xpj file disappeared and RH8 now will not open

[Verlean]

I was working in RH8 on Friday (4/29)and I clicked Save. The application (RH8) closed/crashed/disappeared (which occurs occasionally). I re-opened RH8 and browsed to the project and double clicked the xpj file. I received an error that RH could not find the file (remember however, I clicked on it to open). I was never able to get the file open even though I could see the xpj file. I loaded the project on a thumb drive and took it to another computer and received the same error.

I zipped the file just because I wanted to have a back-up. I should say that I was having problems with RoboServer 9 and took the project out of RSC 4/22 so that I could launch the WebHelp project on the intranet on 4/24. I have made several updates to the file and republished it for 4 days before the crash.

I opened RH8 and clicked open from the starter page. The application did nothing, well actually it froze and I had to go into Task Manager to shut it down. So I did the usual reboot and tried again. Same thing happened.

Next step was to go to the menu, File, Open...froze again. Now I can open RH by double clicking an xpj file (from another project because as I said the project was working on the xpj file disappeared.) However I still cannot open RH itself by using Open or the File/Open option and I have to do a Task Manager shut down.

First I deleted and re-installed RH8. Problem continued.

So, I delete CS2, and reinstalled the entire suite. Problem continues.

If I go into my zip file, you can see the xpj file and if I double click to open...it does open but no topics are in exist inside.

So then I took the version (from thumb drive) that I saved to use on another computer and double clicked the xpj file to open (because this is the only way I can open RH8). Now the error message says that the project is from an earlier version and is no longer compatible. I have version 8.0.2.208 installed and it says there are no updates.

HELP!

Make yours and Incredible Day,

Verlean

Message was edited by: Verlean

[Peter Grainge]

Have you resolved this yet?

When replying and if you still have the problem, where is the E drive? On your machine or a network?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Verlean]

I called the helpdesk and they repeated all the steps I had already done. I had held off from deleting the cpd file and xpj file because I knew there was about 60 hours of intense work that I would potentially lose.

I had restored my computer to several different days in hopes that I could go behind the corrupt file. It looks like the corruption occurred behind the 60 hours...boohooohoo!

However, deleting the cd and xpj and opening the hhp with RH* was the only soution that solved my problem. An yes I lost all the work.

To answer your question E was a thumb drive. I took my project off my computer when uninstalling and re-installing software. Just to be safe.

I think I may have found the source of my corruption. Almost all of my documents are imported from FM8 or 9. They have .css that I convert to RH .css. There is one FM style that in particular most often will not convert even after I manually change it. It will revert back to the FM_RED style from the FM .css. This styel is red text put in to highlight recent changes. I noticed in all the FM documents that the red text has never been changed back to black even after 2-3 years. I came to the conclusion that it was never changed because the FM doc would not allow it to be changed.

While in RH I can manually convert the color to black but I cannot map the style to any other RH style where it will convert. Sometimes it will let me manually convert...sometimes. There are over 400 topics with this FM_RED style.

So many issues....

So, this  original corruption may have cause my search function to break. The published webhelp file looks for the search words, returns 100% but no results are returned. This is however not only "all" search items.

The problem seems to be in the whfbody.htm and length is "null" line 552. which I think means the search results are too large.

Any ideas on the search function or should I start a new thread?

Incredibly, Verlean

[Peter Grainge]

Let's step back a bit.

- When you delete the XPJ as well as the CPD you will lose lots of stuff from your project. Opening Projects on my site tells you how to recover from that.

- Using a thumb drive is not something I would recommend. I use an external USB hard drive and that works well with all projects that I have worked on. However I seem to recall that was not the case with thumb drives, just not fast enough.

I am struggling to see how issues with styles between FM and RH would corrupt the project and also I cannot see a connection between that and search results. Bad results I can see but not corruption. The mapping issue would best be covered in the FrameMaker Integration forum.

Is it time to create a new project and relink the documents?

Difficult to know what to suggest with so many things bouncing around.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Verlean]

Ok, So let's work this one issue at a time.

So I went to your site Peter (thank you very much). I followed the directions for Opening Projects. I was able to open the project without the loss of much data.

However, one problem I am still having is that any time I import in a file (currently just trying to re-install missing files from the html since that's all I have) it goes through all the way to replace existing file options, after I uncheck the options I don't want it to overwrite, and click OK it freezes. Meaning the project freezes, and I have to go to Task Master to to close the project.

Of course the file I just imported is not in the project. However, the file is in source control.

Any information options.

I did recreate the project and started re-IMPORTING the files on a "different computer" from another drive (not my original drive). Worked beautifully on these other two machines.

