RH8 Webhelp Merged project - one child not updating on rebuild

[TatjanavL]

Hi,

Am still learning RH8 so please bear with me. Have solved quite a few problems already but one I can't seem to figure out.

I am in the process of building a merged help system. My test project is working ok now however, when rebuilding one child project and then rebuilding the parent project, that child project does not get updated within the parent project.

What a I missing?

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community

Silly question here. You, ummm, DID remember to publish the child, right? I don't believe publishing the parent will carry all the child projects along.

Cheers... Rick

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[TatjanavL]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the lightning fast response. I first gen child and then gen parent, the other child updates fine.

[Peter Grainge]

The first time you create a merge you must generate the parent first. Thereafter I have found that I only need to generate the parent if it changes including the addition of new child projects.

As you are having problems, I would generate the parent and then all the children. In particular check the locations to which you are generating.

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@petergrainge

[TatjanavL]

Ok, I think I got it working but I do not understand it one bit.

I had two child projects, the one was updating fine, the other was not. Because the one worked I assumed I could simply generate the child and then generate the parent (having the child projects in the TOC of the merged project).

After genning once again, neither of my child projects appeared. I then created another child, added it to the TOC of the parent, and then generated the child straight into the mergedProjects subfolder.

The new child is now there but also the other two which I did not generate into the mergedProjects folder .

It works now but still I feel I am doing something wrong.

[Peter Grainge]

Let us know if you figure out what!

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@petergrainge

[TatjanavL]

Should I acquire any wisdom on the subject, I will most certainly share it. For now though, I seem to be creating more problems than solutions .

[TatjanavL]

Sorry for not responding earlier but am in a deadline crunch and figuring out stuff is a real hassle.

For now my solution to the child problem is probably not the official way but it has worked for me for all the child projects I had to add.

- Create and fill the child project.

- Gen the child project (I gen everything into a separate output folder).

- Edit the parent project, adding the new child in the TOC.

- Gen the parent project.

- In WinExplorer go to the SSL folder of the parent and note that in the mergedProjects folder the new child is added, the subfolder is empty.

- Go to the output folder of the new child and copy the content (SSL).

- Paste the content of the child into the appropriate subfolder of the mergedProjects folder.

- Start the merged help to check all children including the new one, show up in the TOC.

Not the cleanest way but the most reliable for me.

[Peter Grainge]

Here's the easier way.

1. Create the child project. (Creation is all that is necessary at this stage)
2. Edit the parent project, adding the new child in the TOC.
3. Gen the parent project. This will to create the target folder under mergedProjects to which the child is generated.
4. Create the child content.
5. Gen the child project to the folder RoboHelp created under mergedProjects.
6. Start the merged help to check all children including the new one, show up in the TOC.

Steps 1 -3 are only required once.

When the child needs editing, you make your changes and generate direct to the mergedProjects.  Easier and less risky.

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@petergrainge

[TatjanavL]

Hi Peter, thanks. Yes, genning directly into the mergedProjects folder was my first attempt. It worked for some child projects but mysteriously not for others. I am under to much time pressure to figure out why it doesn't work consistently so copying the child projects manually was my quick and dirty fix .

[Peter Grainge]

The most likely reason for it not working is that you had not added the child toc to the parent and regenerated the parent. That or you did not amend the child output folder.

More haste, less speed. Still works.

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@petergrainge