WebHelp TOC not displaying in Firefox and loads very slow in IE...any advice?

[Aurora Tech Writer]

We recently migrated to an online webhelp system so that we don't have to distribute the documentation with our software.  We host the webhelp documentation on our website and it is meant to be accessed from within our software.  Our problem is that the TOC is loading very slowly in IE and not loading at all when viewed from Firefox.

When I run the help locally (either on our network or on my workstation), the TOC works fine.

Within the past hour, I added the script to force the TOC to sync (found on Peter G's website)...and it hasn't helped.

Any advice on where to look?

I can pm our URL for the help, if anyone thinks it will help them diagnose.

Thanks!

Jim

(currently using Robohelp 8)

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Have you tried optimizing the speed for a Web site? In your SSL settings, choose WebSite. That may help.

If don't get a TOC at all in Firefox, there may also be an error somewhere. Try the Firebug plugin to see whether you receive an error. If you PM the URL I can take a look if you like.

Greet,

Willam

[Aurora Tech Writer]

PM sent.

I'll look at that plugin, but I am by no means an HTML\CSS expert, so I would it would probably take me awhile to "get it".

Thanks in advance.

[Willam_van_Weelden · Accepted solution]

Not a problem. Just load the page with the Console tab active. Then select errors and you'll only get the errors.

Note: The TOC is also very slow to load in Chrome. You've got quite a few merged projects, so make sure you've set the correct speed optimization.

Opening the help shows two errors in the Firebug console. I'm getting a 404 error about a file missing: "NetworkError: 404 Not Found - http://www.foodpro.com/help/release_2.4/webhelp/mergedProjects/FPUSRPRF/whxdata/whtoc.xml"

The errors indicate that the merged projects 'checkfiles' and 'FPUSRPRF' are missing. I suspect FF is choking on the missing mergedProjects/FPUSRPRF/whxdata/whtoc.xml. The execution always stops after that.

But perhaps a merged help Guru can tell you more.

Greet,

Willam

[Aurora Tech Writer]

That took care of it. 

I had missed publishing the one project to the website, and the whtoc.xml must have been corrupt for the other one (I re-generated the output and uploaded).

That tool is awesome....I am sure it will be a big help in the future.

As for the speed....you are correct, many of these projects were generated originally for "intranet", now I guess I will be going back through them and creating new output files defined for "internet". ugh....I guess I know what I am doing the week between christmas and new year's.

Thanks for the help William!

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Glad to hear it's solved. Just to give you a heads up: The speed setting is just an SSL setting. Set the SSL, republish and upload. It shouldn't take more than a few hours to get all your projects with the correct settings on the net.

Greet,

Willam