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Sze Lin26628672d6p4
Participant
October 17, 2022
Question

Missing topics in Robohelp

  • October 17, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 189 views

Two weeks back, we opened our Robohelp project file to find that the Topic list is empty and the Table of Contents are gone as well.

The htm files are still there but it is not listed in the Topic list at all. We managed to reimport the topics but noticed that some of the links were recgonised as broken files. 

Is this a known issue for Robohelp 2019 Classic version? The files are placed on Sharepoint and accessed by multiple writers, and this is the first time this happened. Our IT does not think it is a Sharepoint issue but more to do with Robohelp.

 

 

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    2 replies

    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 17, 2022

    RoboHelp Classic shouldn't be used on a network share - and it sounds like you are using sharepoint as a network share. I'm also not sure Sharepoint should be used like that (hopefully someone with more knowledge will pop in)? OneDrive and other cloud storage counts as a network share for this purpose. Classic really doesn't cope with the latency involved in network transfer and there are hundreds of cases on the forums of projects being corrupted in this case.

     

    Source Control is also called version control and is basically software that allows source files to be stored on a network and provides versioned backups of that data. The files are then "checked out" to the local pc when you want to make an update, and "checked in" to the source control tool when you finish working on them. Source control is also used when multiple people need to work on the files. as it provides a source of truth in a central location, prevents the problems of copying files manually and prevents one person overwriting another person's work by accident. 

     

    Classic can work with Sharepoint as a source control server, but it has a number of limitations around sharepoint versions and type. I don't use it though so can't really provide much help on that. Broadly speaking the sharepoint versions supported for RH2019 Classic would be the same as Rh2017 I think (the note about 2019 classic doesn't really provide much info).

    https://helpx.adobe.com/robohelp/using/rh_system_requirements.html#RoboHelp2017release

     

     

    S
    Sze Lin26628672d6p4Author
    Participant
    October 18, 2022

    May I ask how one would usually set up a project that needs to be accessed by multiple writers? At the moment, we have one project and we generate the .chm and .doc (User Manual). The topics for the project are owned by different writers but need to be published as one .chm, and it is possible that a topic may be updated by more than one writer (at different time but may be on the same day). 

    I read that Robohelp should be on a local drive, but then this would mean that the writers would have different version of a topic? How would this work then? 

     

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 18, 2022

    That would be done by using source control as @Amebr mentioned. RH works with a bunch of source control systems. If your authors aren't working on the same project at the same time (like if they are located in different time zones), you can get away with playing "pass the project" - you download a zipped copy of the project to your local machine, unzip it and work on the topics. Then you zip it back up and put it back on the server or shared resource location for the next author to work on it. As long as both authors maintain the identical file folder structure, the project doesn't know it's being passed back and forth. Only one "possessor" of the project generates the output when they "have" it. Usually the creation of output is a mutually agreed time (when all topics are all ready to be generated). 

    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 17, 2022

    Are you using sharepoint as a source control server - that is you check out the files from sharepoint to your local computer (C: drive ) and work on them, then check them back in to sharepoint?

     

    I'm not sure I'll be able to help, but this information may be useful for others to offer help.

    S
    Sze Lin26628672d6p4Author
    Participant
    October 17, 2022

    We have a folder for our Robohelp project in a folder on Sharepoint containing the .xpj, .cpd, etc... The writers access the project by opening the .xpj from Sharepoint in Robohelp, then work on updating the individual .htm file and then clicking Save. At the end of the day, they close the project in RoboHelp. 

    Our generation output is .chm and .doc (User Manual) which are generated to our own C Drive.

     

    I don't think we are using source control server - what does this do and how is this set up? Will this work on the Classic version? 

     

    We previously had the folder on OneDrive in 2019, but moved to Sharepoint in February this year and all was well until two weeks back.

     

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