Large Production File

[Puzzled_SOP]

This is my first time posting to the forum. I am working with RoboHelp for HTML. I have a merged project which has averaged around 20-30 MB in size. This merged project is then published to another file which our IT network then copies to all of the network servers. Yes...RoboHelp is running on a network. Approximately 6 weeks ago, the merged project and published project size has been increasing....current size is 248 MB. No large projects have been added. I don't know why the size would increase so much in such a short period of time for no apparent reason. Can somebody help me please!

[HKabaker]

Welcome to the forum, Puzzled SOP.

RoboHelp for HTML generates a .chm file or a set of WebHelp files. I assume you're talking about a merged WebHelp project.

Some possibilities:

1. A topic has become corrupted and contains a lot of meaningless, repetitious invisible garbage code. It would take many of these to add 200 MB, I think.

2. You have inadvertently duplicated, rather than replaced, some projects in the merged project and published folder.

3. Also see the recent thread, "CSS mayhem in True Code."

Or is it a .chm file that has grown from 20-30 MB to 200+ ? If so, I defer to experts on HtmlHelp.

Good luck,

Harvey

[Puzzled_SOP]

Would the size of the file increase if someone imported a topic from a previously published file?

[HKabaker]

Yes, but it's hard to imagine it causing a 200 MB bulge.

It depends on how much came in from links in the published topic. Images, stylesheets, javascripts get dragged in. RH will tell you about duplication only if you're importing the published file back into its original location.

In addition, there's lots of good advice around on why you should not import a published WebHelp file except as a last resort when you can't come up with the original.

When you must do it, you need to perform a good bit of very important cleanup in the source code.

(This is where I ask Peter or Rick to supply the link, unless I can find it in the next few minutes.)

Harvey

Click here. Click here.

(My corporate URL police now are blocking the Internet category of "personal pages," so I can't be sure this link is right.)

[RoboWizard]

This little ole link right here?

Click the super duper and way cool handy link

Cheers... Rick

[Puzzled_SOP]

The only problem is that this topic was already generated (into a merged project) and published...this seems to have affected the size of all the projects. All of the projects (approximately 20) size has increased substantially. Any advise?

[MergeThis]

This is not likely caused by one or more topics being imported, and RH, if left to its own devices, will not blow up like that.

I would dump this all back on your IT peeps; they've either changed virus software, or they've set you up to actually be working on a network (viewing RH output on a network is fine; creating it is not). They'll probably deny, deny, deny...be persistent.


Good luck,
Leon

[Puzzled_SOP]

Thanks for all the advise. The published project is a merged project of approximately 20 sub-projects. The projects were created on a network. Could it be possible that importing a topic from a published project without deleting the unnecessary scripting could have caused the other projects' size to increase?

Our department has been after IT to install version control...but they are hesitant.

[HKabaker]

Leon's right. Building a project in RH should be done only on a local hard drive. Work across a network is the kind of thing that in another setting would have the Help Desk tell you, "We don't support that."


I'd urge you to try to figure out where the bloat is. Have files been duplicated? Have individual files grown even though you haven't added content?

There's an excellent file comparison utility called Beyond Compare. Not expensive. It will compare before and after directories and flag files that appear in one place but not the other. It will do a file-by-file comparison and flag differences in size and other characteristics. You can open files side by side and see what's different between them.

Good luck.

Harvey