So, then one starts to think that maybe it's my machine...So took it home (yes it's a laptop...) uninstalled the suite, disc clean up, defrag, and did not re-install until this am.....

That's when I discovered the isuue was still there.

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but I don't do source control. Does taking a fresh copy of the project from source control make sense? If not, hopefully a source control user can step in here.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Amebr]

1. Are the files you importing the source html files or output html files? I think if they are output, there is some cleanup you need to do before you can use them.

2. You should be able to use source control to get a copy of the project from before everything went bad.

Take a copy of what you currently have - I think zipping up the entire project folder and subfolders, then copying the zip file elsewhere might be the best option.  Then delete the content out of the folder so you have a fresh location before you do the Get. This will ensure there aren't any corrupt/leftover files that could cause problems.

I'm not familiar with RSC but I'd expect a right-click menu would let you Get Specific Version or something like that. Either pick a label or date or something (not sure of RSC terminology or your work practices) just before the initial crash. You may need to tick a checkbox called "Recursive" or "Get subfolders" or something to make sure you get the entire project from that date, not just a single file or folder.

Hopefully this should get you back to a good project.

Let us know how that goes.

Then if there are still problems, we can deal with them one by one.

(Sorry I can't help with your immediate issue, but I'm confused about the state of your project, so I'm hoping we can get it back to a known good state to make things a little clearer.)

[RoboAsh]

Hi Verlean,

         I would second Peter that if you have FM source files then you do should just export the mapping file from the RH 8 project (the .isf file) and Relink the FM source to a new RH 9 project, and if possible can you share a sample doc with style that fails to map and please elaborate how are you mapping it

Ashish

[Verlean]

Thanks guys for all your useful ideas and help.

Apparently there are some/one source files are corrupt (meaning the source control file as well). I initially started over using the same source files out of RoboSource control but this is where I would get the same errors of freezing and locking up. The IT guy that installed, uninstalled and then upgraded the SQL server that RoboSource Control is on, thinks that he may have somehow corrupted the file (but that's way over my area of expertise). At this point, it doesn't matter who, they are corrupt.

Upgrading to RH9 is not an option right now because I have to get this corrected so that we can input April updates. I want to upgrade ASAP however and may do so in a couple of weeks (I already have the upgrade). I am aware that there is a more seamless import/link from FM9 to RH9 but this has been a six month project that was launched and is now on the intranet for agents to utilize during customer calls. At the time RH8 was the ONLY software the company had. I did convince them to upgrade but too late to develop in RH9. We are at the end of the six month contract...

So, what seems to be working for me right now is:

I started a New Project. Imported the original .css from the beginning that I had stored on my computer and not in source control. Now I am taking the html files form the WebHelp that is launched on the intranet and importing them into the project.

RH8 is working well and there is a minimal amount of formatting lost and it looks like what is lost is due to the corrupt style sheets and/or files.

If there is more to update I will...but for now THANKS A BUNCH  for your support.

Make yours and incredible day!

Verlean

[MergeThis]

"Now I am taking the html files form the WebHelp that is launched on the intranet and importing them into the project."

Ye gods, no! Do not import output files into your project!

Is there no backup of source files you can use?

Good luck,

Leon

[Verlean]

Leon,

ALL my backups are corrupt with the exception of the very first 2 weeks of the project. The back up file got corrupt in RoboSource Control (checked in or out by another user or uninstall and reinstall by IT).

It's either the output files or start a six month project over from scratch...I am sure the employer is unwilling to pay me for 6 more months (okay maybe less but you understand).

I am not happy using the output files but I felt like I was out of options.  Please explain your remark.

Incredibly, Verlean

[MergeThis]

The output files contain all manner of Javascript and RH-specific instructions for browser viewing. To ask the RH engine to re-interpret that stuff in generating output anew is likely to cause it to cough up hair balls.

Other than that, no problem.

If there's been a minimum of formatting done, you could cleanse the content by: Select All in a viewer, Paste into Notepad, then Select All and Paste into a clean topic.

...and backup repeatedly.

Good luck,

Leon

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

If you are using output files, you need to see this page on Rick Stone's site.

http://www.robowizard.com/RoboWizard/NewProject.htm#MonthlyScry/062004.htm

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Verlean]

Thanks Peter that was very helpful on Rick's site.

Leon, your information was helpful and I am backing up on two different drives. I will add to RoboSource Control once I get all the scripts out!

Incredibly,

Verlean

[Amebr]

Regarding your first image. It seems like your entire project is missing as it is not saying the xpj file is missing, but the entire folder "SOP Help", which I assume is the folder the xpj file lives in.

Can I confirm there are many files on your thumb drive, not just the xpj file?

Amebr