View CHM.HTML Pages in App

[Guest]

Platform: Robohelp 8 from TCS1.0 (RH8 is an upgrade from RH7)

Problem: HTML pages not opening when
called from the CHM in the application.

The application is calling the chm using MSITS.

In the past, when the CHM was created using Robohelp 6 - the CHM opened
fine (still today if you open the old CHM in the same app - all works fine).

Now, however, that we're using the Adobe Technical Suite, with Robohelp8
(upgraded from RH7) based on the same FM sources - then the HTML pages don't open in the
application.
Again, the CHM file is fine on its own - i.e. when opened from the C drive.

The application has not changed (it opens the old CHM file fine) - so I can't really blame the application we're
using.
It must be some parameter or switch that is preventing the CHM file from opening
properly in the application. Can anyone suggest a solution?

I will stress again, that the files are all placed on the user's PC -
Application and CHM file. There are no network issues here - and we cannot expect our customers to tweak their HKEY regs.

Thanks for any help/ideas

[RoboColum_n_]

Excuse my ignorance but what is MSITS?

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Guest]

MS:ITS is the protocol the program uses to call the CHM file - it could use other things, but this is what the programmers chose

[RoboColum_n_]

Ah! OK. The colon makes all the difference. Thanks.

What happens if you call the CHM whilst the Bug Hunter is active? You can enable it via Tools > Enable BugHunter. Then launch the application, attempt to launch the help and see what is returned.

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Guest]

In which application is the Bug Hunter found? I opened the CHM from

HTML help - but found no Menu as you suggest.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Bughunter is found in RH on the Tools menu. It appears in its own pod after being enabled.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Sounds like something is messed up with the context sensitive help routine. Did you check the mapids? Have you tried calling up a topic page manually through a command prompt? See Peter Grainge's site (www.grainge.org) for info on calling help files.

[Guest]

Hi Jeff,

Unfortunately, this CHM file is not used as context sensitive help.

The application has a menu bar at the top.

We have "Contents" and "Index" under the Help item.

The entire CHM file does open.

But when you click on an individual page, those won't open.

So far, we only need them to open.

1. Are MapIDs connected to this too?

2. How do you call up a topic page manually through a command prompt?

Thanks

Orly.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, then I'm confused. If your app is just launching the .chm file and you're trying to open up a page via the ToC, that's no different than just launching the .chm directly and navigating around in it. Maybe you need to post some screenshots to show us what's going on.

[Guest]

Yes - it is confusing

Here is how I launch the CHM from the App

Here is the result of trying to open a page:

Here is the same page when the CHM was created using Robohelp6 (opened the same way)

What could cause this?

-Orly

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Did you use the camera icon in the web posting interface? Your screenshots aren't appearing when I have a look.

[Guest]

sorry about that - I was replying from my Outlook

these should work now :

Here is how I launch the CHM:

Here is the CHM HTML page from the old CHM created with RH6:

Here is the same page from the CHM created with RH8

To create this simulation, I have seperate copies of the "good" and "bad"  CHMs and just

change their names and replace the relevant file in the appropriate folder so that it opens in the app.

-Orly

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, so what happens if you navigate into the folder of the project (in Explorer) and launch the .chm you just generated? Does the navigation work & launch the correct topic?

[Guest]

I don't know about the SSL: folder - I am not the one who created the Robohelp - my colleague did. Also, I only have RH7 on my machine - so I can't test using the Bug helper thing.

As far as opening the CHM file from any other places in IE, it opens fine and each topic is visible as it should be.

As far as Rick's question about what the other topics show from the app - they all show that same error message (when using the chm created by RH8).

When using the CHM created by RH6 - all the topics show as they should.

[Guest]

I had my colleague check the chm from the SSL folder of the project - it launches fine from there - navigation and correct topic.

This would rule out a corrupt CHM wouldn't it?

Could it perhaps be an issue of moving from Robohelp 6 which was not part of Adobe - to Robohelp8 which is now part of Adobe's Technical Suite?

Could there perhaps be a switch or parameter of some sort that needs to be defined when creating the CHM files from the Technical Suite that was not an issue when Robohelp was on its own?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Could there perhaps be a switch or parameter of some sort that needs to be defined when creating the CHM files from the Technical Suite that was not an issue when Robohelp was on its own?

Personally, I would seriously doubt it. I say this because CHM is a Microsoft format that is a standard. Aside from RoboHelp manipulating the window so it can add in a Browse Sequence bar or the Glossary Tab, there really isn't anything special that it does to the CHM. (to the best of my knowledge, anyway)

Have you looked at the content on the page linked below? Perhaps it will help.

Click here to view

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I don't think it has anything to do with RH6 to RH8 since you've proved that the .chm created works outside of your app, but when called from inside of it, it fails. I'd be going back to the developers to find out what they're doing when the .chm is called.

[Guest]

Ok, so we know the CHM works - but we also know the developers know how to call the CHM because they call the CHM created with RH6 fine -then everything works ok. There must be something we're missing - be it from the difference from generating from RH6/8 or some other parameter.

BTW, I did ask the developers about how they were calling the CHM -then they pasted in the old one and said - see, we're doing it right, it's your file that needs to change....

I can try and ask them as a trial to use another method to call the CHM, but I'm not familiar enough with this.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

In addition to what Jeff asked, I'll also ask this. If you click any of the other items in the Table of Contents, do topics then appear in the topic pane? Or do you get the problem with any other topic?

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

[Amebr]

Can you do the following for the old file and the new file opened from within the application?

1. Click in the topic pane

2. Right-click and select Properties.

3. Click and drag to highlight the entire URL path.

Paste into notepad and compare. You might find the path to the topic is different than you expect.

We have a recurring problem where two copies of the file somehow get compiled into the chm. Using search will turn up duplicate topic names, one of which works and one which doesn't.

Make sure there aren't any other chm files in any of your project folders. A recompile at this stage might fix the issue. RH sometimes seems to be over-enthusiastic about random chms in the project folders, whether or not they are part of the project (baggage, etc).

If you are merging chms, you may need to do this every time you do a final build (it's okay to leave this off if you just need see how something will look, just don't forget for the final build):

1. Compile

2. Open the hhp and delete any paths you find in the MERGE FILES section at the bottom

3. Recompile.

HTH,

Amebr

[Peter Grainge]

Chipping in late. The example of your help does not seem to be in the normal CHM viewer so your developers must be doing something with the CHM and not using it in the normal way. Maybe what they are doing with it doesn't work with the later version, although I don't know why.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge