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H
HKabaker
Inspiring
November 2, 2007
Question

Redirect JS problem in RH 7

  • November 2, 2007
  • 2 replies
  • 1378 views
Some of us have been using a redirect script to open a new window with contents outside the current WebHelp package.

For example in a WebHelp package called ABC Help,

A TOC line says "XYZ Help" and points to a topic with no text. It contains the following in the < head >...< / head> section (without the extra spaces after the bracket < ):

< script language=JavaScript1.2 type="text/javascript" >
< !--Redirects to XYZHelp package in a new browser window
window.open("XYZHelp/help.htm")
// -->< /script>

The result until now was to open XYZ Help in a new window, leaving ABC Help open in the background.

In RH 7, after XYZ Help opens, ABC Help comes back on top showing the blank topic that called XYZ help.

Working with separate copies of the same project in RH 6 and RH 7, I've tried any number of changes to make the RH 7 redirect topic look like the RH 6 version. I got rid of breadcrumbs and search highlight, and took out some other stuff that RH 7 does now, to no avail. In RH 7 I undid all of my patches that fixed some browser display problems in RH X5 and RH 6, which I had carried into RH 7.

Still, ABC pops up on top of XYZ.

I' ll try another approach, making the TOC entry use a relative path path to XYZ outside ABC but in the same neighborhood.

Has anyone else run into trouble with the redirect script?

Harvey
This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

H
HKabakerAuthor
Inspiring
March 6, 2008
FWIW, I've tracked this down.

It's the TOC sync function. In every topic, RH 7 puts some code that tests for the flag it had set when you generated with the TOC sync option selected. The flag kicks off a call to the sync function in a separate file.

When I'm working on my hard drive, RH can sync the TOC quickly, before the new window opens. But over an Inter/Intranet, depending on the TOC size (and especially if you're jumping from merged WebHelp), the new window opens on top and gets pushed to the background when TOC sync finishes.

My solution is to delete the TOC sync code from the output file for "topics" that function only to jump out.

The first WebHelp window stays open in the background with a blank topic, or just with breadcrumbs if you selected that option. Writing breadcrumbs is fast enough, so the new window stays on top. There's also some search highlighting code that doesn't interfere.

Harvey
E
Epiphytos
Participant
April 21, 2008
Hi - interesting thread! I have a similar problem in one of my help files. I have a redirect in a meta statement for some of my topics - most really. The statement looks something like this:

<meta http-equiv=Refresh content="0 url=http://minerva/page_sample.asp">

I do this because my asp pages contain database calls so that each time a user loads one of these pages, they get the most up-to-date information possible.

However, with RoboHelp 7 for FlashHelp, the system clobbers my meta statement and substitutes a generic one:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

So these pages all stay blank, and fail to redirect. I have attempted to change the way the system generates the files to try to resolve the issue:

1. Removed Mark of the Web
2. Removed Browse Sequences
3. Removed Synchronize Table of Contents (for the entire project)
4. Removed Breadcrumbs Links

None of these actions has fixed the problem. I'd like the program not to clobber my html. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
H
HKabakerAuthor
Inspiring
April 21, 2008
In WebHelp, I don't use the META refresh technique. Maybe FlashHelp will accept the same method.

In the body of the topic, just before the <end html> line, insert a javascript to redirect the topic pane. Something like,

C
Cro1410
Inspiring
November 2, 2007
HI Harvey,
I had pbs with redirect scripts as well. Removing the 'Mark of the web' option always resolved this pb.
However, the script that you specify is not a redirect script per say (document.location='<filename.htm>';) so am not sure this will help you.
H
HKabakerAuthor
Inspiring
November 3, 2007
Chris, thanks.

I don't use mark of the Web.

I think document.location just fills the topic pane with the substitute topic.
I need to open a new window.

I just had an inspiration to try next time.

I'll move my script down so it's after all the RH scripts (remember, there's no text, but RH puts some scripts in the < body> section). Then I don't care if RH puts breadcrumbs into the blank topic. By the time anyone woould see them, the new window should be on top.

If I put the script in the source topic body, RH might trump me with its last script. In that case, I'll have to edit the output file.

Any other ideas are welcome.

Harvey
MergeThis
MergeThis
Inspiring
November 5, 2007
Harvey:

Instead of JS, you could use the meta refresh method:

< meta http-equiv=refresh content="0;URL=targeted_file.extension" >

Increasing the value of "content" would enable a delay in launching the target, if you might want to provide some text like "Retrieving the file requested blah, blah..." I'm guessing you could also include the new-window HTML control TARGET="_blank" here, although I haven't tried that myself for these redirects.


Good luck,
Leon
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