Cannot publish to Robohelp Server 8

[Guest]

Hello All,

Well let me start by stating that I am a systems administrator but I have had no experience setting up Apache, Tomcat or Robohelp Server.

This bomb has been dropped in my lap cause I am typically the goto guy. The company has an intranet site with a help section that was created and currently resides on a windows 2000 server with RSC 2.3, and RoboEngine 4.1.  I have been tasked with setting up new server which will be windows 2003 server 32 bit OS.

Ok. I have followed all the Robohelp Server 8 getting started instructions (page5-6) on how to setup Apache Web Server with the Tomcat servlet for Robohelp server 8. I feel darn near 100% that I have gotten all of that correct. In other words everything tests correctly.  I.e., going to http://localhost shows me the proper index.htm.  I can access the tomcat manager using default UN and PW.

So I installed Robohelp Server 8 on the F:\Adobe RoboHelp Server 8\robo\server partition.  I did create more than one context but am just trying to publish to the default robohelp.  I create 3 areas.  I do see the context's listed in Tomcat Manager and they all show as started.

I have created a simple project with one help file in Robohelp HTML software.  I can generate it and it looks fine. I then configure the the WebHelp Pro Single Source Layout to publish to  Robohelp Test Server, server *****WUIT002 (my test server), robohelp adds /robohelp/server automatically. I use admin, admin as username and PW.  I attempt to select an area but get the error 'Unable to get area list from server'. Ok. that is not a good sign.  But I save and attempt to publish anywho...to no avail(of course). I receive the message "Warning: Failed to publish to "Robohelp Test Server". reason: Unable to connect to the RoboHelp server on *****wuit002. If RoboHelp Server is not being used, generate WebHelp instead. More information on RoboHelp Server is available in the help file.."

I have looked at permissions to the partition and Robohelp server directory. I have basically completely opened them up just to see if that was the issue and I am still having a problem. Help Please. There is so little info out there regarding this product.

[johndaigle]

Hi, uvwaves.

It is not finished, but I am working on an Adobe Captivate Video demonstration that may help with some of your issues. I have not made it available yet because I continue to refine it and I want to make sure it is accurate before going "live" with it.

If you like, you may  contact me offline and I will show you what I have and try to assist you as best I can. Once it's ready, I will share any "solutions" with everyone here on the forums.

Meanwhile, it would also be helpful to zip up your Tomcat log files so that they can be diagnosed for any obvious problems. Here is the usual path (on the server machine) where you will find these log files:

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\logs

Zip up that entire folder and send it directly to me via the email you will find in my profile.

Thanks and sorry you are having difficulties.

John

John Daigle

Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor

http://www.showmethedemo.com

[johndaigle]

Oh, one more thing, uvwaves. Regarding your note about, " I attempt to select an area but get the error 'Unable to get area list from server'."

I realize this is disconcerting, but usually not a problem and may be ignored (as you did.) If left blank, the "general" area is assigned by default.

However, the other error, "Warning: Failed to publish to "Robohelp Test Server" is quite another matter and hopefully the logs will help me.

Thanks

john

John Daigle

Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor

http://www.showmethedemo.com

[Guest]

Hello John,

Thank you for your help. Hopefully you can shed some insight into this for me.

Here is the log directory zipped up.

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 22:28:49 -0600

From: forums@adobe.com

To: uvwaves99@hotmail.com

Subject: Cannot publish to Robohelp Server 8

Oh, one more thing, uvwaves. Regarding your note about, " I attempt to select an area but get the error 'Unable to get area list from server'."

I realize this is disconcerting, but usually not a problem and may be ignore (as you did.) If left blank, the "general" area is assigned by default.

However, the other error, "Warning: Failed to publish to "Robohelp Test Server" is quite another matter and hopefully the logs will help me.

Thanks

john

John Daigle

Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor

http://www.showmethedemo.com/

>

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

I'm hoping you sent your E-Mail to John privately. If you didn't, the attachment never made it to the forums.

Cheers... Rick

[johndaigle]

Hey Rick. He sure did send the attachment to me

I'll take a look and hopefully we will get some revelation. I'll report back.

Thanks

John

[LaKisha1]

Hi John,

I was wondering what your findings were? Did you help uvwaves to resolve his issues? Also, is your video demo available now? I'm thinking some clients of ours may want to use RoboHelp Server to get feedback on their Help systems, and I will need to gain an understanding of how this product is installed and used. Thanks in advance for your reply.

[LaKisha1]

Silly me - sorry I'm rushing you. I just realized I was looking at the wrong date - I thought your post was from 2006 (i.e., the date of your membership), not last week, as I now see! What can I say - it's been a long day...I'm really tired...got a presentation to give tomorrow...very sleepy.

[Guest]

Let me just give a big thank you to John and Tulika before I berate myself on a public forum. They did a great job of working with me to resolved this issue.

So it comes down to a simple entry in the properties of my WebHelp Pro settings.  The server entry I had looked like this. servername/robohelp/server when it should have been this servername:8080/robohelp/server.

I went back to the Getting Started Guide under the 'Publish from RoboHelp HTML 7' section and lo and behold there it is in plain english, in the directions. "Step 3. Create a server and specify the server name as <machine--url:port>/robohelp/server."

So as usual, it is a simple case of user error.  I have been in the IT industry for approx 10 years now and i am as prone to user error as the people I help.

Thank you all. I will back with more questions only now I need to concern myself with the best practices for our situation here using this product. See ya soon!

[LaKisha1]

I'm glad to hear the problem had an easy solution.