Windows 7/RH 9 Conflict

[namedujour]

We upgraded to Windows 7 a couple of weeks ago, and since that time we've experienced problems using the Search feature. When you type in a word that is DEFINITELY in one or more topics, the Search results are "no topics found." It doesn't matter if the word is in quotes or not in quotes. It doesn't matter if it's a single word or phrase.

I've asked the programmers to look into this, but wondered if anyone else has addressed this and has a solution. If so, please advise.

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

What type of help are you creating?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[namedujour]

Webhelp

[Peter Grainge]

Not the answer I was hoping for.

I believe this has been raised recently so a search might help.

If not, first try a new layout (not a duplicate) and generating to a new location.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[namedujour]

I did a search for Windows 7 and didn't find anything. If you run across it could you please let me know? If it's a known issue, is Adobe working on a fix?

As for "location" the project is on a test server, a live server, and a secure server, and it doesn't work in any of the three locations. There's really no other location for me to shoot for. I won't have time to recompile it as a different help project until next week, but I'll see how that goes when I do.

[Peter Grainge]

The fix is RoboHelp 8, 9 or 10. There is no way they will go back to RoboHelp 7 and fix it to work on Windows 7.

It is the location of the project that I am talking about, not the location of any outputs. Are we on the same hymn sheet there? RoboHelp projects must be on the author's PC, not a server or a network location.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[namedujour]

What do you mean by "the fix is Robohelp 8, 9 or 10?" I'm not on RH7, so no, we aren't on the same hymn sheet, I guess.

The projects are on my hard drive. If you mean move them to another hard drive, that wouldn't be a feasible test because we don't have a test lab or other unused workstations here. I also don't think they'd want to install Robohelp to another workstation just to "see" if it's possible Adobe already has a fix. We just have the one license.

Right now we're testing the 9.0.2 patch, which we found was not installed with the Windows 7 upgrade. But no telling if that's going to fix it.

If it doesn't and this is a known issue, is Adobe on it?

Thanks

Edited: The patch didn't work. Still no topics when I search for certain keywords.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I think Peter missed the part where you said you were running RH9 - it's only mentioned in the post's title/subject line.

I don't quite understand why you were thinking a RH update would be installed with a Windows7 upgrade. You should make sure first that you are up to date with 9.0.2.271, regenerate your WebHelp and check it again. To rule out the o/s (which I don't think has any bearing on this issue), try creating it on an XP machine - even if you have only 1 RH license, you can install it on 2 machines (legally - the idea is that you have 1 copy at work & 1 copy at home - only 1 gets used at a time).

I'd be checking to see if it's a Java/browser issue, myself.

[namedujour]

Back story: We received new workstations with the upgrade, so all applications had to be reinstalled. They forgot to install Robohelp on my workstation - mine was the only one that had it, and I'm also the only one with a license for a bunch of other applications, so they missed a spot. They finally got to it after hours when they'd already put in 12 hours that day, staging dozens of workstations. So they forgot the patch.

Thanks for the information. I'll pass it along to the programmer.

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry about the RoboHelp 7 confusion, mind on other matters.

You said in one post "As for "location" the project is on a test server, a live server, and a secure server, and it doesn't work in any of the three locations" and that is what I was questioning about location. From your subsequent replies it seems the project is on your hard drive and it is the output that is on servers, that's fine.

If the patch does not help then go back to what I said earlier.

"I believe this has been raised recently so a search might help.

If not, first try a new layout (not a duplicate) and generating to a new location."

The problem might not have been Windows 7 before so search on something like "search not working". Hopefully though the new layout will help.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[namedujour]

We were on XP before, when it still worked. I'm checking but I don't think we still have any XP workstations.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Do you have a backup copy of the output created on the XP machine before?

[namedujour]

Back story: My old hard drive is winging its way back to the home office in New Jersey. I'll have them track it down.

However, I'm confused. The "output" isn't on the C:\drive. Do you mean the project folders? I kept archives of those projects on the shared drive, and copied them over to my C:\ drive when I got the new workstation (another thing the guys forgot to do - copy my C:\ drive - it was a long day). Those are the projects I've been working with since the upgrade. They were ALL created in XP.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

When you generated the help, it should have been created in the project's \!SSL!\WebHelp\ folder on your C:\ drive (that's your output - the project files are the source). Then you would copy it up to wherever you wanted everybody to see it. You may have been using RH to do this last step for you - that's called publishing.

