blank TOC

[Guest]

Hello,

   I have been using RoboHelp 8 to make a simple project in order to learn how to use CSH.  Everything has been working fine and I can generate my project no problem.  Everything works just as expected when opened in both IE and Firefox.  The problem I am having is when I try to use the command line compiler for my project.  I can compile my project fine, all the files go to the correct location, but the TOC is blank when opened in IE or Firefox.  Everything else works as normal and everything appears normal other than a blank TOC.  If I could get some direction and reasoning as to why this is happening, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

[Peter Grainge]

Command Line Generation is not something I use but Bill Albing wrote an article that is on my site. Maybe that will help you identify the problem.

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/command_line/command_line.htm

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Unfortunately, I've already used this page to get the ball rolling on compiling from the command line.  Since I have found no information on this issue and no Robohelp commands to cause the TOC to be blank, it seems like a bug to me.  If anyone has had this issue and solved it, please post.

[Guest]

I have come up with a fix that serves my purpose.  When compiling out of the robohelp gui, the WebAppHelp.hhc file is used to declare what goes into the TOC (or so it seems).  When compiling from the command line, the <Project File Name>.hhc file is used to create the TOC.  I simply copied the TOC information from the Weapphelp.hhc file into the <Project File Name>.hcc file.  I don't know if this is a setting that I unknowingly had on or off, or if its a minor bug that should be fixed.  Regardless, my solution I've come up with works for me and hopefully for anyone else suffering from the same issue.

[vanamee]

I've also run into this problem. When I generate the WebHelp layout via RHCL, the TOC is blank. However, when I generate the same layout via the RH gui, the TOC appears as exepcted. After reading this thread, I realized that the problem is with the.hhc file.

Generation via RHCL creates <project_name>.hhc, which is an empty xml file.

Generation via the RH gui creates <project_nameTOC>.hhc.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to implement Sevrige42's suggested workaround because I couldn't find the WebHelp.hhc file. I could only find WebHelp.ssl, which didn't have similar-looking information.

I would really like to to use the command line, but it looks like I'll need to go with the gui...

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

It occurs to me that since you aren't using the RoboHelp GUI, you aren't manipulating the TOC anyway. So what happens if you simply copy the existing TOC file and use the file name that is being expected?

Perhaps that would do the trick?

Just a thought... 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

[KerryMartinez]

I have the same issue, but I'm not compiling from a command prompt.  Here is some more information specific to my situation.  Any help I can get would be much appreciated.

It started on RoboHelp 7, when the various web browsers updated.  I noticed that Chrome wouldn't display the TOC, but IE-8 and FireFox would.  Then IE and and FireFox updated, and the TOC stopped appearing.

I did a little research and found that RoboHelp 7 didn't support the latest web browsers, so we updated to RH 9.  I republished to 3 different servers using RH 9. On two of those servers I am able to see the TOC with all web browsers, but on our main (highly secure) production server, the TOC / INDEX / GLOSSARY and Search panes are still not working.  Weird!

We run Apache web service on each of the three servers, but I suspect the one that is still having problems has some setting that makes it DoD compliant.  Has anyone had any expierence with this issue?

Any suggestions?  I've followed all the advice I saw on previous forum posts.

Thanks -

Kerry

[Sesanderson]

I have the same problem with a project. I created the project in RH7, and copied it to RH8 to generate AIR for distribution to our QA department.

The TOC gets stripped out, no matter what layout is generated. I tried:

• Renaming the TOC
• Copying another TOC and inserting topics
• Creating a TOC from scratch

I copied the project and used RH9.

Same result.

What could be stripping out the contents of the TOC? It has content before a layout is generated, and none after generation.

Thanks much!

Steve Sanderson

[KerryMartinez]

We found that there was an incompatibility between RH7 and the current versions of the various web browsers, so we updated to RH9.  That took care of all but one of our servers.  On that one server, there was an update we had to do to the html.config file.

Here is what we did in the html config file on the Apache server.:

<Directorymatch "/help/">

<FilesMatch "\.(?i:xml)$">

   Order allow,deny

   allow from all

   Satisfy All

</FilesMatch>

</Directorymatch>

Thank You -

Kerry Martinez

Technical Writer

Professional Systems Associates, Inc.

ph:  (850) 763-2192 x101

[Peter Grainge]

Kerry

Your post says "here's what we did" and then there is nothing.

Were you trying to insert an image? You need to use the camera icon you will see in the reply window.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Sesanderson]

I don't think this is a browser issue.

The TOC contents itself gets stripped out - the filesize becomes 0.

No matter which browser you'd use to view the help the TOC would be blank.

Are there any workarounds?

Thanks!

Steve

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Which file are you referring to? Also please answer Peter's questions as that would help us to understand exactly what's going on.

Greet,

Willam

[Sesanderson]

William;

Thanks for your help. The .hhc file is stipped to 0k.

I think Peter's questions were  referring to an earlier post.

Thanks;

Steve

[Sesanderson]

Also, at this point I'm just looking for a workaround. I want to send out the Webhelp with a TOC.

Thanks!

Steve

[Captiv8r]

Hi Steve

Actually, in a WebHelp generation process the HHC isn't used for presenting the TOC. It's used as a source to create the final output which likely exists as a series of XML files.

Question here. Immediately after you generate, are you able to click the View Result button and see the TOC? If so, it means things are fine until you copy them to the server. At that point you are chasing an issue related to that. But if you still don't get the TOC immediately after generating, you have other things to look at. For example, Conditional Build Tags and Build Expressions. Or the choices in the Single Source Layout recipe.

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

[Sesanderson]

Rick;

Thank you and Peter!

I went back to the RH7 version of the project and created the TOC from scratch. This is a workaround, and my group needs to figure out a more permanent solution...

Steve