Problem with Merged TOC

[SpectrumCNC]

RoboHelp 7.03.001 - I have a Main Project with (8) merged Help projects that I have been using for years and all of a sudden today, (3) Merged Help projects are showing correctly in the Main TOC, and (5) are not displaying at all.   whproj.htm shows all (8) "addRemoteProject" links are there and are correct.  What other file(s) shows the TOC links?

[Peter Grainge]

So the child projects are still showing in the parent TOC in RoboHelp but not when you open the merge as a user, correct?

Are the outputs still where they should be?

Have you regenerated the parent and all the children since this problem arose?

Are all the projects set to the same language?

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@petergrainge

[SpectrumCNC]

Peter -

Yes to all of your questions. 

[Peter Grainge]

If you open the output of one of the missing child projects using its startpage, does it open OK?

Do you just generate the merged help and hand it off to developers or do you publish as well? If both, is it failing in both locations?

Have you tried deleting the missing child projects from the parent TOC and then regenerating all?

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@petergrainge

[SpectrumCNC]

Peter.

Yes.  I publish this as well.  Yes.

[Peter Grainge]

Four questions, three answers. I cannot tell whether the final Yes is telling me it is failing in both locations or that you have tried reconnecting the projects.

Have you tried more than one browser?

Are the source projects all on your local drive?

Try generating only to a different location.

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@petergrainge

[SpectrumCNC]

Peter -

At this point IE 8 and IE 9.  Will try Firefox and Safari and Opera - doesn't work with Chrome.  All source projects are on a local drive.  What I have done is deactivated RH 7 on the Windows XP PC it was on, and installed and activated it on a Win7 (X64) PC.  I am just about done with regenerating and publishing all of the child projects and the main project on the new platform.  Two of the child projects came over with a missing TOC.  Auto Generated that and cleaned it up and they regenerated and published OK.  Will let you know the final outcome on the new platform as soon as I can.  Thank you.

[Peter Grainge]

RoboHelp 7 was never made 64 bit compatible so if this problem has arisen since the switch to the 64 bit machine, you likely have your answer.

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@petergrainge

[SpectrumCNC]

Peter -

RH7 was running on a Windows XP  SP3 32 bit PC.  Just finshed redoing everything on the Win7 64 bit box and the results were better - still not correct.  (5) out of (8) child projects are shown correctly in the TOC. I deleted those merged projects and re-added them - same result.  I am running RH 7 in Compatability Mode for Windows XP SP3.  I can put it on a Windows 7 (x86) PC if you think that will make a difference?

[Peter Grainge]

"RH7 was running on a Windows XP  SP3 32 bit PC." I'm not sure if that means it was running on that configuration and was OK or it was running on that configuration when the problem first started. Sorry if I am being slow on that.

For RoboHelp 7 you need Windows XP on a 32 bit machine. Forget Windows 7 and forget 64 bit.

I believe Rick Stone (Captv8r) has tried various ways of making RoboHelp 7 work under Windows 7 and to the best of my knowledge he had problems. You may be able to find one of his posts on the matter as I know he will not be around for a little while.

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@petergrainge

[SpectrumCNC]

Peter -

Ok, I can do that also.  Thanks for your help.

[Captiv8r]

Hi folks

Yeah, I had some other activity that kept me away for a while.

As for RoboHelp 7. I haven't tried yet on my screamin new PC (i7 SandyBridge processor and 8 Gigs of RAM with Windows 7 Professional) but on my older machine (Pentium processor and 4 Gigs of RAM with Windows 7 Ultimate) the ONLY way I could ever make RoboHelp 7 work for me was by first downloading and installing the Microsoft Virtual Machine with Windows XP mode and installing in that environment.

I even tried using the "compatibility mode" before resorting to that setup.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[SpectrumCNC]

Rick -

Thats interesting because RH7 installed correctly and is running great in Windows 7 (x64) SP1. As far as my current issue with the TOC in my Help Project, that changed for the better in Windows 7 (x64), but it is still not correct.  (5) out of (8) child projects are displaying in the main TOC, but all of the child Help projects created correctly.  How can I force the main TOC to display those missing projects? I can certainly set all of this back up in Virtual XP.  Is that worth a try?

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

Sure, things seemed okay for you in Windows 7. That's great. But it could be up to any number of variables as to why it faled for me. Mix of hardware, Windows 7 version (Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate). As I said earlier, I haven't tried installing on this PC yet.

Sorry but I'm confused here. You are citing a problem since installing then go on to say that things are better? You also say that all the child projects "created correctly". Aside from not seeing any obvious error messages, I'm unsure how you can make that claim with a straight face since you are still chasing an elusive issue.

Unless I'm misreading this, the problems began with introducing Windows 7 into the mix? Then again, you are also talking about browsers and versions that I'm not sure were in existence when RoboHelp 7 was released. So you could simply be seeing issues related to the fact that the output files don't know how to cope with the newer browsers.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[SpectrumCNC]

Rick -

I did not make it clear in the original post that I have been using a PC with WIndows XP SP3 for the RH7 application for years with no issues.  No TOC problems at all - for years.  Yesterday when I built my project, only (3) out of (8) of the child projects displayed in the main TOC.  I tried everything I could think of, having never experienced such an issue.  We never updated to RH8 or RH9 because we did not see the newer features as being that useful to us.  So that is when I first posted on the Adobe WebHelp Forum.  Wondering if the issue was related to something on that particular Windows XP PC, I installed RH7 on my main Windows 7 (x64) box.  That is when you joined this discussion.  After I rebuilt the entire project on Win7, the issue improved.  Now (5 ) out of (8) child projects display in the main TOC.  I ask again - is there any way to manually add those child projects to the Main TOC, because automatic is not doing it.  The display is the same no matter what browser I use.

[Peter Grainge]

SpectrumCNC wrote:

Rick -

I did not make it clear in the original post that I have been using a PC with WIndows XP SP3 for the RH7 application for years with no issues.  No TOC problems at all - for years.  Yesterday when I built my project, only (3) out of (8) of the child projects displayed in the main TOC.  I tried everything I could think of, having never experienced such an issue.  We never updated to RH8 or RH9 because we did not see the newer features as being that useful to us.  So that is when I first posted on the Adobe WebHelp Forum.  Wondering if the issue was related to something on that particular Windows XP PC, I installed RH7 on my main Windows 7 (x64) box.

That has clarified that the trouble started on the Windows XP machine. You now have a choice of reverting to that machine where we know RoboHelp 7 is supported or continuing with the Windows 7 machine, where we know RoboHelp 7 is not supported. That does not mean it will not install and it does not mean it will not appear to work. It does mean you may hit subtle problems and this could be one, not IS, but COULD BE.

With everything backed up, what I would now do is revert to the XP machine and delete the CPD file from every project and try again. In this case I might also delete the PSS files. You will lose all build expressions except those currently set in the SSLs.

Picking up on Rick's point, if that doesn't work in IE8 or FF, can you check in IE7? I don't think that will make a difference but at this stage of the game everything has to be looked at. Actually you could try that first if you still have the output you generated on the XP machine.

As you seem to have a number of machines available, I would next download the trial version of RoboHelp 9 to a non production machine and try there. If it still fails, then we know beyond any doubt it is a project issue rather than RoboHelp itself or a browser.

What is the size of all the source projects if zipped up without the overhead of any outputs, in other words after deleting the !SSL! folder contents?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge