Known Participant

Answered

FILTERS in merged project - search results, topic pane, and TOC

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 13, 2018
7 replies
4462 views

FILTERS QUESTION /// I have a merged project (currently 25 projects merged, approx. 1000 topics) using RoboHelp 15, MSIE 11, Windows 7 ENT. I’m using filters. Sometimes the filter works perfectly (search returns only results matching selected filter), but sometimes the search results include topics that do not match the filter (YES! All topics have tags, so only the filtered content should be listed in the search results). AND sometimes when I click a topic in the search results the topic won’t show in the topic pane until I clear the search filters. All the merged child TOCs that don’t match the filter should disappear from the parent TOC nav pane, but only some projects/TOCs disappear. Why does this happen? Is a tag somehow being applied at the text level without showing on the Project Manager? Is this a Master Schema xml issue? Thanks for any insights.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Peter Grainge

The post in this thread that I am seeing with the number 5 reads

Although the sequence of filters is edited in the Dynamic Content Filter dialog, it appears the merged projects filters order cannot be arranged. Can anyone confirm?

Post 12 looked like you were quoting something.

I'll set up a merged responsive output with filters to see what does and doesn't work.

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

I set up a parent and three child projects all with the tags A, B and C.

I created three paragraphs and applied one tag to each.

In their outputs, I defined the filters as A B C in that order.

It worked without issue.

Then I reordered the filters to C B A in each project and generated all again.

The filter order showed as C B A and still worked.

Finally I turned off filtering in all the projects except one.

The filter options still appeared as I would expect but they have no effect on the topics except in the project where I had left it turned on. Working as expected

Looking at your specific questions:-

Editing in the Conditional Build Tags pod does not automatically update the tags in the SSL properties Dynamic Content Filter dialog. This potentially can cause a filter tag mismatch.

Yes. Apply the DFA rule. Don't fiddle about (or something like that).

If Use Dynamic Filter… is not selected in child projects SSL Properties , child content will not filter, and will display with content from other child projects. Is there a way to display a filter for only one child without creating filters for all child projects?

No. The filters must be the same in all projects and will always display. However, they will only work on projects the the option to use filtering has been selected.

Although the sequence of filters is edited in the Dynamic Content Filter dialog, it appears the merged projects filters order cannot be arranged. Can anyone confirm?

Wrong. They can be in any order you like but that must be consistent across all projects. When you set up filtering, there are arrows to move the tags up or down.

Adding a Dynamic Content Filter list in the parent of a merge seems to prevent search links from opening? Can anyone confirm?

They work in the demo I have set up.

****************************************

I'm thinking the issue is with your tagging.

Contact me via my site with a link to this thread if you would like a copy of the setup.Include a link to this thread.

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

If I understand your question correctly, my post is discussing the conditional build tags which are grouped and ordered by using the Dynamic Content Filter dialog.

Jared Hess

Legend

Okay. I think you're talking about the the build tags that are ordered within the <filters></filters> code inside the .apj. What about the the <buildtags></buildtags> code block inside the .apj? Do those need to be identical throughout parent / child helps as well?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Without even testing I would say yes. Also if you manually play with these

files, trash the CPD before opening. Test using the small test setup you have.

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

UPDATE:

(1) From my attempts, I confirm (thanks for everyone's postings!) it does seem that the tags and tag order must be identical in the parent and every child project so that the order you setup in the DCF dialog will display and for the filters to operate correctly/consistently.

(2) From what I can tell the rhbuildtag.apj is overwritten by whatever appears in the DCF dialog, and it does not appear that rhbuildtag.apj is published.

(3) Solutions? Partial solutions? Workarounds?

FOR EXISTING PROJECTS: This is a partial workaround that worked for me (I saw a blurb about this in someone’s post, thanks). Create all the tags/filters desired in one project. Then create a topic and attach all the tags to that topic. You can then import that special topic into every existing merged project. All the tags are imported with that topic into those targeted merged projects. HOWEVER, it still remains to set the grouping and order or filters in the DCF dialog in each project. >>> Be careful to save appropriately as you import.

FOR NEW PROJECTS: Create a ‘template’ project. That is, create a shell project where you create all the tags/filters and preset the order of tags/filters in the DCF dialog. Then use a copy of that shell project every time you create a new merge project.

Hopefully this is clear, helps a little. More will be added as I discover it!

Jared Hess

Legend

mjjhhc. Thanks for your research here. One question: when you say tags and tag order, do you mean the Conditional Build Tags? Or do you mean the angle bracket code (similar to HTML tags) inside of the .apj files? Or both?

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

Adding a Dynamic Content Filter list in the parent of a merge seems to prevent search links from opening? Can anyone confirm?

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

Although the sequence of filters is edited in the Dynamic Content Filter dialog, it appears the merged projects filters order cannot be arranged. Can anyone confirm?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Same filters in all projects would fix that one.

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

If Use Dynamic Filter… is not selected in child projects SSL Properties , child content will not filter, and will display with content from other child projects. Is there a way to display a filter for only one child without creating filters for all child projects?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I haven't tested merged DCF much but I believe I was told the projects need

the same filters, even if the content does not use any or all of the tags.

Download the merged help demo off my site and experiment with a simple

setup. Always finds the issues more easily.

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

Did you mean the same tags in child projs and parent, and must each be selected in the DCF of each child? (I tried that and several variations…)

Using PG merge demo I imported and tagged content in all three child projects, and attempted to display and use a filter from only one child, but had the same results, content did not filter, that is, matching content from all three child projects was displayed (I wanted use of the filter to display content from only one child). Will try a couple other ideas, but it seems that filters from all child projects must be displayed to be able to filter for one child. Any ideas or clarifications are welcome.

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

Listing some of my observations on using filters in a merged Responsive HTML. Any information regarding if these issues are fixed in more recent versions of Robo, BUT ALSO, especially, confirming I have it right or have gotten it wrong is very much appreciated.

A

Amebr

Community Expert

I haven't tried it, but my first thought would be to triple check that the parent and all children have exactly the same conditional tags and filter groups configured.

mjjhhcAuthor

Known Participant

Editing in the Conditional Build Tags pod does not automatically update the tags in the SSL properties Dynamic Content Filter dialog. This potentially can cause a filter tag mismatch. oy

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I don't have access to a RoboHelp machine right now but if you are saying

changing a tags name doesn't match in DCF, report that as a bug.

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded