Inspiring

Answered

RH2020 unmerging: issues with mapfiles

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 23, 2022
7 replies
273 views

Hello, I'm trying to evaluate the amount of work to migrate from RH2019classic to RH2020 and unmerge a project with 30-ish subprojects to one. One of the hurdles is the mapfiles. I followed the sequence (which doesn't talk about the mapfiles but that's ok) Peter posted here

all looking good. per subproject I had a mapfile. In RH2019 classic this looks like this

but when importing the same file in RH2020, i get this

So somewhere deep in the filestructure of RH2019 there must be a second file containing the relations.

Do I really need to fill up these topics again manually? Or is there some tric?

Why did I loose the topicnames? I checked, they are present in author/content/assets, for each ex-subproject in its own subfolder.

Do I have to merge those mapfiles to one, or can import them separately (but what about naming conventions in that case).

Can i change the order of the mappings? this will be cumbersome as they seem to be ordered in different way's from RH2019 classic to RH2020...

Hopefully someone can help me 🙂

best regards

Olivier

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Amebr

I haven't used context sensitive help in RH2020, so I'm not sure my knowledge is current any more.

Certainly in older versions, you could copy and paste portions of one .ali file into another .ali file.

You need to make sure the map numbers and map ids are unique in each project, otherwise you'll run into problems when you copy them into one file. Also you need to make sure the topic paths are correct for the single project location - so if the topic is currently in the root folder of your project, but you'll be moving it into a subfolder in your single project, then you should fix up the location of your topic to match the planned destination in the single project before you upgrade.

Note: I've never done this, so I'm not sure the mapping will be exact or if further manual changes will be required. Do test this on copy of your projects first. 🙂

Note2: I also haven't figured out how to use a .h file in the process. So if you get a .h file from your developers do post back on how you get it to successfully show up and allow mapping to a topic. 🙂

Olivier ToeboschAuthor

Inspiring

@Amebr

the h file is in compiling business (long time ago) the file to be used to include functions of already made and compiled libraries.

Our developpers do not use the h. file. Luckily because in RH2020 it doesn't exist anymore

we have an own h-'ish file, a separate text file which contains our screenid's and the name of the chm to be opened. then the microsofthelp passes the screennumber again to open up the right topic from the ali file.

As I'm working with a single chm in the future (I hope), that own file will have to be adapted (all numbers referring to the same chm (unmerged). I'm thinking about asking the developpers to adopt the file format of the ali file completely in the futur. So I don't have to maintain that external file anymore. But that is only possible if I have an unmerged project. Now I have some 30 sub projects.

thx for the replies!

Olivier

thx about the tip about unique numbers, I'll keep that in mind when assembling the ali file.

A

Amebr

Correct answer

Community Expert

I haven't used context sensitive help in RH2020, so I'm not sure my knowledge is current any more.

Certainly in older versions, you could copy and paste portions of one .ali file into another .ali file.

You need to make sure the map numbers and map ids are unique in each project, otherwise you'll run into problems when you copy them into one file. Also you need to make sure the topic paths are correct for the single project location - so if the topic is currently in the root folder of your project, but you'll be moving it into a subfolder in your single project, then you should fix up the location of your topic to match the planned destination in the single project before you upgrade.

Note: I've never done this, so I'm not sure the mapping will be exact or if further manual changes will be required. Do test this on copy of your projects first. 🙂

Note2: I also haven't figured out how to use a .h file in the process. So if you get a .h file from your developers do post back on how you get it to successfully show up and allow mapping to a topic. 🙂

Olivier ToeboschAuthor

Inspiring

Yes if I migrate a project, the topics are recoverd in the map file. If I import a map file from classic not.

My plan is indeed to either migrate all those project just for the mapfiles. en use it as a source for a 'fixed' mapfile containing all the references.

If changes are only needed in bsscDefault.h and bsscdefault.ali, i'm lucky. Looking for confirmation here. Anyone?

Any other way to unmerge mapfiles?

best regards

Olivier

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

You are saying that if you upgrade a 2019 child to 2020, the files are imported correctly, yes?

It sounds like then merging them would work as long as you merge the files correctly. I have never done that so I cannot promise it will work. Backup everything step by step.

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Olivier ToeboschAuthor

Inspiring

I just did a test. if I migrate de subprojects (now I just import RH2019 htm topics straight into a new RH2020 project, the ali files is filled completely. I don't have to fiddle too much (or even not at all) in an editor in that case.

So questions remaining is if I need to merge to one file. all other questions are answered

Olivier

Olivier ToeboschAuthor

Inspiring

Hello Peter. the pointer to *.ali is already a good boost for my morale.

If on top of that I should not manipulate those files it would be great.

I await a reaction from @Amebr

thx alot

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I can't help you with the main question but map ids involve two files, the .h file and the .ali file.

Classic and the New UI do use different file structures so I think it will be a case of viewing both in a text editor to see if you can fix it there.

@Amebr I think you know more about this area than I do. Any thoughts?

________________________________________________________

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