Limit on number of projects to be merged

[gai3]

Hi,
I need to merge several WebHelp projects into a master project. The file sizes are quite big. Is there any limit on the number and size of projects that can be merged into a single master project.

Awaiting an early response... coz we have a deadline to meet by next week.

Cheers,
Gayathri

[Peter Grainge]

quote:

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The file sizes are quite big.

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Quite big is relative. I have seen people post here that they have a very large project when it is just a couple of thousand files.

How many projects do you have? Define "quite big".

I have a merge of seven projects with around 12,000 files in total. I split them to contain the largest to around 4,000. There are no defined limits, it's more about the time to open projects. I know there are folks with larger merges than that.

Come back with some figures.

[gai3]

Thanks Peter.

We need to merge 70 projects, each containing about 900 files. The output of each project is around 12 MB. Will this be feasible?

Awaiting your response,

Gai3

[Peter Grainge]

Hi Gayathri

The size of each project in terms of the number of files and the overall file size is nothing to worry about.

I don't think 70 projects will be an issue but it is more than I have attempted to merge. I think MergeThis has a merge with about 40+ projects and has no problems with that.

If in doubt, after you have merged say 20 projects, run the output and see how it performs, then merge the next twenty and test and so on.

It would be interesting to learn how you get on so please do post back. It is only when people do that we can build on our knowledge of what can be done.

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Gayathri. Just adding my 2p. 12mb for a 900 file project sounds like a lot. I presume you have lots of items that are memory intensive in them (e.g. images)? Not not it matters really. As Peter says, the real issue is the time it takes to open a project not the number of topics. My largest project is of a similar number of topics to Peter and it takes about two minutes to open. Of course this is all relative to the PC spec, project makeup, etc. The only way you are going to know if you can cope with your 70 sub-projects is to give it a go. I've never heard of anyone having so many subs but I don't believe there are any limits.

[gai3]

Thanks peter and colum.

yeah... Most of the htm files have lots of tables, javascripts, etc.
Anyways, I'll work on this and let you know how it turns out.

Cheers,
Gayathri (praying it'll work!!!)

[CraigCC]

Hi Gayathri,

I work on a site where we have about 42 merged projects, but this is HTML Help (.chm). We are currently pulling all these projects into one to convert to webhelp.

If you have a deadline next week I'd get started right away. Merging that amount of projects is going to take some serious prepartation and forethough. Fellow Adobe Community Expert Peter Grainge has a most excellent topic on his site discussing the issues with merging http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/merging_webhelp/merging_method.htm.

I'd be more worried about other issues such as consolidating the index, consolidating condition tags and sorting out the cross project links than the project size. As Peter and Column point out, you won't know for sure until you go for it..

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.
Craig

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

For those of you with multiple merged files in CHM format have you ever run into problems with some vanishing out of your merge?

Also, do they all appear in the mergedhelpfiles tag in the XPJ file?

Amebr

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Amebr. There are any number of circumstances that could cause a merged project NOT to appear in the output but without further details it will be difficult to pinpoint what. Can you tell us things like your version of RH, output type, where the project is missing from, etc. Have you checked to see if the merged files are included in the RHBAG.APJ file in your project. They get added there automatically.

[MergeThis]

Amebr:

Are you working the RH projects on a network (yes, that also means shared drives!)?

If so, don't.


Good luck,
Leon

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

Nope, we definitely don't work on a network. We check into a sourcesafe database on the network, but work on the project locally.

The missing file appears in the TOC in RH, is listed in the baggage folder, but doesn't appear in the RHBAG.APJ or project.XPJ file.

I've deleted the TOC entry and re-added it, but it still doesn't get added to either of those places.

Using X5 5.0.2.

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

Okay, I've managed to get the file into the rhbag.apj file. However, it still vanishes from the MERGE FILES section of the project.hhp file.

I'm reasonably certain the problem is because it doesn't appear in the <mergedhelpfiles> tag in the PROJECT.XPJ file. All the other merged files appear there and don't tend to vanish.

While it seems simple enough to add the appropriate xml to the xpj file, does anyone have theories about why RH isn't adding the file into this section?

Thanks,
Amebr

[Guest]

Hi Amebr,

Does the project that is disappearing from the merge have any odd characters in the chm file name? Can't remember what the restrictions are exactly, but I know you mustn't have spaces.

Anne

[RoboColum_n_]

Good call Anne. You can't use underscores or other special characters in CHM file names.

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

The most exotic character is an underscore. (Shows up fine in the help, btw). And the file that keeps disappearing doesn't even have that (we standardised on the following style for output naming: MySubProject.chm)