How do I use the NOT boolean operator in WebHelp output

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
September 29, 2014
3 replies
1140 views

I am using RH 11 and am trying to figure out how to use the NOT boolean operator in my WebHelp out.

For example, when I type "Body NOT text" (no quotes), I get the following message:

"The words you typed is not a valid expression."

Am I doing something wrong here or does this not work?

Thanks,

Mack

WebHelp

This topic has been closed for replies.

R

RoboFan

Inspiring

Calling all JS developers. I did some digging and discovered this Boolean operation code in whfhost.js:

// Boolean operation

switch ( a_Node.eType )

{

case ESNT_OR:

return ( fWeightLeft + fWeightRight ) / 2.0;

case ESNT_AND:

return ( fWeightLeft * fWeightRight );

case ESNT_NOT:

fWeightRight = ( fWeightRight == 0.0 ) ? 1.0 : 0.0;

return fWeightLeft * fWeightRight;

}

Does anything look obviously wrong/incorrect for the NOT operator? Finding this is about as far as I can take it. I'm not a developer, though if someone is able to provide the correct code (assuming it's as simple a fix as that), I'm comfortable editing the JS to insert it and then capable of manually deploying and maintaining it until a wider fix is applied/automatically handled in an RH update.

R

RoboFan

Inspiring

One more piece of info on this issue. If I generate the same project as Responsive HTML output, and use the AND, OR, and NOT operators in search, I get the following results (project contains topics about gift cards and credit cards):

credit and gift = 57 topics/results

credit or gift = 236 topics/results

credit not gift = 57 topics/results

Observation: While I don't get the error message that I get in the WebHelp output for the NOT operator, it appears to instead act like the AND operator.

R

RoboFan

Inspiring

I have the same problem. Using RH 2017, with latest updates installed, to build WebHelp. Boolean operators AND and OR work as expected in the search tool. However, if I try to use operator NOT, I don't get any results and it throws the "The words you typed is not a valid expression." error message. My understanding (based on RH's Help here: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/2017/robohtml/index.html#t=book%2Frob_linknavigate_li%2FRoboHelp_search_basics-.htm) is that AND, OR, and NOT are all supported for WebHelp output in RH 2017.

Thoughts on what's triggering the error - and how to get NOT working?

As an aside, Adobe might consider replacing this error message with one that's grammatically correct in a future update.