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Inspiring
June 3, 2019
Question

CBT + Multiple "Drop-down hotspot" Link Styles = Broken Content

  • June 3, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 1194 views

RoboHelp 2017, all updates installed.

Created multiple hyperlink styles, specifically for drop-down hotspots, so I could generate output similar to this:

This project also uses conditional build tags, so we can generate public and private content. When I generate the public version (exclude proprietary and confidential info using CBTs), the drop-down links no longer work. All the links work if I don't exclude any content. Note that while the styles in the example image above take advantage of the Twisties option, I left those out when troubleshooting (and in the repro steps below) and the issues still existed.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Create new RoboHelp project (I did this after discovering the issue in an existing project to help eliminate other potential failure points/causes - from my CSS, etc.).
  2. Edit/open "First Topic" in the project.
  3. Create new conditional build tag called "confidential".
  4. Duplicate existing "Drop-down hotspot" hyperlink style in default.css and name it "copyofdropspot".
  5. Select some plain text in "First Topic" and apply "confidential" build tag to it.
  6. Select some other plain text and insert a drop-down. Allow default hyperlink style "Drop-down hotspot".
  7. Select different plain text and insert a drop-down. Re-select that text and apply/force the "copyofdropspot" style to it.
  8. Save the changes and open/edit Responsive HTML5 SSL output config.
  9. Create a simple build expression that excludes "confidential" build tagged content.
  10. Generate the output and view "First Topic".
  11. The excluded text is properly and correctly excluded.
  12. Test the drop-down link formatted with the "Drop-down hotspot" style. It functions properly and correctly.
  13. Test the drop-down link formatted with the "copyofdropspot" style. Nothing happens when the link is clicked; that is, the text in the drop-down isn't displayed even though it should be.

Thoughts or suggestions?

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Community Expert
June 4, 2019

The content of the custom styled dropspot doesn't make it in to the output. I just replicated with RH11 (from memory I tried this RH6 or possibly even earlier and gave up). I'd have to check if the same issue appears in RH2019 Classic (probably) and RH2019 New (no idea as it's totally new).

You can report issues here: Tracker

As to workarounds, I can think of a way to style the colour, etc of a second type of dropspot, but it would require getting into the css using a text editor as I'm not sure there's a way to add the complex css selectors in RH's style editor. But the only way to change the images used would be some custom javascript, which I think wouldn't be too hard, but I'd need to spend a bit of time thinking about it.

Let me know if you'd like me to go in to some details about the possible workaround and I'll post back.

RoboFanAuthor
Inspiring
June 4, 2019

Thank you for the response!

I logged bug RH-4760.

I would appreciate any details about possible workarounds if you're able to provide them. Thanks, again!

RoboFanAuthor
Inspiring
June 4, 2019

Update. I'm on the last day of my RH2019 30-day trial. Created the functionality described in my initial post above in RH2019 and everything worked as it should. Build tagged content was properly excluded from the Responsive HTML5 output (Azure Blue skin), a drop-down link with the default style worked properly, and a drop-down link with a new, custom style (using the Twisty feature) worked properly.

Grabbing the CSS (the raw code) from RH2019, where everything works, and attempting to use it in RH2017. Stay tuned...