Urgent--Need help with RoboHelp webhelp output that is crashing

[Guest]

I urgently need help with this problem. I have translators waiting on me for a solution to this problem. I have a RoboHelp 8 project that is crashing when I try to generate one of the webhelp outputs. I have three different webhelp outputs, 2 out of the three are working fine. One crashes everytime I try to generate it.

I made a backup of my project and figured I could just recreate the corrupted output again. Yet haven't had luck.

I tried these different steps based on suggestions I saw in this forum and on Peter Grainge's web site:

• I tried just deleting the project cpd file. Then I opened the xpj file again and tried to generate the corrupted output. Same results, RH crashed during the generation.

• I tried renaming the existing xpj file and then opened the hhp file to generate a new xpj file. Same results, RH crashed during the generation of this one output.

• I tried deleting both the xpj file and the cpd file and then opened the hhp file. When I do this, I lose all the existing webhelp outputs that I created. That seemed OK. I have the master project, so I could recreate them. But I also lose all my conditional build settings and variable sets. I also lose all my conditional build tags too. This is a lot of work  to reapply them all. Is there any way to avoid doing that and get this one corrupted output working?

I'm running Adobe RoboHelp version 8.0.2.208

[Peter Grainge]

How to recover what is lost is covered in Opening Projects on my site. However I would go to the backup you created before trying what you have.

My thinking is that there is something in that crashing output that is not in any other output.

First try without a build expression and then one by one reintroduce the tags you need.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

I rebuilt the corrupted webhelp single-source output, one piece at a time, based on your suggestion. Seems to be working now. Keeping my fingers crossed.Tthought I had the problem narrowed down to a bad build tag, but I could never actually figure out which one was corrupted. I kept adding a few at a time, rebuilding my help file, and it magically worked. No more corrupted output.

[Omicron9]

I am Justin's coworker; he's unable to log in, so I'm posting a follow-up. 

We are still unable to build output. RH8 crashes during the build process every time, now on both our machines.  Suggestions?

Thanks,

-09

[Peter Grainge]

Does it crash if you don't use a build expression?

You do have the project on each machine when you generate and you are generating to a local folder?

Have you looked in the Output View for clues?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Omicron9]

Hi Peter,

Yes to all your questions. Thanks for the quick response.

-kk

[Peter Grainge]

If other projects are generating OK and RoboHelp crashes even without a build expression, it is fair to assume it is something in one or more topics or the CPD has a problem. Have you tried deleting the CPD and generating again?

Next is the project off the root of your C drive or in My RoboHelp Projects. If the latter move it.

If that does not help, it seems to be time for the old divide and conquer approach.

Zip up the project so you have a copy that cannot be opened and worked on accidentally . That gives you a copy that you can safely revert to later if needed. Save the zip file somewhere safe.

Then create another copy of the project so that you have two copies that can be worked on.

Open Copy 1 and delete half the topics. Ignore any broken links reported. Generate the help from that copy.

Open Copy 2 and delete the other half of the topics. Generate the help from that copy.

It should be the case that one copy is now OK and one still has the problem. (In your case, even if both crash, divide again.)

Trash the good copy and then create a second copy of the copy with the problem.

Repeat the process until you have located the topic that is causing the problem.

The process takes less time than you might think.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

When you generate help an Output View pod is opened. However, after posting I realised that will likely not help here as it will be lost in the crash.

If you open one of the sample projects and generate an output from that, you should see the Output View. Might be worth you trying to generate one of the outputs there to prove that works.

When you did the rebuild, how frequently did you attempt to create an output?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

I did try deleting the cpd and tried recreating a webhelp output and no luck. Still crashes. I've probably tried to rebuild the help output at least a dozen times.

Why does it always seem to crash at the same point? The status message always says, "Updating files," and the status bar of the generation hangs about 1/4 of the way through. Also, is there any meaning to be derived from the links in the crash message? Such as the view technical information link about the error report?

Trying the divide and conquer method now.

[Guest]

Understood on the output view. To clarify my earlier statement,

The Output View is always showing "Updating files," when the help generation is about to crash. It hangs there for a few seconds and then the crash message comes up.

[Peter Grainge]

Can you share the project with me?

If you can, make a copy and delete everything from the !SSL! folder and then zip it up.

There are instructions on the Contact page of my site. Please do not attach the file to an email. When sending the project, please include a link to this thread.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Well, it took more than 5 hours to find it, but we isolated the corrupt file. As luck would have it, it was the very first file in the list. Question is, why do these files get corrupted and how do you prevent it? Is there any way to prevent it? Seems maybe this particular file got corrupted when we added a build expression to it, but who knows?

I'm trying to get permission to send you the project. Will it still be helpful to you?

[Peter Grainge]

Difficult to say what corrupted that file without some information about the corruption, might still be difficult with information!

I think the best way forward is to make a note of that file and see if it happens again. Then is it the same file or some other file? Whichever it is, try to recall what you have been doing with that file.

It might be worth generating help every few hours just for a few days to isolate when this occurs to a time slot where you can identify what you have been doing.

If the problem recurs, come back here.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

>I think the best way forward is to make a note of that file and see if it happens again. Then is it the same file or some other file? Whichever it is, try to recall what you have been doing with that file.

>It might be worth generating help every few hours just for a few days to isolate when this occurs to a time slot where you can identify what you have been doing.

Good advice, Peter. Will definitely do. Thanks again for all your help.

[Guest]

Yes, it crashed even without build expressions. I made a brand new webhelp single-source output from scratch (i.e., didn’t duplicate an existing one), called it test-output and left everything at the default RH setting (default skin, build expression, variable set, etc.). I figured I could add one new item one by one and see if it wouldn’t crash. Even this new webhelp output without any build expression applied to it still crashed.

the project is on both my machine and my co-worker's and we are outputting to local folders.

I'm not sure what you mean by looking in the Output View.