Merging FlashHelp/FlashHelp Pro

[MeWrite]

I have published a mergedproject in the FlashHelp output using RH7 to the RHServer 7. It merges the TOC seamless for all projects listed in the mergedproject folder. The master is a shell only. The html topic in there simply redirects to an intro topic (located in a child project). The Index works fine and you can see all the index terms regardless of the child project where they are located. I only have 2 issues at this point:

1) The glossary term displays 2-4 definitions. It's like if the term is found in all 4 child projects, it lists them all. Each child project has it's own glossary. Anyone know why? I don't want to merge the glossary to one as the child projects will continue to be added.

2) The search function does not seem to be working. I had it working once, but then I turned off all the glossaries
to see if I could get the duplicating definitions to stop. When I reactivated them, the search still does not work. So not sure there is a correlation there.

I found this thread that talked about 3 files that need to be in the FlashHelp output: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=65&catid=447&threadid=1324503&h...

In this thread it states that the output should have these folders and associated file:
whdata
whgdata
whxdata

I have the last 2 in the list but not the first one whdata. How do I get the whdata folder/files to generate (I looked in the SSL output folder, but it's not there either for any of the projects? And does anyone know what these files are for?

Peter -- thanks for your topic on Merging WebHelp, works for FlashHelp 7 too. I created a master project with multiple masters and multiple children. This is soo cool. The Parents_Project has 6 masters (containers) and 4 (and growing) children projects. The only difference is that I had to point to the mastername.htm versus the index_childname.htm. However, the mastername.htm calls that index page and other than the glossary and search issues listed above, things work wonderfully.

Sorry, I digressed again. Now back to our regularly schedule issue.

Cindy

[Peter Grainge]

You are talking about RH Server 7 and FlashHelp, not FlashHelp Pro.

Which are you using?

The reply from Harvey in that thread mentioned WebHelp.

[MeWrite]

Peter -- Currently I'm using RH7 server and FlashHelp, but only because we can't get the Pro to publish (seperate issue).

In the past, I have found that anything regarding WebHelp works for FlashHelp. I rarely have an issue. For example, your merged projects article on WebHelp works for merged FlashHelp with 1 exception. Instead of pointing to index.htm, I had to point to projectname.htm which then contains the index topic which in turn points to the welcome topic. Works like a charm.

So by inference from that reply, I have 2 of the 3 folders and although I'm hard pressed to locate it now, I am pretty sure I have seen those 3 folders in the help before. They stood out for me at one point, but now, I look in all the outputs and I only see 2 of the 3. I'm drawing the conclusion that the missing one may be part of my issue, but I don't know what it is or what it does so I'm not sure how to get in back.

I'm assuming (I know, prob not a good thing) that (working backwards and process of elimination and standard nameing conventions used by RH) the following files are:

whxdata - merges the indexies
whgdata - merges the glossaries
whdata - merges the search? Not sure how the search works so not sure how to get this to generate and publish.

Cindy

[Peter Grainge]

RoboServer 7 is designed to work with WebHelp Pro and FlashHelp Pro, not WebHelp or FlashHelp. What I am steering towards is whether your problem is publishing the latter to RoboServer rather than just to a folder on a server.

If you publish to your hard disk, do you still have this problem?

[MeWrite]

Peter -- I'm not sure I'm following. I have 2 threads and 2 issues and I may be confusing the two between.

Currently we are publishing several merged projects in FlashHelp to a server which has RH7 server on it. It merges without a problem, but one of the 3 files listed above are missing and I'm trying to determine if that is why my search feature doesn't work. Another issue is the glossary where 2-4 defintions (the same definition verbatium) appear for the selected glossary term.

Yes, I can publish the FlashHelp both to my laptop and the server without any errors. The 1 file is still missing. But since you got me off on this tangent, I republished everything just to verify. Odd thing: Publishes OK, index works ok, topics work ok, Home in breadcrumb goes home, glossary still showing the same 2 definitions per term, Search works. The 1 file is still missing, but the search on my laptop works with no issue near as I can tell.

Thanks for confusing me further. LOL. Back to the drawing board.

PS: The FlashHelp Pro is not publishing and something we want to change to in order to get the reports, but that is another issue in a different thread.

[Peter Grainge]

You're not the only one struggling here!

I keep making the point that a FlashHelp output is not the same as a FlashHelp Pro output. If you are publishing via RH Server, it must be a Pro output. If you are publishing to a server but linking to RH Server then the output must not be Pro.

I am not clear which output you are pointing to RH Server.

For that reason I suggested publishing FlashHelp (not Pro) to a local drive so that any server issues are out of the problem. Use mark of the web in the wizard and then you can use the FlashHelp locally and see if that works properly.

Is that clearer?

[MeWrite]

Peter -- let's drop the whole FlashHelp Pro for the moment. Yes, I understand the different outputs. I am outputing FlashHelp to our internal server which just also happens to have Server 7 on it. I don't know that the server piece is or is not interferring with FlashHelp. All I know is this is how we have always published our FlashHelp to the server and that server has always had RH Server on it. The only way we have ever gotton FlashHelp to work is to publish it to the server in this path Adobe\RoboHelp Server 7\Servers\1\Projects.

Now maybe FlashHelp shouldn't be here, but like I said it was the only way that we could deploy the help where everyone could see it. Before merging we hade 4 different modules and you would just select the module you wanted (i.e., HR or Payroll). Now we've conditionalized by audience and merged the help. So a call rep can see what they do both in the HR and Payroll system without having to go out and select the other project.

So should the FlashHelp be somewhere else? I suppose, but the most logical place was in the path listed above. Near as I can tell there wasn't any issue with doing it this way and the help worked without any problem. So when we upgraded to 7 we just kept it the same way.

The only difference now is that I am merging the FlashHelp and using the conditionalize build tags. Yes, I have published locally (FlashHelp). There are no issues publishing, and the search works, but the glossary does not work locally or on the server.

Cindy

[Peter Grainge]

We have got to the point now that we know that vanilla FlashHelp published locally work fine except for the original glossary issue. That is what I wanted to know so that we could be sure all other influences were not relevant.

What I would do now is create a dummy merge with three or four simple projects with just a few glossary words in each. Then publish that locally.

If it does not have the same problem, then we will know for sure it is something in your setup worth investigating. I have an uncomfortable feeling you will get the same problem. Use very unique glossary terms like "redrabbit" and "greenrabbit" as that makes seeking a solution much easier. It will be easier to see if we can find a solution in a small merge.

Post back when you have tried that.

[MeWrite]

Peter -- sorry that I have not posted since your reply. Before your reply I was able to published 3 projects. When I went to publish the 4th, the server (test and then a day later production) refused to accept the FHPro via publishing option in RH. Since rollout was only a couple days out, IT support was limited.

I still cannot publish to test the projects, merge functionality, and glossay issues (etal). I thought I'd just let you know that no further testing has occured since the 12th. We are waiting for the IT person who has been working with us to return from vacation and will contact Adobe Technical Support and see if they can identify the problem.

Thanks for all your help.

[Peter Grainge]

OK. Just run the suggested test when you can.