RoboHelp 9 re: firefox seeing this: 

[smithtpp]

We assumed that upgrading to RoboHelp 9 would resolve this squiggle issue when trying to view in Firefox:    We have the same trouble in this new version of RH9. I called adobe support and they seem to confirm there is an issue, but did not offer a fix.

We heard there was a encoder tool for RH 8, is this available for RH9?  In Single Source Layout of RH9 there is a choice to make a Encoding selection and we have selected Unicode(UTF-8), but after publishing still see:   in firefox.  There  is not a choice for unchecking a check box for BOM that was discussed in a thread about the encoder tool for RH8.  Is this BOM the missing link?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thank you.

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community

If you click Tools > Options > General and enable the option labeled "Convert RoboHelp Edited Topics to HTML" and re-generate, does it help?

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[smithtpp]

Thanks for the idea, but no, seems to be the same:  

Thank you.

[Peter Grainge]

I had the same problem and this is what I was advised by the company hosting my site.

"I would therefore conclude that the solution to this problem (on Linux systems running Apache) is to add the AddDefaultCharset utf-8 directive to either the Apache config or the site .htaccess file. The advantage of the latter is that it only affects individual sites. The default Apache character set is taken from the locale file on Linux and defaults to iso-8859-1. It is the conflict between the Apache header with iso-8859-1 and the page character set of utf-8 that obviously causes Firefox a problem."

In a forum post Chrissy_Tissy added

My machine is Windows, but this fix still worked  - some notes about making the fix visible:

1. Do the fix itself (httpd.conf: AddDefaultCharset utf-8).

2. Restart the box to apply the fix.

3. Once the box is restarted, clear your cache in FireFox to make sure you don't continue to see the cached file.

Once all this is done you will see the output content as expected.

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

It may that if you encode to something other than UTF8, it will be OK. Not sure. What you encode to is something you need to discuss with your system admin.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[LenStirling]

I upgraded to RoboHelp 9 specifically to avoid the BOM issue and make projects cross-browser compatible, but I have found that RoboHelp 9 STILL inserts the unneccessary UTF-8 BOM in many output files even if you stipulate a different encoding. (.js files for example.) This is absolutely a RoboHelp issue as the files work perfectly when I manually edit the BOM out of the final output files.

The UTF-8 BOM is specifically not required for UTF-8 as the convention is that all files are UTF-8 unless otherwise stipulated. Therefore Firefox rightly sees a UTF-8 BOM as content when the file also contains the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> as a header, and displays it.

The Properties/Content Categories Encoding: selection should surely respect the selection made, and produce output accordingly.

[Peter Grainge]

Help me here Len.

You are saying that if you select something other than UTF-8 in the screen below, the setting is completely ignored?

I am also curious as to why there seems to be an objection from some people to deal with this on the server. I know nothing about server configuration so I ask out of ignorance.

Finally, the encoder for RoboHelp 8 was separate from RoboHelp and it has an important difference, a check box that can be deselected to exclude the BOM characters. It can be used with RoboHelp 9 outputs to change things after generation. Let me know if you want the link. It was produced by Adobe, it is not a home brew.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[LenStirling]

When you select something other than UTF-8, SOME output, not all, still contains the BOM. I did not say the setting was completely ignored, just largely ignored. Actually this is slightly more annoying than if it were completely ignored because a quick check on HTML files shows it gone. However it is left in some files. Specifically .js and .css files. This may be why the search function faile in Opera, but that is another matter.

The UTF-8 BOM is specifically not required, especially where the UTF-8 identity immediately follows. Files are assumed to be UTF-8 unless specifically identified otherwise. The UTF-16 BOM is therefore required; the UTF-8 is NOT.

The reason some do not like the 'workaround' of making allowances on the server for incorrect RoboHelp output, may be that not everyone has the luxury of making fundamental changes to server configuration and re-booting the server in order to fix what should not be broken. Many small organisations rely on remote hosting companies and such changes followed by system re-boots are not a simple matter for them. With Linux-based servers being dominant on the Internet and Apache being the dominant server configuration, this problem will become more important as Microsoft rapidly loses its browser dominance. The only broswer to handle default RohoHelp8 + output is MSIE.

If there is indeed a product download that overcomes the problem and allows the option of leaving off the rule-breaking UTF-8 BOM from output, I would appreciate finding it. As it is I am forced to re-edit every file with a W3C complient Hex-editor to take out the offending six bytes from each compilation. A task that takes longer than the original compilation, and so wastes valuable human time when there are upwards of 1000 files involved. I assume that because it fixes a critical product fault, it is a free download?

[Peter Grainge]

Please contact me via my site and I will get back to you tomorrow.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[JennyTW]

Hi Peter

I also have this problem and would like to get the solution you mentioned as I also don't have easy access to the server. Should I rather contact Adobe directly for the fix? I went to your web site, but thought I better ask through the forum first.

Thanks

Jenny

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

It may be a nice wish that RoboHelp can omit the BOM from output files. For now you can also remove the BOM from files by using a special search and replace utility. For example, see http://www.mind-pioneer.com/services/220_Advanced_search_and_replace.html

Greet,

Willam

[JennyTW]

Thanks, William.

[LenStirling]

Interesting, but perplexing, that my post stating that I had our programming department write a useful little executable that solved this problem is absent.

I now don't have the problem as a result. I have a very simple solution.

I having tried the solution suggested and found it to remove the BOM from only a small number of the file types; not all of the output as was requested.

I am less than thrilled by the fact that there are now several "workarounds" to fix what is a basic problem of incorrect output. Unless stated otherwise, all text files, CSS, XML, JS, HTML,HTM, Etc., are UTF-8. The UTF-8 BOM is therefore defunct, and most non-microsoft browsers correctly interpret the wrongly inserted BOM as content.

Len

[Peter Grainge]

Len

I don't know how any post of yours would have gone missing as there are only two people who could delete it and I know we haven't.

I understand that the BOM was put in at a time when it was necessary to deal with the main browsers at the time. That is no longer the case It is not needed now so I would hope that its removal will be considered in a future release.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[gps03]

Can someoneplease post the link to the Robohelp 8 Enocder Tool that fixes this problem? This encoding issue has reared up at my org today, and yes making changes to the server and rebooting is a major issue so not at all likely to happen to fix this issue.

In searching for the solution to this issue I've come across several threads all stating this Robohelp 8  Encoder Tool is the answer, with Peter always offering "e-mail me so I can send you the link." what's the big secret, here's another busted feature of Robohelp, with a solution no less, but we have to play tag to get it?

Man up Adobe and package the fraking fix with the software if you are not going to fix your busted-ass product or at least make it an easy download.

[LenStirling]

The tool does not completely solve the problem any way.

I did get the link, and download and use the tool. Then I finally got one of our developers to write our own little utility that takes the BOM out of ALL the output. (The encoding tool ONLY removes the BOM from HTML files. It leaves the mark in all other textual output such as CSS, XML Etc. This causes the output to malfunction in different ways in many browsers.

I do not have permission yet to release the utility we wrote, but it does make output 100% compatible with all the newer browsers except a strange 'database' issue with Opera. In Opera everything functions except the search.

Len