15 Replies Latest reply: Jan 8, 2013 4:35 AM by RoboColum(n)

RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 9, 2012 4:37 AM

I'm expecting a flood of fully formed and accurate responses to this post

I'm trying to get RoboHelp 10 and SharePoint 2007 working for a demo I'm doing to justify a budget increase next year to upgrade to RH10. My first step was to get the Resource Manager location set-up. I'm using my own SharePoint site that forms part of our corporate site. I've added a resource location changing the "http://sharepoint" to just "\\sharepoint" and changing all forward slashes to back slashes. Thanks for that heads up Willam. The location is added successfully but shows as "unable to connect to the shared location".

My thinking is that this is caused by one of the following:

SharePoint permissions: My windows logon has full control of the document library I have set-up for the Resource Manager's use. Is there some other permission that RoboHelp needs?
The document library URL when viewed in Explorer View is "....personal/cmcandrew/RoboHelp%20resources/Forms/WebFldr.aspx". Note the Forms subdirectory. Is this correct?

I'm posting this mainly for the benefit of others in the future who flounder around trying to get this RH10 to SharePoint integration working. I hope any responses it gets prove useful. As an incentive, if it is I'll put a blog post together and post the link to this thread.

1. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Willam van Weelden Nov 9, 2012 4:46 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Hi,

Did you point to the folder? You should not point to the .aspx page.

Another thing that might work: I've mapped our SP site to a network drive and simply connect the resource manager to S:\Help\Template files

Greet,

Willam
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2. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 9, 2012 5:01 AM (in response to Willam van Weelden)

No such luck I'm afraid. Linking to just the folder doesn't change things.
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3. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 9, 2012 6:51 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Don't worry Willam. I think something more fundamental is at play here. I've just noticed that the PDF for Review option is unavailable when trying to create a PDF review. Not being able to do this smells of a rat somewhere.
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4. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Willam van Weelden Nov 15, 2012 12:46 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Hi Colum,

I am not sure whether the review options is supported on SharePoint 2007. Source Control with SP only works with 2010 and the same might just be true for the review.

Another thought: Can you publish to native ASPX in 2007? That should work the same as the resource manager.

Greet,

Willam
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5. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Aditi Roongta Nov 16, 2012 4:35 AM (in response to Willam van Weelden)

Hi Willam,

Shared review workflow is supported on SharePoint 2007.

Thanks,
Aditi
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6. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Aditi Roongta Nov 16, 2012 4:43 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Hi Colum,

Can you please confirm if you are able to access the SharePoint location (which you added as shared location in Resource Manager pod) using the windows explorer. Also, try to refresh the shared location in Resource Manager pod from its right click menu.

For the benefit of others - you can also get the windows explorer path by performing the following steps:
In the SharePoint Online document library, click the Library tab, and then in the Connect & Export group in the ribbon, click the Open with Explorer icon.

Thanks,
Aditi
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7. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 16, 2012 6:44 AM (in response to Aditi Roongta)

Hi Aditi.

I can access the location in Windows Explorer when using the "http://sharepoint" address but not when using the "\\sharepoint" address that is required inside RoboHelp.

I've noticed something else. If I try to display the properties of the Resource Manager location, they are not displayed for almost five minutes. Even when they are displayed, I still get the "Unable to connect to the shared location" message. It looks like this is some sort of timeout / resource issue.

If you have anything else to try, let me know. In the meantime I'll contact our IT people to see if there is something choking at this end.
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8. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Aditi Roongta Nov 27, 2012 12:57 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Hi Colum,

Can you please try to access a document library in your SharePoint site using windows explorer and let us know your findings.

SharePoint location when accessed using windows explorer takes more time than usual which you can test on your machine without using RoboHelp.

Thanks,
Aditi
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9. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 27, 2012 2:54 AM (in response to Aditi Roongta)

Hi Aditi.

Thank you for getting back. I can confirm that when I copy and paste the SharePoint URL into Windows Explorer that I can see the contents almost instantly. I've attached a screen shot (fugure 1) if that helps. If I try going through the RH10 Resource Manager pod it just seems to hang forever (actually about 15 minutes) before finally coming back with the "Unable to connect to the shared location" message (Figure 2)

One thing I have noticed is that I am unable to connect to the SharePoint library if I use the "Open Folder" button in the Resource Manager pod. As you will see in Figure 3 it is using the back slashes as required. In Windows Explorer I can connect either by using the actual URL (i.e. including HTTP://) or by using the amended file path URL (i.e. with back slashes).

Figure 1

Figure 2
Figure 3
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10. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Aditi Roongta Nov 27, 2012 3:47 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Hi Colum,

Please replace the colon character ":" with "@" in the shared location path so the example shared location becomes something like \\sharedpointweb@81\personal\cmcandrew\RH_Resources\

I believe this should resolve the problem you are facing. Let me know your findings.

Thanks,
Aditi
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11. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 27, 2012 8:07 AM (in response to Aditi Roongta)

Unfortunately that doesn't work either. Neither can I access the directory in Windows Explorer substituting the @.
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12. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

Aditi Roongta Nov 27, 2012 8:23 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Colum,

Since you are not able to access the SharePoint location using windows explorer, I suggest you to contact SharePoint administrator to help you.

Thanks,
Aditi
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13. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 27, 2012 9:36 AM (in response to Aditi Roongta)

I've been digging around to see if I can find anything that could be the cause. I found the rhsharedresource.apj file which I assume to be a repository for any shared resources. It appears blank (see below) even if a add another shared location and add resources to a project.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rhpml majorversion="5" minorversion="0">
<links>
</links>
<syncoption>
<mode>0</mode>
</syncoption>
</rhpml>
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14. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Nov 27, 2012 9:37 AM (in response to Aditi Roongta)

OK. Will do.
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15. Re: RH10 SharePoint integration

RoboColum(n) Jan 8, 2013 4:35 AM (in response to RoboColum(n))

Just to bring people up to date with my issues getting RH10 to integrate with SharePoint. Over the Christmas period I got a new SharePoint site set-up to which I have full access. Note that this is not a sub-site as I was using before. This has solved all the access issues allowing me to set-up a link in the Resource Manager.

I will be posting on my blog with full details of the setup in due course. Thanks again everyone for your suggestions.
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