Zoom + Popups: An ugly mix?

[JGaf]

Hi,

I'm using RH8, WebHelp and Zoom 6 (Build 1019)

I've recently added 2 popups to my WH project.... Zoom is indexing these popups and displaying them in the search results, as links to an individual file.  Clicking on the popup link in the search results, results in only the information in the popup being displayed. It's as if these popups exist as their own file.

So, then my first reaction was to add the popup files to the skip list.  Well, this isn't going to work because while the search result lists the popup as a specific file, this file really doesn't exist in my file structure!  It's very strange. Here's an example of what's happening:

The RH file: dataex.htm:

---contains a specific zoomtitle : "DataEx" and specific zoom description.

---contains a popup with the word "apple"

---is correctly indexed by zoom

Searching for "apple" returns:

--an entry for DataEx displaying the correct zoom titla and description (as expected)

--an entry for the popup, displayed as: "dataex_text0" + popup contents for the zoom description

Why is it treating the popup as a separate file?

I tried wrapping the ZOOMSTOP and ZOOMRESTART tags around the popup but that did NOT work!

I don't want popups to display in the search results.  Any other suggestions, besides just removing the popup all together (I wasn't sure if I was going to keep it anyway)

Thanks for your help!

[Peter Grainge]

I think you are talking about text popups rather than ordinary topics where the link defines it as a popup, correct?

If so I don't use them but I have a feeling they don't have a file extension. ZoomSearch by default has an option selected to search files with no extension. Try turning it off.

If that is not the scenario, more information please.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[JGaf]

Yes, thanks for the clarification. Your assumption is correct -  I am talking about Text-only Popups..

Unfortunately, I have already toggled the "Scan files with no extensions" option OFF.......it was a brilliant idea though...

Why aren't the zoomstop and restart comments working in this case? Hmm....

:::::::::headed over to the zoom forum:::::::::::

[johndaigle]

Don't mean to butt in (especially because I don't know that much about Peter's revered Zoom Search.)

To my knowledge there is no separate file for Text Only Popups. Rather the text is actually embedded within the topic code itself.

In this example the text, Family Medical Leave Act, popups up in a DHTML javascript function call.

<p>To determine the policy for taking time off, consult the <a class="popupspot"
     href="JavaScript:hhctrl.TextPopup('Family Medical Leave Act','Microsoft Sans Serif,8',10,10,00000000,0xc0ffff)">FMLA</a>
for specifics.</p>

So, I presume Zoom Search is sucking it up as simply part of the topic text.

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

[JGaf]

No, thanks very much for your imput...!

You're correct, there is no separate file for text popups, but the search engine is treating them (and displaying them in the results) as separate files.  I can actually just open the popup file and get a yellow page with just the popup text on it. It's not being sucked up as part of the page content.

Using Zoom-specific comment lines, you can tell the search function to skip certain words/sentences/paragraphs/etc. I wrapped these specific comment lines around the popup, so zoom would just skip over them (not important enough to include in the search function) but it's not working.

So, my issues are:

1- Zoom is treating these popups as if they are individual, separate-from-the-rest-of-the-page-content, files

2 - Comment lines to skip the popup are being ignored

[JGaf]

Wow,........I DO have 2 additional .htm files in my folder - one for each of my popups! "text0" and "text1" have been added to the filename to represent these popups. I had been viewing the directory in a windows explorer window, I hadn't refreshed it! (simply because I didn't know I added any new files (because I didn't add them, RH did!)

Interesting to note these .htm popup files do not display in the RH Project Manager!   

Excluding these specific files from the zoom indexer solved my problem.......

[johndaigle]

Snap! I feel silly not thinking about the output files! (That's why they are not found in the PM source files.)
Thanks for sleuthing this.

John