Skip to main content
A
Arvid Jedlicka
Participant
February 21, 2022
Question

Help needed with Context Sensitive Help not working after upgrade from 2019 Classic to Responsive 20

  • February 21, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 321 views

We have successfully used Context Sensitive Help with the Classic version for many years. We recently started the conversion to 2020. Lacking a Classic 2020 option we selected Responsive HTML5.

 

Under the Classic version our web pages had anchors with this:

RH_ShowHelp(0, helpUrl + '>CSH', HH_HELP_CONTEXT, helpMapId);

Where helpUrl and helpMapId were defined on every page as:

<script language="JavaScript">
    var helpMapId = '160000';
    var helpUrl = '/help/index.htm';
</script>

Everything has worked fine since 2015.

 

We ran the Adobe provided mapping conversion, but it only converted about 50% of our topics but we were eventually able to get all 2200 mappings into 2020.

 

Based on the sheer number of pages we wanted to retain the helpMapId concept from the Classic version. It appears as though the new name is helpMapNo and helpMapId is now a character string similar to what one would think of as a key in a key\value pair, but other than the name change, helpMapNo appears to be supported in RoboHelp_CSH.js so not an issue.

 

Using the existing RH_ShowHelp API we got the following behavior:

 

The browser creates the new tab and then goes to the default page.

 

The address bar looks like this:

…/help/index.htm#%3Cid=160000%3E%3Ewnd%3DCSH%3E%3Enewwnd%3Dfalse&t=gettingstarted%2Fwelcome_to_our_stuff.htm

Which has the correct helpMapNo in it but goes to the default page as though index.htm could not find the correct page by the helpMapNo.

 

We then changed our application pages to use anchors that use the Responsive API:

RH_ShowResponsiveHelpWithMapNo('/help/index.htm', 'CSH', helpMapId);

This doesn’t work either. Help has the following behavior:

 

The Help appears to “stall”. The browser creates the new tab, creates the empty left and right Help frames and then does nothing more. We see:

…/help/index.htm?rhcsh=1&rhwnd=CSH&rhmapno=160000

In the address bar and a tremendous amount of traffic to the Tomcat server but nothing more happens in the browser. The traffic to Tomcat will continue until we close the help window.

 

From what we have been able to find with Google, the URL looks to be reasonable and what index.htm should be able to process correctly.

 

What we have validated so far:

  • We have checked the mapping defined using the RoboHelp application and everything looks good.
  • We have looked in the generated help/whxdata/chs.new.js file and can find the helpMapNo in the file.
  • We can take what appears to be the path to the .htm file associated with the helpMapNo in the help/whxdata/chs.new.js file and can put it in the address bar … /help/pathFoundInDotJsFile and the page pages shows up … sans the complete Help frames (expected behavior).

 

We believe we have all the ducks in a row but are at a loss for making them quack!

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Arvid

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

A
Community Expert
AmebrCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2022

For any network stuff I think you'll need to contact support. I don't have access to server information, and am happy as long as my users can access the help. 😛

 

Use the email address from this page, as it goes to Robohelp support staff. https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp

A
Community Expert
AmebrCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2022

Given the documentation says this is possible, it sounds like a bug.

You can request features and report issues here: https://tracker.adobe.com/
Post the item number in the discussion so people can easily vote if they want the same functionality.

 

 

A
Community Expert
AmebrCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2022

I should add, that I think it's a bug because it did used to work off the Window Settings in Classic - you used to be able to define a Microsoft HTML Help window for chm or a "webhelp" window for web.  You might be able to define a window in a javascript somewhere, but that also means the API documentation needs to be updated, I think.

 

You can also contact support for help using the email address here to get dedicated Robohelp support staff:https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp

A
Arvid JedlickaAuthor
Participant
February 22, 2022

Amebr,

 

I marked you answer as correct and then removed the mark.

 

We now have the user experience we were expecting but still see the heavy network traffic (constant 5 - 10 Mbps to and from the browser and Tomcat) as long as the Help window is open.

 

So still no joy.

A
Community Expert
AmebrCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2022

The Window Settings dialog box specifically says "Microsoft HTML Help" these days, so I wonder if that is causing problems. What if you replace 'CSH' in the call with just ''?

A
Arvid JedlickaAuthor
Participant
February 22, 2022

Amebr,
Thanks for the quick response.
Significant progress.
 The documentation in RoboHelp_CSH.js suggests:

//			szWnd
//					Name of custom window in which the help is to be shown.
//					Allowed values:
//								Window Name String	to specify a window	: e.g. "ResponsiveWindow"
//								Blank String to specify no window		: e.g. ''
//​

It seems that the goal of putting anything in the szWind parameter was to be able to use the same window each invocation of the Help API (assuming the Name was the same with each invocation). It appears this functionality is broken as specifying a window name causes the very strange behavior we are seeing.

 

If we do not specify a window name (i.e. follow your advice and provide an empty string ... '' ... then a new tab is created ever time Help is invoked (expected behavior as a window name to reuse was not provided) and, much more importantly, the correct information shows up in the new tab.

 

Originally we had wanted to reuse the Help tab. However, we will promote this 'great new feature' (given that we cannot do otherwise) of presenting a new tab with every Help request, allowing the end user to have multiple Help tabs open at the same time!!!

 

Thanks,

Arvid

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices