Dead Hyperlinks

Question

I am using RH7I have generated a Merged Webhelp project with the following structure:Master - ChildOne - ChildTwo - ChildThree - etcThe Master project only has one boilerplate topic which has no links.The Child projects have inter-related links.I use a custom skin, and custom templates.My generation settings are:Output: to folder on my desktopMark of web is onw3c compliance is onToolbar: no IndexShow navigation is onenable hightlight is onsearch input field is onSynchronise TOC is automatic.When I generate the output - all cross-project links are dead, but links within a child project are ok,  By Dead I mean that they don't do anything - no errors, etc. I have also cleared the browser cache, and tested in both IE and Firefox. The cross-project links are reporting as broken in Xenu, but testing the links in RH they are fine.I generate the Master project first, and then each child project.The same structure/ skin/ templates/ settings are used in other projects which work fine.Any ideas??

Peter Grainge · Accepted Answer

I've just had a thought. Perhaps a dangerous thing...

I have had my PC rebuilt over Christmas, and had a 2nd disk drive installed.

All of the RoboHelp projects have been moved to the new disk. I have had to manually create the folder structure, and then had SourceSafe get the latest version of each project into the newly created folders. The crux of this is that my folders are now named correctly, whereas the RH xpj still have the original names. for example nfp_appendices.xpj is in the folder nfpAppendices.

Looking at the output, in mergedProjects the folder is referred to as nfp_appendices, but the hyperlink is looking for ../../mergedProjects/nfpAppendices/reports/genreports.htm

could this be the problem? if so, how do i fix it?

So you recreated folders with new names and imported topics. Any of those topics that have cross project links are thus looking for folders that no longer exist. It looks like you either have to rename the folders or fix the links.

This should also have screwed topics in the same project but in different folders, unless the target folder didn't get renamed.

After making a backup, you could use a multi file find and replace tool such as FAR to find all instances of say nfpAppendices and replace with nfp_Appendices but you have to be careful. I would review each change rather than hitting the Replace All option.

Have a great weekend.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Peter Grainge · Answer

Are you generating the child projects into the correct place?

If you look at the location where you generate the parent, look in mergedProjects and see if the child project content is there.

Post one of the cross project links here.

Are you running the Xenu check on the output? If you are, then something has happened to those links.

As you have got this running with other projects, it has to be something simple that is not right.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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