RH9 Relative Paths

[namedujour]

I have to publish my project to two separate servers. One of these is a secure HTTPS server, accessed by auditors. It's a parent/child project, which requires links between different child projects. I can't do this within Robohelp, so I have been hard coding the hyperlink to the published URL for that topic on the non-secure server.

However, the auditors will NOT have access to the non-secure HTTP server, which means the hard coded links will be dead for them. I would like to use relative paths so that I can link between the various child projects on any server, but I can't get them to work, no matter what syntax I use.

How can I do this?

[Peter Grainge]

MaureenGilliland wrote:

It's a parent/child project, which requires links between different child projects. I can't do this within Robohelp,

Why not? See the Merged Help articles on my site. I create relative links via the interface.

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@petergrainge

[namedujour]

Peter, Thanks - that was exactly what I was doing - I did enter the correct relative path. I just wasn't aware that I also had to update the whtdat0.xml file in Notepad to correct the syntax. I thought that the Link to field was going to accept what I entered as is, and of course that doesn't work.

[Peter Grainge]

I thought you meant you were entering the absolute path. By implication when you said you wanted to enter relative paths, I took it you were currently using absolute paths.

You've lost me on the need to edit whdat0.xml. I go the the Link To field, browse to my target, it shows the full path initially but on revisiting the dialog the path is relative and it works with no further editing.

That does depend on using the structure I advocate but if you don't do that, as long as the relative path is right for the output, it should work.

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@petergrainge

[namedujour]

No, I said relative path. I found your instructions at http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/merging_webhelp/merging_toclinks.htm, and couldn't follow the instructions for the "New Method" because they referred back to the old method, which I wasn't familiar with. So I read the old method first, and tried the step where you edit the whtdata0.xml file. It worked...until I republished. So I'll revisit the new method.

My initial question was that I couldn't get the syntax right. I've been using the Link To field, but everything displays as a broken link no matter how I enter the relative path. I haven't tried publishing because I was trying to get the page on the TOC to not display as a broken link. However, it appears as though it can look broken but not be, based on my last test. So I'll try a few more things and see how it works.

Thanks!

Later - I tried typing the relative path into Linked To again, and it still doesn't work. If I type ./mergedProjects/etc.htm, it removes the ./ when I publish, and the link doesn't display. The linked to field now contains "mergedProjects/etc.htm. If I type ../mergedProjects/etc.htm, it adds another ../ to the path, which becomes ../../mergedProjects/etc.htm.

I can't browse for the topic because it's in another child project, and browse only gives me the option to link to topics within this project, and some other options that don't help me. So, I will go back to the New Method, and see if I can use it for this. Thanks.

[namedujour]

Later - I tried typing the relative path into Linked To again, and it still doesn't work. If I type ./mergedProjects/etc.htm, it removes the ./ when I publish, and the link doesn't display. The linked to field now contains "mergedProjects/etc.htm. If I type ../mergedProjects/etc.htm, it adds another ../ to the path, which becomes ../../mergedProjects/etc.htm.

I can't browse for the topic because it's in another child project, and browse only gives me the option to link to topics within this project, and some other options that don't help me. So, I will go back to the New Method, and see if I can use it for this. Thanks.

[Peter Grainge]

That's because you are creating links using the output. My way you have a structure and create links to the topic in the child project source. Read the page on my site in detail and you will see the difference. It really is much easier. You navigate to the topic in the source and that's it, job done. Works wherever you put the help.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[namedujour]

I'm still trying to grope my way through. Step 2 in your instructions says the redirect command should be in the HTML code of the linking topic, and it should look like this: url=".\mergedprojects\module b\module_b_topic_1.htm" (I found that elsewhere in the topic). However, they don't say where in the code to place the command. Header? Body?

New Method

Use a redirect!

Say you want a page in the TOC of Child Two that links to a topic in Child 3.

1. In Child 2 you create a topic that is like the blank topic in the Parent project.
2. Open it in HTML View and add a redirect with the relative path from that topic to the target topic in Child 3. Redirects are described in the articles on merging webhelp.
3. In Child 2 add the redirect page to the TOC. That will be simple as you are adding a page that is within the project.

When the user clicks that page in the TOC, it will open momentarily and redirect to the required topic in Child 3. The user should not see the redirect page. You may want to store all your redirect pages in one folder so that you know where to locate them. That is not essential.

If I'm in the wrong topic, could you please post a link to the correct one, and refer to the section I should be reading? Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

You seem to be looking at the page on TOC links which is  not what we are talking about. The page below lists all the topics on  merged help. The one you want is the Adobe RoboHelp 9.

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/merging_webhelp/merged_help.htm

There is a download that will enable you to see and try this way of working. You will soon see how to create the links and without having to play around with your real projects. This method really does work. I have had it working across 12,000 topics without the problems you are hitting. MergeThis no longer follows this forum but he had around 45 projects using this method. Also Adobe's online help will point you to it.

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@petergrainge

[namedujour]

I went out and looked, and found the code: <meta HTTP-EQUIV=refresh CONTENT="0;URL=.\mergedProjects/First_Topic.htm">. I popped it into the META section of the HTML code, and it worked like a charm on the non-secure server. Now I'm testing it on the secure server. It redirects a topic in one project to a topic in another child project topic, and a redirect was exactly what I needed. So I'm good to go now. Thanks for your help.