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veni79
veni79
Known Participant
November 15, 2016
Question

contents of the .h file for context-sensitive help gets deleted on project update

  • November 15, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 401 views

Hi,

can you help resolve the following issue:

The contents of the h. file for context-sensitive help for one of my RH projects (from a linked FM book)  gets  deleted  every time I open the  project file, select the book,  and click Update All  or Force Update All in order to synchronize content with the source FrameMaker files.

This seems to me is a byproduct of the issue of all html topics being deleted upon project first update which is still the case for me with the latest RH patches, 7 months  after the issue was first  reported by me on the forums here  (https://forums.adobe.com/message/8697382)  or other users here https://forums.adobe.com/message/8355109#8355109  and here https://forums.adobe.com/message/8646307#8646307)

( In my project, the topics don’t simply disappear from view, but when  I click Update All, the Recycle bin gets filled with all 1300 + html topics)In other words:

Each time I make a content change to my FM files, I must update the RH project, which  in turn “empties” the .h file, which requires generating a new h file. I use "Automap topics option for the new h file, because I can't manually map 1300 topics +,. The new h file  is generated with new IDs, which do not match the IDs of the previous h file, so the Context sensitive help in the software does not work any more  and all topics must be rehooked , which is a very  time-consuming task 

More details

  • I am using Adobe Tech Comm Suite 2015  on Win 7, 64-bit; just upgraded to latest version of RH (1404.460) and FM (1305.547)
  • If I update the contents of individual chapters, not the book, the .h file seems to be intact, NP (However, if there are any new or modified headings, I have a new TOC, so I can’t avoid updating the bk file in RH ) this is where the problems begin
  • I reported the issue of all html topics being deleted from RH project back in April when I was using FM 13.02.433 and RH 12.02.284). Adobe Tech support got a copy of my files, opened a case (number 0187734567) for this and another issue, had a live session reviewing my workflow, and  gave me the  workaround  of  clicking Update All  or Force Update All again to make all deleted topic re-appear ,
  • The solution suggested on the forum of deleting the cpd file did not work for me at the time and unfortunately does not work now
  • The three inconvenient by-products of RH deleting all topics upon book update for me are:

- Slow project update (RH takes time to delete all 1400 and regenerate all)

- Project properties must be redone after each update of content (they get wiped each time the RH project is reopened and updated)

- And now the third issue – the contents of .H file is  automatically deleted upon book update.

I did a number of tests with three different versions of my project.  As I already mentioned, the only scenario where the .h file is not being emptied  seems to be when there are no new or modified  headings in the source FM files; that is how the last release we managed to avoid re-hooking topics from scratch ( I copied an older bk file over the current bk file and each time updated each chapter individually by right-clicking and clicking Update). However, there is a new release at the end of the month with many changes and  I need a solution for the the map file issue ( and ideally for every aspect of this bug).

Any suggestions are welcome!

Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 16, 2016

What's the status of your bug report? Sounds like it's just busted & you're waiting for a patch to be issued by Adobe...

veni79
veni79Author
Known Participant
November 16, 2016

Thank you for the follow up, Jeff. I contacted tech support via chat this morning and shared my screen with them. We went through my workflow to ensure I am not missing steps and they can re-create the problem.

Since I am using RH files created with earlier RH2015 version, they suggested I create a new project with the latest RH, relink book, etc. and create a brand new h file. We did that, but unfortunately, the h file contents still gets deleted. They were very thorough in trying different things, but in the end, they recommended I don’t update the book but just the individual chapters. Otherwise, they said the h file will be emptied each time. I do have new topics, xrefs, figures , tables this release, so updating the bk file is inevitable.; so, I don’t have a solution right now. However, I gave the heads-up to the developer that he must budget time for relinking the help topics in the app.

I know there are different ways to do CS help, and I don’t have the issue in the Webhelp, because the software is coded in C++ and I don’t need the H file.

In my current project, the app is coded in custom dev environment, so the only way to hook up the CSH ( I have been told) is through the numbers in the H file.

I am sure it will be eventually fixed in a subsequent release. I assume bugs are tackled based on statistics and I don’t know what percentage of users are experiencing the issue I have.

Thanks again.

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