Unresolved Cross-Reference - please help!

[asking_writer]

Hi,

I inherited a FrameMaker 9 project from another writer and now there are many Unresolved Cross-References that I am having a hard time fixing.

The file (book) was on a shared drive, but there was a strange permissions issue, and I had to copy the file locally to open it. Then, I renamed it.

I tried to point the links to the old file names, but nothing worked. Now, the TOC in the PDF is not working when I click the hyperlinks.

Any ideas? Thank you!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What do you mean you "tried to point the links to the old file names, but nothing worked"? Unresolved xrefs can be caused by the destination file being in use, missing or inaccessible due to permissions. Why not try to fix the permissions on the network drive folder first?

[asking_writer]

I mean that in FrameMaker I did: Edit>Update References>checked the box for All Cross References and clicked Update, then selected the original FM file that the links would have been in (on my local drive copy of the orginal files), and even some others I thought might work. Nothing did.

I copied the entire book from the network and contents to my local drive. At first we couldn't even open it from the network (FM kept crashing), due to the network permissions, but then we could, so I copied it over.  I will try to get access to the orginal files in their original state on the network, so I can point the Update References function there in hope that it works. What do you think?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, so you're working on all the files locally now, right? Yes, you've probably busted all the xrefs by copying the files. Now the only way to fix them is to either use the book update error report to find each xref that's reported as busted and redo it to fix it. Or you could run a list of Unresolved Xrefs (through Special > List Of > References) to create a separate LoR with links to repair each. You might have avoided this damage if you had zipped up the whole set of files on the network & unzipped them locally (I haven't tried this to see if it works safely) or used a plug-in like Archive or an archive-like Extendscript in FM10.

[asking_writer]

Yes, locally (and it's driving me loco!).

I do have the LoR with links to repair. But, it doesn't make much sense to me (maybe I'm reading it wrong).

Since the orginal files were made with the other writer's login, if I log in as them, and Zip the files up, copy to local then unZip a local copy, I should be able to Update References to the new local copy of the original files - if I follow you?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are the permissions that messed up that you can't even see all files on the network? I still think it would be less work to have the network admin just fix the files' permissions so that you could work on them as they always have been.

Error7103's got a better way of preserving the xrefs.

Using the LoR, you click on the link, and then remake the xref to the intended location.

[asking_writer]

I manged to get to the point where I can open the orginal source files in FM (from the network drive). But, I got a warning that the files are structured and that my copy of FM is unstructured (it actually is structured - it's the same machine the other writer was using), and that opening the files would cause errors. So, I reset my FM to open as structured and opened the orginal Book from the network drive.

Now, I have the orginal Book open.

But, when I "Update Book" I am still getting the same Unresolved Cross-Referemce errors as before (to the main doc in the Book), and it won't make a PDF. Also, it won't open one of the book files, as it says there is a more recent version.

I believe the other writer used a Ditamap (there is a Ditamap with the same name as the Book) - could that be the issue? I am not familar with Ditamapping and FM.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So when you click on the hyperlink in the error report, and try to open up the xref, is the destination file accessible? Can you browse and replace the xref with a new one?

[asking_writer]

When I click the hyperlink on the error report it takes me to the where the link should be in the .fm document in the Book I have open.

I am not sure how to browse and replace, as the function I had before under Edit>Update References is not available. It asks if I want to disable automatic updating, but won't let me turn it off.

I need an automated way to fix this, as there are about 150 xrefs to fix.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Double clicking should open up the Cross-References pod window. If the destination file is open, reselect it in the Document field and replace the "bad" xref with a new "good" one.

[asking_writer]

It's telling me it's a View-only doc and cannot make changes when I double click in the Cross-References pod window. Should I try and save as a local copy of the Book?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

That's why it's honking as an unresolved xref too - fix the permissions on the files to at least read/write (preferably Full)

[asking_writer]

Thank you - one down! Now, how do you fix the permissions? Or, is that something the network admin has to do?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

The easiest way is just to right-click on the file in Windows Explorer & select Security - you must have local admin rights to your own machine.

[asking_writer]

I checked the file in Explorer and I already have rights to write to the file, so it must be a network/shared drive setting.

Perhaps I should copy the files to my local drive in a Zip file, and then save in a similar file structure, as Van mentioned. But, I am not sure it would help, as I have opened the original files and they are acting strange.

Guess I'll have to get the login of the previous writer and access the files on the network that way. That may solve some of the permission issues. Worth a shot at this point.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What does your IT dept have to say about all this?

[asking_writer]

Not much. I used the previous writer's network account, and opened the Book - it has the same broken cross-references! The TOC hyperlinks in the PDF are not working, nor are the hyperlinks in the text.

The previous writer used a DITAmap for the Book - could this be having an effect? I am not sure what to do at this point.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I think you need to figure out where you want the content located & then fix up all busted xrefs there.

[asking_writer]

I have the content on our shared drive, where it will stay. I will work with it from there.

[asking_writer]

I've got a workround now: I login as the previous writer, and access their files that way. I had to redo the internal document hyperlinks. It's the only thing I have found to work so far. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Whatever works for you - I still think your permissions are all messed up ;>)

[Bob_Niland]

> I copied the entire book from the network and contents to my local drive.

That's almost guaranteed to result in broken xrefs.

Instead: open the .book and each .fm file at the source (even if read-only).

Re-save the .book to local, then re-save all the component files.

This normally updates the xrefs.

[asking_writer]

I figured it would break xrefs, but didn't think I had a choice at the time, and that it would be an easy fix later. Guess not!

[Van Kurtz]

For what it is worth...

As long as all the files are on the same drive, FrameMaker stores cross-reference target using relative pathways. It uses full paths when the target is on a different drive.

When you copy files from one drive to another drive using Windows Explorer, the cross-references will remain resolved IF the files are copied into a folder-subfolder structure that mimics the structure on the original drive.