After upgrading RH9 to RH10, pop-ups no longer 'auto-size' when called from program

[LS]

This is not the same issue as the current RH10 fix for webhelp resolves.

We've noticed that, once a HTML help file (eg. helpfile.chm) is generated in RoboHelp 10, the pop-ups no longer display as auto-sized.   They do if the .chm file is opened by itself but no longer do when the file is accessed as context sensitive help within the program being used.

Has anyone else experienced this?  The pop-up windows opened are wAAy too small now to be effective.

RoboHelp9 compiled and called from program:

RoboHelp10 compiled and called from program:

At first I thought there might be some kind of character limitation that the auto-size is working with but it's more the pop-up box size that's the issue.  Any number of characters (and this is font dependant of course) that won't fit into the ~2 1/2"w x ~3/4" h box (or ~6cm w x ~2 cm h) causes the vertical and horizontal scrollbars on the pop-up box to become active, rather than the box simply auto-sizing to fit the text as it did when previous versions of RoboHelp were used.

The main font hasn't changed (Arial 10-pt).  I should be able to pop-up more than 89 characters (including the line return and realizing that the number of characters can change as the characters are proportional) into a pop-up without this problem occurring.  Previously, we could enter over 256 characters without an issue. 

We use various programming tools and the problem with pop-up auto-sizing occurs when chm files compiled using RoboHelp 10 HTML Help are called from within all of our programs.  Help projects not yet converted to RoboHelp 10 do not exhibit this same behaviour.

The behaviour is the same whether the programs are run on XP or Win7 and the context sensitive help is called.  All program's *.chm files are stored on the local w/s even though the programs themselves are installed to the server.  Various server OS's are in use from Server 2003 thru Server 2012.

If anyone else has experienced this behaviour or has more information about it, it is appreciated.

Message was edited by: LS@Softrak

Message was edited by: LS@Softrak

Message was edited by: LS@Softrak

[AMAGARWA]

Hi Leigh,

We tried creating the auto-size text-only Pop-ups and Hyperlink/Pop-ups to other htm pages, but they work fine at our end in RH10.

The pop-up mentioned in your post seems to be a hyperlink pop-up? We are unsure of this behaviour, does it happen on other machines with RH10?

Which OS/IE version are you using? Please can you attach the generated CHM or project, if possible?

Best Regards,

Amit Agarwal

[LS]

Hi, Amit,

Yes, these are hyperlink pop-ups.  All (or almost all) are accessed when a user clicks on a field or button that is part of an image stored in the .chm file.

I'm not surprised that you can't duplicate this.  If you just generate a .chm file, double click on the .chm file, locate an image and then click on a field, the pop-up auto-sizes correctly and looks like the RH9 pop-up screenshot I provided above.

If, however, you access the .chm help file from any of our programs (and presumably from others also), the pop-up does not auto-size and looks like the RH10 pop-up screenshot above.

Our help files are not stored and accessed across the internet.  They are stored on users' individual workstations.  These users are using IE8, IE9, IE10, IE11, Chrome, Firefox, etc. but that isn't really relevant in this case; some users actually don't even have access to the internet.  (I know, hard to believe in this day and age but true.)

The problem occurs for .chm files compiled using RH10 when the help is called from a program.  The .chm file resides on the local drive of a workstation.  The problem does not occur using a .chm file compiled in RH5, RH8 or RH9.

The workstation might be running XP SP3, Vista, Win7, Win8, Win8.1 or be a terminal server (RDS) running one of these OS's or a server OS Microsoft Server 2003, 2008, 2008R2, 2011, 2012.

If you would like to do a remote session with me, I would be very happy to show you exactly what I mean.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you.

[AMAGARWA]

Could you please elaborate on:

"..The problem occurs for .chm files compiled using RH10 when the help is called from a program. .."

Which program?

How are you using the program?

We had checked at my end without the 'program'. Will try to replicate with it once we receive your reply.

Thanks.

[LS]

Yes, we use both Delphi and Visual C as programming tools.  These are for numerous accounting modules.

Program can be installed to a server or locally on a workstation.

Help .chm file is always installed to the local drive.

Users wishing to access the online Help either do so by clicking the Help button on a program form or pressing F1; or they can use the module's main menu and select Help | Contents.

In any of these cases, the module.chm Help file installed on the user's local drive is called by the program.  All runs well as it has always done 'except' when a popup in the .chm is activated.

Ever since I converted everything to RH10, these hyperlink pop-ups no longer auto-size.  Pop-ups that use the 'Display in frame' or 'Display in custom-sized popup' options on the Image Map/Hyperlink or Pop-up windows still work as they always have.  It's just the auto-size pop-ups that are broken.

As I still have old Help files compiled in RH9 and earlier, I have been able to test and compare their behaviour when run with our current program releases.  This is how I have confirmed that the change in pop-up auto-sizing is not a result of anything that may have changed in our programs.

[riteshksriv]

Hi Leigh,

Can you tell us using which software we can access the Help file that you are generating with RH10 ?

We want to reproduce the scenario at our end.

