Full-text search broken in Simplified Chinese?

[relucant_consultant]

Hello,

Can anyone confirm whether full-text search works in Simplified Chinese CHM files produced with Robohelp 7? It looks to me like the answer is no. When I compile a help system that has been localized into Chinese, the compiler produces this error:

Generating full-text search data...
HHC5008: Error:
An unknown error occurred while creating the index.

There's no mention of this error in any of Adobe's support documents. Googling "HHC5008" and "unknown error" finds one page (in Japanese) that indicates that the problem stems from using a binary index. Robohelp will not let me disable the binary index since I'm using an HHK.

Oddly, if I change the language of my otherwise unmodified source (English) project to Simplified Chinese, the same error occurs.

The Robohelp Readme lists as a known issue "Search not working for Unicode (Hiragana) characters on RoboHelp for HTML (RHT)." This problem is perhaps related, but not identical to the one I'm having. It would also appear that the statement in the FAQ, "Full text search is also operational in any of the languages," is false.

I'm evaluating RH7, which will not be useful to me if this bug persists.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

You are asking about the search but pointing to index issues. Which is it, or are both giving problems?

Does the help compile and do you get anything in the index frame? Does the search work and if not what happens there?

Does everything display correctly in the topics and the TOC and index when you are working on the project?

Finally, open one of the supplied projects in English and see if everything works there. Alternatively, create a new project in English and try that. It will establish whether the error is language related or an installation issue.

Let us know on those and maybe it will trigger a thought.

[relucant_consultant]

Peter,

Thank you very much for the quick response (on Christmas Eve, no less). It appears to me that the search and index issues are the same, or at least that they're very closely related. Again, the error message sequence is as follows:

Generating full-text search data...
HHC5008: Error:
An unknown error occurred while creating the index.

The index itself generates correctly (despite the error message); the problem is with the Search tab.

I can reproduce the problem with the "Clownfish School" sample project. If I open the project, change its output format to Microsoft HTML Help, and compile, the search function in the resulting CHM works fine. If I change the project language to Simplified Chinese, I get the same error I reported originally with my actual project.

So at this point it appears that either the problem is, as you suggest, local to my installation (I've tested it on three different machines, though, so this seems unlikely) or with Robohelp itself.

I would appreciate any additional suggestions. Thanks again.

[Peter Grainge]

The two things are created separately and the data is in separate internal files.

The error message is when you generate the help. You say the index is OK so I take that to mean you have tested it and it work correctly and is complete. When you open the compiled help, what happens in the search tab?

Is the project on your hard disk and are you generating to a local drive? If no to either, move the project locally and generate locally, then test again.

[relucant_consultant]

Yes, the index works fine, as far as I can tell (I don't read Chinese, though). Searching (whether for Chinese text or an English term) results in a popup window with a "No topics found" error. I've looked through the forums at posts about similar errors, but did not find a solution. The files are on a local drive. Thanks.

[Peter Grainge]

OK, that give me what I need to know, I need to consult with someone else so that's as far as we can go for now.

I'll post back as soon as I hear but obviously it will be several days ahead.

Unless you post back, I will assume the project only has one TOC, that is selected when you generate, and there are no obvious errors such as squares instead of characters.

[relucant_consultant]

Great. Thanks so much. So yeah, there's no corruption or other evident problems; it's just that Search doesn't work. For what it's worth, this is on Windows XP with the Chinese language pack installed and Chinese selected as the primary language.

I'll also after the holiday to compile it on a machine running a Simplified Chinese OS, to see if that makes any difference. I'll also try compiling with an earlier (pre-Adobe) version of Robohelp for Chinese.

Thanks again.

[stunolan]

Hi Peter,
I am having the exact same problems as described above for all double byte languages 😞
I am wondering if there is any resolution to this or possible fix.
Thanks for your help
Stuart

[Peter Grainge]

I recall emailing someone about this but track the thread. It might be on another machine. Anyway. I have emailed an SOS to get the ball rolling.

[Peter Grainge]

Stuart

Please contact me offline via my website.

[relucant_consultant]

Peter et al,

I am pretty desperate for a solution to this problem, as it's currently holding up my completion of a project. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Peter Grainge]

I emailed you today Kevin but it got blocked. I'll email again tomorrow. The solution I sent Stuart worked.