WebHelp and Firefox - lockup the browser

[Guest]

Hello. We recently upgraded from RoboHelp 5.x to 7 in an effort to resolve this issue. While it occur less frequently, users still report that the Firefox browser locks up when they attempt to access online help. Eventually, the broswer prompts the user to either Stop Script or Continue. If the user clicks Stop Script, the page and table of contents will load normally, although the browser tab indicates it is still waiting for data. Users also find they cannot open the main topic books. I have found some other posts on the Internet about this issue (not on this site) but did not find a solution. When I view the Firefox console I'm seeing a lot of warnings related to the javascript -- too numerous to list here. Can anyone help? Thanks, T U

[chloe911 · Accepted solution]

We've seen this before. We traced the problem to a Firefox add-on, HTML validator ( http://users.skynet.be/mgueury/mozilla/) and with this disabled, the help does not hang or error. Never did find out why it happens though.

Hope that helps; not sure what it could be otherwise!

C.

[Guest]

Thanks. I am running HTML validator and that does appear to be what 'causes' the lock up. Thanks for your post...I would never have thought of that as an issue. Our application is browser based and requires the user to have JavaScript enabled. When I generate the online help, I select "DHTML > Java Applet > Pure HTML" and the result for Internet Explorer users is a very nice navigation pane with full text search. In regard to the lock up, the other resolution for FireFox users is to disable JavaScript which causes the help system to load with just HTML. However, I cannot ask the Firefox users to disable JavaScript since that would affect our application. So now I am thinking I would like to set up the help to detect if the browser is FireFox and then load the HTML-only version of the navigation pane. (This would also fix another sporadic problem where the topic books will not open when clicked.) I will post my solution if I figure it out. However, if someone else has already figured out a way to do this...or at least what files I need to alter, I would appreciate any tips. Thanks again!!!

[Linux Rules]

Hello zappy0 -

If this issue is resolved, please check the topic as such - it will help others in their future searches!

Regards,
GEWB