It would be helpful if you could tell us the steps needed for reproducing the issue.

Thanks

[LS]

Yes.  Following is a link address to a client NFR copy of one of our modules:  http://www.softrak.com/dbr/upload/ReRH10.zip

NOTE:  Please let me know when you have downloaded it and, those of you from Adobe, please email me directly so I can email you the extraction password and install codes necessary for you to install the module in your test environment.

The zip you download contains:

- an executable zip to install the module (default is to c:\Softrak\.... on your workstation or virtual).  The install also installs the RH10 compiled help .chm for the module.

- a separate RH9 compiled Help .chm to be unzipped to the same location that the module is installed to.  This file has been renamed so its extension is .chmRH9.  Please just leave it in the folder for now.

After you have installed the module and placed the RH9 help file in the program folder also, please do the following:

- Drill down to the ??\Softrak\PurchaseOrders folder and run the PurchaseOrders.exe file.

- On the Open Adagio ... window, enter SYS and SYS as the UserID and Password.  Enter (or select from the Browse button) the path to the program and the sample data folder in the Data Path (eg. c:\Softrak\PurchaseOrders\Samdata).

- Enter SAM as the Extension and select the Open button.  Click past the view video prompt.

- From the program toolbar, select the PO/Receipts button.

- In the window that opens, highlight PO#-0000018 and double click on it or select the Edit button.

- Select the Help button or press F1 to invoke the online Help.

- On the screenshot image within the Help topic, click on the Original Document field.  Note the small size of the pop-up and vertical and horizontal scrollbars.  Click on the Reference field and notice the same thing.

- Now, click on the long blank field 2 to the right of the Vendor Type field.  Notice how there are no scrollbars for this pop-up.  Its of fewer characters than the other two fields.

So that's all for the RH10 help file.

To further illustrate the difference between an RH10 compiled and an RH9 or earlier compiled help file, please close the program and drill down to the program folder again:

- Rename the PurchaseOrders.chm file to an extension of .chmRH10 and rename the .chmRH9 file so the extension is just .chm.

- Rerun the program and login using SYS and SYS as the UserID and Password again.  The program should remember the data path and extension used last time.

- Redo the steps above again, starting with selecting the POs/Receipts button in the toolbar.

- When the Help is open and (on the image) you click on the Original document and Reference fields again, notice that the pop-up are auto-sized as they should be.  Click on the long blank field 2 fields to the fight of the Vendor Type field again and notice how it auto-sizes differently than it did in the RH10 compiled help file.

Hope I haven't missed any steps here.

Looking forward to hearing back from you and to a resolution to this issue.  Thank you for your continued effort.

[riteshksriv]

Hi Leigh,

After investigation we found out that the issue was with our script files.

You can make the changes in those two problematic files yourself. You have to make same change in both files.

Files will be located at :

1. ..\RH10installDirectory\RoboHTML\eHlpDhtm.js     e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 10\RoboHTML\eHlpDhtm.js
2. ..\RH10ProjectDirectory\eHlpDhtm.js                 e.g. C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My RoboHelp Projects\Adobe RoboHelp 10\Samples\EmployeeCare\EmployeeCareProject\eHlpDhtm.js

Go to line no 61(or 62) which would look like ->

var gbInsideCHM = document.location.href.search("::")>0 && document.location.href.search(“chm”)>0;

Now change it to ->

var gbInsideCHM = document.location.href.search("::")>0 && document.location.href.search(/chm/i)>0;

It will do a case-insensitive search and variable will be set as it should. I have added a screenshot for your convenience.

Please see if this works out for you and do tell us about the results

Thanks for your efforts.

[LS]

Thank you.  After implementing this fix and recompiling, my bezillions of pop-ups are auto-sizing again.

Thank you again for providing this fix.  And, I'm sure that users of our help will appreciate this also.

For me, I think we can consider this issue resolved.

[AURORAxmp]

Hello,

I just upgraded from RH9 to RH11 and am also experiencing this issue.  Wondering why it wasn't fixed in the version update.  Also, I am having difficulty opening the .js file for editing, please advise.  What program can I use to edit the .js?

Thanks.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

notepad

[riteshksriv]

Hi AURORA,

You can use any text editor to edit the .js file.

We found out about the issue after the version update so it could not be added into RH11.

We are publishing a tech-note with this fix.

Thanks

[greyowl7]

I had the same problem with RH 11 (but not with RH9). I have now updated to 11.0.3.268, checked eHlpDhtm.js was corrected, recompiled my Help and copied the .chm file to the application's folder. But I still see the same problem of tiny popups when I call Help from within the application.

Have I missed something?

[Peter Grainge]

Check one of the sample projects or create a new project with just a couple of topics to see if they give the same problem.

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

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[greyowl7]

I found the problem. I had assumed upgrading to 11.0.3 would clean everything up, but it didn't. The file eHlpDhtm.js in each ProjectDirectory still had the old parameter ("chm") instead of (/chm/i). I edited that in all my current RH11 folders and recompiled and the autosize popups work correctly now.

[Peter Grainge]

Good news.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge