Problems working with files on network - RH9

[Údar]

I store my RH WebHelp source files on our company network. I follow Peter Grainge’s excellent advice on merged help by generating and publishing merged help to my local drives but I also publish to a second network location to make the help available generally. This worked fine till recently but lately severe performance problems have arisen. RoboHelp takes a long time to start up and even longer to open a selected project. Publication to a network location is so slow it’s no longer feasible. The tardy response to editing commands makes RoboHelp effectively unusable.

I’ve tried some fixes including those mentioned here on the forum. I installed the latest RH updates. Stopping non-windows services had no effect. I considered reinstalling in XP Mode but I’d prefer to avoid this option. Some Windows 7 tips I applied to improve network performance did no good. I drew a blank with our own company IT experts.

The only change to my local environment or to the network environment I’m aware of is that I took a Windows 7 recommended upgrade just before the problems set in.

I’ve had to resort to moving my source files to my local machine. This is not ideal from an information security point of view and in any case, publication to a network location from within RoboHelp is still not practical. I use RH 9 (version 9.02.271) on Windows 7 (SP 1), both updated in the past few days. I use a Lenovo W520 laptop: 2.7 GHz, 8 GB Ram, 64 bit OS.

I’d appreciate any suggestions which would allow me to open and edit projects directly from the network.

[RoboColum_n_]

Only with the latest version (RoboHelp 10) can you safely open your RH projects over a network location. By all means back up to a network drive but unless you want to see all sorts of issues ALWAYS locate your working source files on a local drive. Hopefully if you do this you may be able to take a backup of (and then delete) your project's .CPD file. If you reopen your project the original file will be rebuilt. Let us know if this helps.

[Captiv8r]

Colum, while RoboHelp 10 has "improved" upon network usage, I'm not sure it's recommended. Heck, I'm not sure I'd even claim it's safe!

Cheers... Rick

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[Amebr]

Also, changes to antivirus scanners by your network people can affect RH opening projects - possibly exacerbated by source control. A number of years ago we had to have our antivirus profile changed to scan only "outgoing", instead of "incoming and outgoing" (I think incoming = opening/getting from source control and outgoing=closing/saving in this context).

And this was with the source on a LOCAL drive - please heed Peter and Rick on this point until RH10 has been confirmed stable on a network drive .

Amber

[Peter Grainge]

Neither Rick nor I will ever be able to confirm Rh10 is safe on a network as the variable is the network the author is using. On the one I tried, it was as above, OK but a little slower (still acceptable if company policy so dictates). On the next network I try it might be as if it were local and on the one after that it might be a non starter.

You just have to install Rh10 (preferably on a non production machine) and try it with a copy of your project(s).

UPDATE: I guess with further feedback we might be able to confirm it is safe but we will not be able to say what performance will be like.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Amebr]

Yep, that's kinda what I meant - fewer reports of corruption from working this way.

[Peter Grainge]

At first it sounds like you are just publishing to a network but you then say you have had to resort moving your source files to your local drive. With RoboHelp 9, publishing to a network location is fine but your source files and the generate location must be local. With your projects on a network drive, you are going to have problems, maybe terminal ones.

Try deleting the CPD files and then reopening the projects.

RoboHelp 10 does support having projects on a network drive but it's only as good as your network and no matter how good your network, you are likely to see some degree of lag with some processes. I suggest you try the trial version with a copy of your projects on a non production machine.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Údar]

Thanks for the helpful comments. They have saved me considerable time by bringing me quickly to the realisation that RH project source files must, in practice, be located on a local drive.

I had been using an old version of RoboHelp quite happily for years, with my project source files located on our company network which allowed me to avail of a nightly automatic server backup and to share files easily with colleagues. I had assumed that an expensive upgrade to RH9 would at least leave me no worse off but I was mistaken. Once bitten, twice shy. The chances of my upgrading to RH10 in an attempt to remedy matters are remote.

On the problems with cpd files, I think it's been picked up by other posts that there is a setting to clear cpd files automatically before opening a project (Tools\Options\General settings).