why is that? How can I get RH to recognize them?

Could these htmls be output files and that is why RH doesn't recognize them?

Another piece of information: in my project folder, I do not have an folder.

Thanks for your help,

Erin

Report · Jan 07, 2011

RoboHelp does not use the file system to track the files that are part of a project; rather, it stores the identity of those files in an XML file with the ".fpj" extension. Files in the root of a project folder are tracked in a file named "root.fpj." Files in sub-folders are tracked in a file in each subfolder with the same name as the sub-folder, and the sub-folder is recorded in the parent's ".fpj" file.

For example, say I have a project named "project" which includes files in a sub-folder named "appendix." In the "project" folder I will have a file "root.fpj" which will not only contain the names of all the files that make up the project (not all of the files in the folder are actually part of the project) but will also contain the entry:

<folders>
      <folder>
          <name>!Language!</name>
      </folder>
      <folder>
          <name>appendix</name>
      </folder>
</folders>

In the "appendix" sub-folder there will also be a file named "appendix.fpj" which stores the names of all the files in that folder which should be included in the project.

If a file name is displayed in RoboHelp with a red 'X' that means the file name is referenced in the ".fpj" file, but does not exist in the file system (it has been deleted, not moved with the rest of the project, or perhaps not restored from version control). Simply restoring the file from wherever it has been saved will cause RoboHelp to begin tracking the file.

If a file exists in the file system but is not in a RoboHelp project contrary to your expectations, its name needs to be added to the appropriate project file. While I have had some success actually editing the ".fpj" file by hand to add the file names, I wouldn't recommend doing it; instead, simply import the file from the RoboHelp 'file->import' menu. Select the file that is in the project root folder (or sub-folder if one has been defined in RoboHelp), and NOT one that appears in the SSL sub-folder; as others have mentioned, that one has probably been pre-processed by the RoboHelp publication process, and will not reflect the actual working file. If the working file has been managed by RoboHelp in the past, it should remain unchanged after having been imported.

HTH

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Hi there

A25CharacterScreenName wrote:
...If a file name is displayed in RoboHelp with a red 'X' that means the file name is referenced in the ".fpj" file, but does not exist in the file system (it has been deleted, not moved with the rest of the project, or perhaps not restored from version control)....

Actually, this may not be the case whatsoever. RoboHelp 8 had a significant bug that was addressed with a patch. The bug caused a mismatch between files RoboHelp expected to be present and what was actually on the file system. In these cases, the files were actually present in the folder but RoboHelp essentially lost track of them. So it's critically important that both patches be applied.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Jan 07, 2011

What I said there that may not have gone through is I don't have an ssl folder.

Erin

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Hi Erin

Are you able to post a screen capture of what you are seeing? I can't tell whether you are looking at RoboHelp or at Windows Explorer.

Have you ensured both of the service releases have been applied to RoboHelp HTML?

Cheers... Rick

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Click here to view the thread

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Rick,

I'm writing from my email address. I cannot put screen captures in this email because it's plain text only. How do I reply to a post within the Adobe Forum? For some reason, I can't see how to do this. I could put screen captures in that way.

By the way, I have applied two patches and am still seeing these problems. My current version of RoboHelp is 8.0.2.208.

Thanks,

Erin

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Use the little camera icon on the message page to upload an image file of your screenshot.

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Hi Erin

How did you post initially? That puzzles me because to my knowledge, the initial forum post occurs via the web site.

At any rate, you click the link below to visit the thread and reply via the web interface. From the Web Interface you are able to insert images if you want.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Jan 07, 2011

Hi Rick,

Initially, I just created a post, that was easy enough. And I've been able to reply to posts before using the interface. But now I'm just not seeing anything I can click to reply to a post (what do you actually click?). I think something may have gone away because this was easy for me before. I am able to get to the thread fine.

Erin

Report · Jan 07, 2011

OK, I figured it out. I was not logged in!

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Rick,

Here is what I'm seeing in RH:

Also, all of the links are broken.

In Windows Explorer, I see html files that correspond to the files with red x's on the right TOC view in RH:

Thanks,

Erin

Report · Jan 07, 2011

Hello again

Unfortunately I'm not seeing a complete picture. I do note that your Table of Contents entries are showing the red Xs, indicating that RoboHelp senses the topics the TOC entries link to may be missing.

What I had hoped to see was whether you were also seeing the red xs in the Project manager or the Topic List as shown below. If you see them there, RoboHelp is sensing that the topics may not be in the actual folder.

Then you would look in the folder to see if the topic listed is actually present or not. It may or may not be.

Cheers... Rick

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