RoboHelp10 Search Progress Bar

Hi Mike,

So does pull the search results for you or not?

I mean when you search 'cherry' does it give search results or it remains stuck at searching?

What Web Browser are you using? Can you check with IE once?

Also can you identify if it is happening to your upgraded project only or a new one as well?

Thanks,

Anjaneai

I have just upgraded to RoboHelp 10 and have discovered the same issue that the Search Progress bar does not work.

The actual search does work and results are shown, it is just the progress bar does not move nor does the percentage counter change from 0%.

I have tried this on both IE9 and Chrome browsers with the same results. I have also tried it with both upgraded projects and a new project, with no difference.

Any thoughts?

Chris

Mike,

Please check by changing your SKIN in WebHelp to default or something else and verify if it still does not perform correctly.

Usually, the search is extremely fast on local machines and it fetches results almost instantaneously.

Thanks,

Anjaneai

Hi Anjaneai,

I have tried changing to the default skin and the problem still remains, the progress bar does not function. I am running this from a web server with a search response time of between 2 and 8 seconds.

Chris

I can not produce this using IE8 or Chrome. Does the same happen in the generated output as well as the published output?

So that everyone is on the same hymn sheet, can the posters please test using the supplied sample projects?

Click Open on the RoboHelp Starter page and then click Samples in the ribbon on the left.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Hi guys,

1) The problem occurs on both the generated and published outputs.

2) I have tried both the EmployeeCare and Global Site Consult sample projects with the same results, the Search Progress bar does not function.

My former RH9 projects all function normally, the same projects converted to RH10 exhibit the problem on both IE9 and Chrome.

Thanks for your help.

Chris

Can you try one more thing if you haven't already. Try generating the output to a different location on a local drive (e.g. C:\WebHelp) and see if you get the same behaviour.

Tried this, but no luck! It still doesn't work.

Chris

I have just tried a couple of projects with Rh10 and IE9.

Employee Care returned its results so fast I the progress bar was just a flash.

I then upgraded a 600+ topic project and just managed to catch the progress bar. It showed 0% and then immediately went to 100% as it showed the results.

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@petergrainge

I don't have a big merge in Rh10 format to test. That could cause it to run slower but from your video I'm not sure anyone would spot the problem. However if the merge on the server is taking longer, they may notice it so you should report that as a bug.

Please follow this link.

http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38

Yes the parent should control it all but it wouldn't hurt to check all projects are the same.

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@petergrainge

Thanks Peter,

My projects are mainly merged, but I have tested on a single project and the situation is the same. Due to certain security measures on our web server, the search can be quite slow and so the missing progress bar is very noticable and will be an issue to our customers. I will also raise a bug report.

Cheers,

Chris

I have raised a bug report for this issue, but it has become a real problem. I am having to roll back my projects to RoboHelp 9 where possible.

Any progress on this issue? I've been having the same problem since I upgraded from RH9 to RH10. I too have a parent project with 20+ merged child projects. The search eventually completes but the progress bar does not move, which causes users to click Go again, which then displays an error message: "Error: Failed to load xml file".

Unfortunately, I have not seen any response from Adobe. I am now evaluating other products such as MadCap Flare in order to overcome this issue and bring about other search improvements such as searching by topic 'category'. I am also looking at ZoomSearch.

Please raise a bug report with Adobe if this issue is affecting you.

Chris

This bug is also affecting us. We have 25+ child projects and I kept wondering why I was seeing that "Error: Failed to load xml file" error. I didn't realize it was occurring because i had clicked  Go more than once while waiting for the search bar to show progress. I just submitted a bug report to Adobe--maybe if we all report the same bug, they'll get around to fixing it sooner than later.

Any updates from anyone? I finally received a patch from Adobe and it didn't work.

I have not seen any response from Adobe. I am now using ZoomSearch for my main projects and my older projects I am leaving on RoboHelp 9. I do have one small project using RoboHelp 10 search which since the recent patch seems to have a new bug that if you input 'test' into the search box the whole WebHelp system freezes??

Chris

I just tried on a fully patched Rh10 installation and used the term "test". Worked just fine.

First of all are you using IE10 and if so have you applied the IE10 fix? See Snippets on my site.

Second, is this one of your merged setups? If so, have you seen the revised instructions covering changing from a metatag redirect to a javascript redirect, also a tweak to one of the Rh wh* files.

Finally try downloading the demo from my site and see if that works on your setup.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

I am not having the same issue.

Browsers: Google Chrome 26.0.1410.64, IE8, and Firefox 14.0.1.

My online help master project contains 50+ merged projects. 

Can you please send me a link to the instructions on changing a metatag redirect to a javascript redirect and tweaking the RH wh* files?

Also, can you send me a link to where I can download your demo project? However, I'm thinking that this issue has a lot to do with the amount of merged projects and content that is in our online help. Our search normally takes a couple minutes to run, which is why the progress bar is so important to us. Our users are abandoning the search and reporting issues with the OLH because the bar is stuck at 0% and does not show that the process is actually working.

@ Tech Doc Girl

Those instructions are specifically for ZoomSearch, not Rh's own search. Maybe ZoomSearch is the solution for you?

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/zoomsearch/zoomsearch.htm

Have you checked that all your projects have the same language set? I recall differences can cause issues.

In the Navigation settings, make sure all projects have the same setting. Try Local rather than Web regardless of where the help lives.

Is your help on a webserver or installed locally? It shouldn't make a difference but 50 projects is more than I have used.

How big is the help if you zip it all up without the outputs?

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@petergrainge

I would assume that all of the projects are set to the same language set, but I'm not sure where to check that. Language field on the Project Settings window?

Also, how do I get to the Navigation settings?

We have a variety of outputs. Our RH projects are stored locally (using SharePoint source control). A few outputs are published to a server. However, the online help can also be launched from our software application where the help would be run locally.

The entire online help (published files only) zipped is 310MB. The entire online help (including all source files, .xpj, etc.) zipped is 318MB.

I've been in contact with Adobe since February. They have acknowledged that this is in fact a bug. I'm just waiting now for a patch that actually works.

Why assume all the projects are set to the same language?

The Navigation settings are in the SSL, the dialog you go through when you generate each project. Are you batch generating and never  looking at them?

Are Adobe saying there is a bug with the progress bar or the time taken?

Send me a link to those output zips first and I will see how long the search takes on my server. See the Contact page on my site.

It is the source projects that have to be looked at to find the cause if it is project related. What is the size of those?

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@petergrainge

I understand the bug is with the progress bar but I am still thinking your search is taking too long. Fix the progress bar problem will not fix the search time. Happy to help there if you wish.

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@petergrainge

Yes, the bug reported to Adobe is regarding the progress bar. I had just accepted that the search will take a long time to run due to the amount of content we have (50+ merged projects). However, if you think you can help with the search time, I would greatly appreciate it.

Right now I'm working on setting the Navigation settings to "Local" to see if that helps at all.

I will not be able to send you the source files using the instructions on your Contact page on your site because all of projects zipped are approx. 318MB. Please suggest otherwise.

One of the options on my contact page covers up to 2gb but earlier you said the output alone was 310mb. Is the 318mb you are now talking about for the source without output?

Ideally I would like both so that I can first test your ready created output and then dig deeper on the source files if I need to.

Try setting to local first. Then send source and output as one or two zip files if that has not changed the time.

Include a link to this thread and give me some search terms to tes.

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@petergrainge

My mistake. I sent the files to you via wetransfer.com.

The source folder zipped is 324MB. The published output folder zipped in 310MB.

I tried settings the navigation settings to local and language to English (US), but did not see any improvement.

Search terms to use: "anonymous" and "householding".

Your email to me refers to a child project have its own children. I don't think I have seen anyone make that work successfully. Try removing that child from the merge and see if that makes a difference. I suspect it will.

Post back and if that has not made a difference, I will start poking around.

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@petergrainge

Are we still talking about improving the search speed?

Why wouldn't a child project with its own merged project work? We were forced to do this because the original child project was getting way too big and it was taking too long to open, make changes, and publish. Therefore, we separated a couple sections out into their own projects and then merged them into the original child. I'm not what other option we have...

Merged help is designed to search a parent if it has content and any children. What you are doing is effectively creating grand-children.

It is so long since I tried merges within a merge that I forget the issues but from time to time I have seen others try it and walk away. My point now is that taking the child that has children out of the setup is simple and would prove / disprove whether this is why your search is taking so long.

I had a merge of less then 10 projects but around 14,000 topics and the search tooking nothing like as long as yours.

Try that to see if it is the cause. Let's worry about the reason you did that later.

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@petergrainge

I removed the grandchildren merged projects and the search still runs at a glacial speed.

Did you just remove them from the output?

I would remove the reference to the parent of those grandchildren from the main parent and then generate that again. That way there is no reference to that lower level merge.

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@petergrainge

Locally the search for the two terms you cited took about 3 seconds. An earlier post refers to different times between local and server.

What times are you seeing?

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@petergrainge

I removed the reference.

On the server, both search terms took about 12 seconds. Keep in mind that these are one word searches. If I search "product maintenance screen", it takes a few seconds longer.

Locally, the single word search terms took about 6 seconds and the multiple word searches took about 8 seconds.

UPDATE: I finally received a patch from Adobe and the progress bar is now working. They are still working on making this patch available to the rest of the RH population.