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I recently converted from RH 7 to RH 8. I have updated existing pages and created new pages. Any pages that I have touched since the upgrade will not display when published with WebHelp out to my company's networked location. They will display when I publish WebHelp just to my computer.
What can I do to fix this?
I am using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8.
Publishing via WebHelp
Thank you
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Try deleting all files in the published location first – then publish; that should refresh all files
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Now none of the topics will open.
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Sounds like you’ve got something messed up in your published location – better check with your IT guys. You can also test it by removing all the published files from the location and just placing a simple webpage there & seeing if it will show up in your browser.
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So there was nothing specific that I should have done in version 8 that maybe I didn't? I really appreciate your quick responses.
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Nope – you proved that by being able to run it when you generated it locally – the “publish” part of RH is just a bare-bones FTP client strapped on to the help creation process. You can simulate the same action by generating locally and then using your fav FTP client to send it up to the webserver.
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I think I'd double check that the "Publish location" in the upgraded project is actually the publish location you are hoping to see.
Additionally, can you better describe what you mean by "Publishing"? Some folks understand that differently than we do.
Cheers... Rick
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Thank you!
I have put everything in exactly the same spot as it normally sits. Erased everything and replaced with new published files in WebHelp. I have the topic names in the left menu, but nothing ever comes up when I click on the topics. It was only the 3 files that I updated or created before, now it is all topics.
When I say published files, I am referring to the !SSL!/WebHelp files that I normally copy from my computer to our "development" network location. Then I do the true publish to production by a request to the publishing team.
Does that help?
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Ok, the creation of the help in the \!SSL!\ folder is known as “generation” – publishing involves picking that up & copying it to some server location.
Are you sure of the browser that you’re using to view the help? Is it up on a web server or just a LAN network server? Have you got “Mark of the Web” turned off or on?
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Mark of the Web is turned OFF. Should it be on?
I am doing what I usually do, and not sure if it is a web server or LAN network server. I don't think it is a web server because I think that would be what we have for production. I am asking someone.
Thank you.
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It is a LAN network server that I use for dev purposes.
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So people are browsing to this network server to launch the help? What browser version(s) are they using? I ask because both Chrome & IE have issues with “local” HTML files (and having your help on a LAN network server counts as local to them).
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Should I turn on Mark of the Web or have it off?
They are using a production URL to hit the help manual. Browser IE 8.
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Usually for local files it’s on; have them try using Firefox to see if they help appears for them
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WRT the Mark Of The Web (MOTW) - It may no longer be relevant. Your question as to whether it should be on or off seems to imply that you really don't know what purpose it serves.
For starters, it is (or possibly WAS) specific to Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. When you generate with it enabled, it adds a specific line of code to all the HTML pages produced during the generation process. You know how when you open Microsoft Internet Explorer and view the WebHelp from your local hard drive and you see that Yellow Information Bar and you get a message about Scripting and all that? That's what MOTW is (or WAS) intended to prevent. And this only happens when you view content from a local drive. (Files on a LAN server still count as a local drive in this case)
Once your content is served from a web server (where the address begins with HTTP://) MOTW is about as pointless and helpful as an old tape deck with fried electronics. It has no effect whatsoever on the content and the added lines are completely ignored.
My reason for being careful to be a bit evasive on whether it's still relevant is that the most recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer have made many changes. It's quite possible that MOTW is now irrelevant. I believe that's why Jeff was also suggesting you test using Mozilla Firefox. That would confirm the content is there and it's just IE having the issues.
Cheers... Rick
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Thanks very much.
We can't use any other browser version unfortunately.
And when the help is published to production the active script message always is gone anyways.
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Here is a piece of information that might be beneficial:
I am working on the trial version of RH 8 while I wait for my license to be purchased. Do you know if something may not be in the trial version that would be causing my problems?
Thanks!!
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Nope – trials are full-fledged versions – no cripple-ware there; besides you already know it’s working because you can see the help if you look at it on your c:\ drive, right?
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Yes sir...and even can see it when I go through the drive like: "S:/Manuals/ManualName/ManualName.htm" but when I try to view it like http://www.dev.server/Manuals/ManualName/ManualName.htm is when I have the trouble.
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Well, that’s because your server isn’t a web server – so the www. part won’t work – try
file_server_name\manuals\etc.\
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See that is the problem --- it always has before, and we've done nothing on the server side.
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Jeff, that's likely incorrect. In many cases a help author will have a drive letter that maps to a server that actually is accessed via HTTP by the rest of the company.
I used to have a similar setup when I was a corporate drone.
@CMC - I know that Adobe has issued some service releases to address issues with browsers. It may be worth clicking Help > Updates to see if RoboHelp will update.
Cheers...Rick
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Thanks to both of you. I will take a look.
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Hmm – looks like my UNC path got mangled by the Web interface – I was referring to “\\server\folder\" - I’ve never seen an http://www.servername/ path mapped as a drive letter – always UNC paths for LAN servers.
Message was edited by: Jeff_Coatsworth - UNC double backslashes mangled again
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Really Jeff?
That's weird because for LAN servers back in the day, we regularly had a swarm of them appearing as different drive letters for different purposes. If memory serves, the E: drive was the departmental drive. The F: drive was your personal space. There were other letters that mapped to other things. And for me, I believe it was drive letter S that was assigned to me and it mapped to another server that was the staging server for the intranet stuff. And for that one, I saw it as drive letter S, but for anyone on the company intranet it was reached via HTTP.
Sure, we also had UNC available, but they seemed to prefer drive letters.
Then again, that was so ten years ago. Things probably have changed since then.
Cheers... Rick