Using RH6 Templates in RH7

[John_Green]

I have been extremely disappointed by the RH upgrade from Version 6 to Version 7. There just seem to be so many bugs (disappearing snippets, etc.). However, one of the worst 'features' is the failure of .CHMs to consistently display information from templates that were created in RH6. I have a template that is used to display a version footer on every page, yet it only now displays the footer on certain pages (with RH6, it used to be displayed on every page). On those pages that do not display the footer, I have recreated the relevant topics in RH7, and the problem goes away for a while. However, as soon as I recreate the broken links to the new topic, and regenerate the project, the footers disappear again! I can't see a way around this other than to use WebHelp (no problems with templates with this output), but our existing customers can't really host this. So, I'm stuck with inconsistent .CHMs. Any suggestions to get around what is evidently a huge bug?

[ChickAD]

Hi,
I am a colleague of John's and have tried to build a copy of his project on a separate machine. I have some additional information on this problem, which may or may not help to explain the problem. The footer inherited from the template contains the following HTML:

<div placeholder id=footer style="width: 100%; position: relative;">
<robohelp><div align=left></robohelp>
<table x-use-null-cells style="width: 100%; float: alignleft; margin-left: -10px;" width=100%>
<col style="width: 50%;">
<col style="width: 50%;">
<tr><td style="width: 50%; padding-right: 10px; padding-left: 10px; border-left-style: None;
border-top-style: None; border-right-style: None; border-bottom-style: None;" width=50%>
<p class=Footer>WinPath Version 5 Online Help</td>
<td style="width: 50%; padding-right: 10px; padding-left: 10px; border-left-style: None;
border-top-style: None; border-right-style: None; border-bottom-style: None;" width=50%>
<p class=Footer style="text-align: right;" align=right>Single Source Help Version 5.01 Copyright 2007/2008 CliniSys Solutions Ltd.</td></tr>
</table>
<robohelp></div></robohelp>
</div>

This is inserted correctly in some of the CHM topics, but in those where no footer is inserted the source for the bad topics contains the following tag instead:

<placeholder id="footer">

There does not seem to be an obvious pattern to which topics display the footer and which do not. I have no errors displayed in the Output View pod when compiling the CHM and reattaching the template in Topic properties does not seem to make any difference.
As with John, I experience no problem when building WebHelp.
Building the project with FAR also produced the same error and deleting the HHP had no effect.
Is there a know issue with the compilation of CHMs?

This is a bit of a show stopper for us as we do not have the option of shipping WebHelp for this product. If we cannot resolve the issue, we will be forced to roll back to RH6, check out the last version and start again. Any help would be appreciated.

[Peter Grainge]

Which CliniSys Solutions Ltd office are you guys based at?

[ChickAD]

Hi Peter,

It's good of you to take the time to answer this and the other thread on snippets in tables.
I am John's team leader based in Glasgow and John is in the Chertsey office.
Both problems are occuring in the same project. This was originally created in RH6 and we keep the source files in SourceSafe. So we are in a position to roll back to the RH6 version if necessary.
I have not experienced this problem yet on my own projects, however this could well be because the only project I have worked on since installing RH7 two weeks ago has been a WebHelp deliverable.
I could open a copy of one of my CHM projects and check whether I am getting the same behaviour. Unlike John, I upgraded from RH5 to RH7.

Regards
Charles Addison
CliniSys Pathology Ltd.

[John_Green]

I created a new project in RH7 7.01.001, and imported everything from the old project (including templates, TOCs and snippets). The footers came back initially, and I thought everything was 'peachy, but now that I am re-establishing some old links, I'm starting to lose footers again. So, I'd still like this looked at, if possible. Thanks a lot.

[Peter Grainge]

I think that will require sight of two projects. The last good one in RH6 and the present one.

I don't know the cause but am willing to look.

Let me know the zipped up size of the two projects as a start.

[John_Green]

Peter - before I do this, could you please shed any light on the possible reasons for the creation or amendment of hyperlinks between certain topics resulting in the template footer disappearing from the .CHM output of the target topics (but not from the WebHelp)? This is happening in the brand new RH7 project into which I imported the original RH6 files. I have tried every workaround I can think of, from renaming topics, creating brand new topics, to recreating the 'offending' links. Yet it still keeps happening. If I don't get some success soon, I'll create zipped up files for you. Incidentially, each project will be around 13,000 KB. Do you have a link for me where I could upload projects of this size? Thanks again.

[Peter Grainge]

No I can't, that's why I want to take a look.

However, there's an interesting point in your post. Why would I need more than one project?

Email me via my site with a link to this thread and let me have a set of steps that will enable me to see and recreate the problem.

[John_Green]

You said above that you wanted both the 'good' RH6 project and the 'present' one.

[Peter Grainge]

You expect me to remember yesterday!

Sorry, I was thinking along the lines of two projects and links between them.

Email me via my site with a link to this thread and let me have a set of steps that will enable me to see and recreate the problem. I will then let you have FTP instructions.

[John_Green · Accepted solution]

Solution courtesy of Peter Grainge:

"Change the output folder to a new folder so that your existing stuff is not
touched.

In the first field, make sure the name of the CHM file is EXACTLY the same
as the project name (as in the XPJ file)."