RH8 - Why do once-fixed auto-sizing, ranked index issues reappear in 64-bit build environment?

[Guest]

I'm using RoboHelp 8.0.2.208 fully integrated with Telelogic Synergy source control, and we generate WebHelp. In building the latest release (117) of our software the generated WebHelp has a couple of issues that weren't present in the previous builds. First, the auto-size pop-up topics are now cutting off text when they worked fine pre-117. Second, changes we'd made several releases ago to remove ranking in the index reverted, and we're back to ranked index results.

Our long-suffering Build Manager and I are trying to troubleshoot why this happened, and there are a couple of variables as of this build. Our developers are moving to PowerBuilder 12 as of this release, but we don't see anything that points to this being connected to the issue. Another variable is that we're in a new build environment that uses 64-bit OS. (There were the recent sunspots, too, but, naa, don't think that's it...). While I've found in this forum a discussion regarding the cut-off text in pop-ups (BTW, no extra lines ever had to be added), as well as the discussion about how to remove ranking in the index (http://forums.adobe.com/message/2901513#2901513), we'd like to find out what caused these issues to show up again now.

This also raises for us the issue of legacy files and how RoboHelp handles those in upgrading. It was when we moved from RoboHelp 5X to RoboHelp 8 that we first encounted and solved the ranked index issue. My recollection is that we also dealt with the pop-ups not autosizing properly at that time, although I haven't been able to find documentation about how we resolved that.

Is there code within our custom skin, old .css file, template/layout, or ? that could be bringing legacy issues into play here? What do the files in WebHelp5Ext do? Will migrated template_skin and/or template_stock eventually cause legacy issues? Does each subsequent RoboHelp release update to current coding standards?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

I assume the solutions you have found were from looking at your previous posts in the forum. If they are not working now there is one reason I could suggest but I have no way of knowing for sure it is the cause. Namely that RoboHelp 8 was only supported on Windows 7 32 bit machines, not 64 bit machines. Adobe's stance was they believed it should work OK but it had not undergone formal testing so it was not supported. There is information on Using RoboHelp 8 on my site about popups, they were a problem area and work was done in RoboHelp 9. What I cannot do is say for sure your problems will go away.

Why these problems had not shown until now is anyone's guess. I think one of the solutions mentioned that it would not survive regeneration. My thinking is that with the special pricing when you are only upgrading one version it might be better to cut your losses. You could download the trial to a non production machine first and try it. For a start the Search ranking can be suppressed via the interface.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Thank you, Peter. We have now indeed downloaded the trial version of RoboHelp 9 and the pop-up issue is improved though it appears it may not be fully fixed. The margins are quite tight but at least most pop-ups that we've looked at don't have text cut off. We'll be doing more testing with RH9 next week and I'll follow up here when we've done so.

A concern our build manager has, and this is reflected in the last question of my original post, is with regard to what is in his view outdated javascript and html coding in the generated WebHelp. This outdated legacy coding seems to be "patched up" with each RoboHelp release, rather than being fully upgraded so that these rendering issues don't come up in ever-changing browser environments.

[Peter Grainge]

CelesteD wrote:

1] Is there code within our custom skin, old .css file, template/layout, or ? that could be bringing legacy issues into play here?

2] What do the files in WebHelp5Ext do? Will migrated template_skin and/or template_stock eventually cause legacy issues?

3] Does each subsequent RoboHelp release update to current coding standards?

1] Code that is good now will likely have problems in the future. Code created in the days of DOS can now be a problem. In this forum we can only address identified issues.

2] Perhaps Willam can answer the first part. The second part has a similar answer to 1 above. Right now it should work, one day it might not but when and if that happens, I am sure Adobe will fix it.

3] If you mean the code that makes RoboHelp work, only Adobe would know that. If you mean the web outputs, I understand they meet current W3C standards but the standards are everchanging, all Adobe can do is meet the current standards and change things when the standards change.

Does that answer the questions?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge