Did I miss a step when copying a project to a new computer AND upgrading to RH 10?

[A_Avallone]

I was given a newer, faster machine to use solely for Help, so I installed RH 10 HTML on the new machine only and then copied all the project files (originally built in RH9) to the new machine using identical file structure. I upgraded the project when prompted and everything looked fine--no broken links and all linked docs still in sync--until I tried to view the project. I can generate (WebHelp Layout) without errors and view individual topics locally, but Internet Explorer says it cannot display the page or find the file when I try to view the whole project. Troubleshooting the connection issue yields the message "The website you are trying to reach does not appear to be valid." I have just started a new project in RH10 on the new computer, and it displays fine, so I think it has something to do with either the copy or the upgrade process.

Things I have already checked: file paths to output file, default topic, and start page (in WebHelp properties and in Project Properties). IE does appear to be trying to open the correct .htm and is looking for it in the right folder.

I also searched for guidance on the proper way to copy a project to another computer, but to no avail, so it is possible I did it poorly. If there's a trick to that, it would not be all that difficult for me to delete the project on the new machine and start over with copying it the right way--everything is still intact and up to date on the old machine.

What else can I check or try? Thanks in advance!

[Peter Grainge]

What happens with other browsers?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[A_Avallone]

I installed Firefox and tried to "view with Firefox" from WebHelp layout menu, and this is what happened: blue "Windows wheel" for about 30 seconds accompanied by "Not responding" message in Robohelp project title bar. Then nothing--no error or attempt to open the page. A

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hold on - what are you trying to do? If you want to see your webhelp output, you need to navigate to the \!SSL!\WebHelp\ folder and launch whatever starting page you designated (in your SSL recipe) to be the launch file - usually it's project_name.htm or index.htm.

You may have to turn on "Mark of the Web" in your SSL recipe if you want to look at it locally with IE.

[A_Avallone]

Hi, and thanks for weighing inI do have mark of the web turned on (I verified that early on in my troubleshooting and can see "applying mark of the web" appear in the output view when I generate.) As for the launch file, I have specified the output folder/start page as \!SSL!\WebHelp\[Help project folder]\[start page]\index.htm. This is the same file path that I used when the project was in RH9 on my old computerand worked fine. By "launch," are you referring to some additional step beyond the "view" command in the WebHelp menu?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes, I mean get out of RH, navigate with Explorer to the \!SSL!\WebHelp\ folder and select the starting page - mine is always in the root of the WebHelp folder (c:\projects\project_name\!SSL!\WebHelp\project_name.htm)

BTW - the View & Preview functionality within RH isn't always WYSIWYG

[A_Avallone]

Hey! It opened like lightning in my default browser when I clicked on the index.htm file in my starting page folder. That makes me feel better (I obviously didn't break the project when I copied it over), but why didn't I ever have to do this before? Isn't it supposed to be possible from the Primary Layout menu? Not to be nitpicky, but do you know of a setting that would re-enable the "view with" option? My ultimate goal is to turn the project maintenance over to the client's employeesthe less navigating into folders and files, the better. Plus, not everyone in the company uses the same browser, so the view with option is certainly handy! But I thank youI have greater confidence that publishing this layout will not result in catastrophe! Whew!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

There's probably some setting within RH that determines what browser to use, but does it really make any difference? They're still going to be navigating to the output folder to pick it up and put it someplace for publication or distribution anyway, right?

[A_Avallone]

Sorry--don't mean to be dense, but not sure I follow you. I only learned one way to publish, the way the IconLogic Essentials of RH9 course taught me: 1) generate the SSL from the WebHelp right-click menu in the layout pod, 2) view the project (as prompted) to verify format and content, and 3) publish the RH project to my local machine (which my tech team then copies to a server for the application Help to point to).

I've never had to use Windows Explorer to execute any part of the generate-view-publish sequence before. Everything has been launched from inside the RH project itself. Up until now (2 years using RH9, with updates about once a month), it has worked flawlessly. Do you recommend a resource that might explain another approach...and possibly help me understand why my method isn't working now?

Clearly, the project is now having trouble directing the browser to the .htm file that opens the Help. I have read the RH 10 users guide, but it also indicates that View, View With, and View Results after generating are supposed to launch from inside the tool, as they always have in RH9. I'm a little nervous about publishing my next version (to thousands of users: yikes!) until I understand what has changed and rule out user error on my part. I fear that if one aspect of the project is not working as it should, more flaws may be lurking. Thanks for your patience, A

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Everybody works slightly differently - everybody first generates the help output (whatever flavour of SSL you choose) to your local drive (which is where your project is 99.9% of the time) - that's the creation part; the next step is the "getting it out there" part - this is where everybody's process differs. Some people use the Publish capabilities built into RH to make the generate & publish to some server location, all one step. Others generate and then manually copy the whole \!SSL!\output_type\ folder to wherever it's going (internal LAN server, Web server, developer's drive for inclusion inside a build, etc.) Some use FTP client software to upload the generated help to a Web server. My help projects end up getting compiled into the software in one case (a locally-installed AIRHelp package) and into its own installer in another (a WebHelp output that gets installed on client's LAN servers).

I'm just saying that there have been known deficiencies in RH on relying upon RH calling your default browser to show you the help - sometimes it's not what it looks like in real-life. Nothing replaces actually testing it for yourself outside of RH using a variety of browsers (if you don't restrict what browsers can be used with your help - some people do) before sending it off on its way.

Try playing with one of the sample projects to see if it's your project that's misbehaving or RH.

[A_Avallone]

Thanks--will do.