[namedujour]

Gotcha. Yes, all the topics are there and they all publish correctly. They all display correctly in the browser. To my knowledge, all the Index terms display correctly (I haven't actually gone in there and tested, but a ton of them display).

The ONLY thing that isn't working (to my knowledge) is the Search feature. Usually it works, but then sometimes it doesn't. There are just certain terms it doesn't like, and even though they appear in multiple topics you can't get to those topics from the Search screen with those keywords. You have to get to the topics from the Table of Contents or the Index.

You can pull the topics up with other keywords, just NOT the ones on the list.

We learned this because field personel apparently ONLY use Search, so they are intimately familiar with what terms used to pull up topics pre-Windows 7 and now don't. They sent me a short list of these, so I am troubleshooting.

I mean, it's a spider, right? It's supposed to crawl through all the text and display what it finds that contains your search terms. This is not something that's in the browser, and it isn't something I can control from Robohelp Project Manager. I would expect this to be a feature of the program that lives in the Robohelp source code, which seems to clash with Windows 7. Unless it's something else we haven't thought of.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

It's using Javascript - your browser has to be able to run the scripts.

Try another tack - take one of the sample projects, add a new topic to it with one of your "problem" search terms in the text, then generate WebHelp. Can you search & find the term?

[namedujour]

That was a good idea, but it didn't work. I can't access the new topic with that term either.

As far as scripts go, the programmer went through old emails and found one with an attached script an Adobe developer had told us to install. The programmer installed that this morning, but it didn't work. I'll check with him to see if it was a java script.

Here's an interesting thing. When I display the topic that I can't access with the bad search terms, and just randomly enter words from that topic into Search, it doesn't pull ANYTHING up, including other topics that contain those words. However, I was able to confirm that I could pull it up with a different keyword when I didn't display the topic first.

[Peter Grainge]

Just what is the term?

[namedujour]

The programmer just installed 32-bit Java and I tested, and it still doesn't work.

Here's the help: http://www.reverseit.com/Brokers/UnderwritingPolicies/_START_Broker_Underwriting.htm. Type the word "manufactured" into Search. You won't get any results.

Go through the Table of Contents, and open "Manufactured and Modular Homes." Type any word at all that your eyes fall on into Search, and see if you can pull anything up. Let me know if you do, and what the word is. I got nothing.

Then close out of that topic and type "hud" into Search. A bunch of topics come up, and if you scan the list you'll see "Manufactured and Modular Homes."

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Must be something weird about that word - I could get hits on "safety", "hud", "appraisal" no problem.

[namedujour]

Yeah, I got those too this time. I don't know what is up.

But the thing is, search terms worked on that topic from February, 2012 to two weeks ago. The feedback I got from people is that they can NO LONGER access the file with "manufactured homes" when they used to be able to. It's coming from multiple people, beginning two weeks ago when we upgraded. The terms stopped working with the Windows 7 upgrade, and nothing at all changed about the project or the file between February and today.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So 2 weeks ago you regenerated the help content with your new Win7 machine and published it to the webserver? Did you add more content at that time? I'm just wondering if you could wipe the webserver content and restore an old backup to test if it was generation of new help on the Win7 machine that's the issue.

[namedujour]

I pulled a pre-upgrade version from the archives and compiled and published. I still couldn't pull up the topic with "Manufactured" in the Search. So it's something that's been going on in the background for the past two weeks, not something that happened to the project since the upgrade.

Ye gods.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Pull a backup copy of the \!SSL!\ folder created under WinXP and try testing the search with that - you're trying to figure out if generating under Win7 has any impact; that would remove the Win7 aspect. If that backup of the help doesn't work, then it obvious that Win7 has nothing to do with the issue.

[namedujour]

That was what I used - an old XP version. However, I'm running Robohelp in the Windows 7 environment - I can't see any way of changing that.

The problem is, that same version of the project worked three weeks ago when I was running Robohelp in the XP environment. It's the same project, same Robohelp. The only thing different is the Windows 7 environment.

And here's something new - this is going to make me crazy. I went back in and tried the search terms you were able to get to work, and which I was able to get to work a couple of hours ago. They don't work anymore, except for "HUD." The only difference is that I changed ONE sentence in ONE unrelated topic, recompiled, and republished the project. I did this on three servers. There's still one server left that I have NOT updated with this change, and that one doesn't work either. So it appears the change I made isn't responsible. Nevertheless, it's very weird.

Edited: "Appraisals" doesn't work. "Appraisal" works. "Safety" works too. Sorry. I wasn't thorough and did it from memory.