Error while running multiple Smart Publishing Wizards

[JohnInCO]

Sorry this is so long....

When I run multiple publishing wizards (two separate source folders to two separate destination folders) I get an error stating "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." The file is not identified and the result varies. I have seen the following because of this error:
1. The first publishing job completes OK but the second wizard has to be restarted.
2. The first job resets back to the dialog where you click Finish to start it and the second continues OK.
3. The first job resets and the second job errors when it gets to the end of the copy.

I have been just running them one at a time but am now maintaining 80+ sites supported by 3 project files and it doesn't matter if the Wizards are publishing from different projects. I get the same problem if just clicking publish from the Build dialog in the RH project. Basically any time two publish jobs are running they crash each other.

I've started to use batch files with xcopy statements to move the sites from my C: to the Web server (mapped drive on the network). I haven't seen any problems with this approach and I can launch as many jobs as I want.

I would welcome any advice or conjecture as to resolving the Wizard problem and any concerns with using the xcopy?

[Peter Grainge]

So you have multiple instances of RH running at the same time and are starting off one wizard, going to another project and starting another wizard and then hitting this problem?

I have never tried that but it would not surprise me that this fails. If you notice, RH does not let you open more than one project from the menus. You can only do that from Windows Explorer.

I also have not used XCOPY to publish but anything that gets the content of the webhelp output onto the server is OK. The advantage of RH's publish is that it can be set to only upload changed files. Maybe your batch file addresses that.

[JohnInCO]

I also get the problem if from teh same project I generate say 4 SSLs then kick off four Smart Publishing Wizards to publish each. You can't do this by clicking Publish from the generate dialog because RH dedicates itself to the task. So I use the Smart Publishing Wizard from the Toolbox.

I did set up the xcopy to only copy changed files using /D parameter. It works well and I was going to write a manager to allow me to kick off common groupings of copies with one click and a little monitoring app to watch it and let me know when complete.

Before I did all that I just wanted to see if the wizard behavior is normal or if I have a problem that can be corrected.

[Peter Grainge]

I have never bothered using the Smart Publishing Wizard but I just set up a couple and can see how it works.

What I cannot see is how you are simultaneouslyy running four profiles from the SPW.

You select one from the dropdown, run it and when finished start over.

Explain that and maybe I can replicate your problem.

Also under SSLs, how are you generating four at the same time?

[JohnInCO]

Peter thanks for your time.

You can launch multiple instances of the Smart Publishing Wizard from the Toolbox.
Since my servers are slow and the projects contain 1000+ pages the publishing takes 15-20 min each.
So I have plenty of time while one runs to open a new instance of the wizard and kick it off.

I hope this helps.

[Peter Grainge]

OK. I was playing with dummy projects that published in seconds.
What you are saying is select one project from the dropdown and kick it off, you can go straight back and start another.

I doubt it is intended to be used that way. I think what it allows is that rather than opening project after project and clicking through the pages of a wizard, you can just open RH to no specific project and run the tool.

I will see what I can find out but that may take some days.

[JohnInCO]

No hurry. Thanks for checking on it for me.