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jamesm0671
Known Participant
March 30, 2013
Question

RoboHelp 10 WebHelp search feature not working?

  • March 30, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 6989 views

Hi all,

I am using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 4 and cannot get RoboHelp 10 to generate a WebHelp product with search capabilities.

I have created a RoboHelp 10 WebHelp project and imported FrameMaker 11 files.

Everything seems okay, but when I search in Internet Explorer 10, nothing happens.  I can even be on the same page as a term and enter the term in the box,

but then nothing happenns. I also tried:  Opera, Firefox, Chrome and Safari browsers and still no results in the WebHelp search results.

Actually, I get one word by default and that word is:  "null".

Any idea on what is causing this?  I have a deliverable due soon, and I need to get this search capability working.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

I am using the latest patch too - RoboHelp 10.0.0.287

Regards,

Jim

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

charles_c
charles_c
Participant
May 19, 2015

Late to the party but just had an experience that may assist.

Using RH9 and realized that for the last month or so fulltext search was no longer being generated. Instead I got the dreaded "finished in 0 sec(s)."

Eventually I realized that MSXML 4 had been removed from my workstation.

I added the 3 required files to SysWOW64 (msxml4.dll, msxml4a.dll, msxml4r.dll) and I registered msxml4.dll using regsvr32 (only this one needs registering).

Presto - FTS is back.

It seems that in RH9 at least, the FTS generator requires this specific version of msxml while all the rest of the product is happy with one of the other versions that were already present (3 and 6).

    M
    matthewdorma
    Participating Frequently
    January 20, 2016

    Hi Charles,

    I am having that same issue (full text search not working) on only SOME of the computers that we use. Furthermore, it appears to be working fine on Chrome, but not at all on some of the IE11 computers. Text constantly says "Searching 0%" and comes up with no results.

    Where can I go to download MSXML 4?

    Willam van Weelden
    Willam van Weelden
    Inspiring
    January 21, 2016

    You can get it here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15697

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 31, 2013

    Sounds like you have your JavaScript controls set really high - search uses JavaScript to do the work. Are you seeing any other issues?

    J
    jamesm0671Author
    Known Participant
    March 31, 2013

    Hi Jeff,

    Thanks for the reply.  I am not sure if it is Java, although I did download Java to make sure I had the latest update.  I am running on a Windows 7 64 Bit Dell Laptop with Adobe TCS 4.

    I just saw a different post - but related to this post on the topic and I think it has to do something with the XML files that are created during the normal generation process.

    I have a feeling that there is something wrong with my XML files and the reason I say that is because I can generate one of the sample RoboHelp projects to WebHelp and then use IE 10 to search and the results
    come up right away, but when I do a WebHelp generate on my project the search does not work.

    Here is that related thread:

    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/798369

    Search Error: Failed to initialize database

    Mar 1, 2011 12:33 PM

    That thread dealt with RoboHelp 8 and I am using RoboHelp 10, but I think the problem is probably the same.

    My questions are as follows:

    1. I have a customer deliverable on Monday with several hundred files and a search mechanism that does not work at all.  Can I copy the search mechanism from the sample project and then put it into my project?
      Are the XML files generic or specific to each project?
    2. How many XML, Javascript and other RoboHelp type files are used to make the search functionality work?  I was thinking of populating one of those sample files, that has already been started with my files to see if that would get things going in the right direction - with the idea of removing all the sample files from that project and replacing them with my files, but, I have over 400 files, including references to foldout drawings and vendor manuals (baggage files) and it would probably take too much time to make that happen.

    With that said, if you or anyone else has ideas on how I could get this search engine working, I would really, really appreciate it.

    My current file structure is like this:

    Main Project Folder

        !ScreenLayout

        My Project File1

        My Project File2

        My Project File3

        resource

        whdata

        whgdata

        whxdata

        Frnt_Cov.htm

        Frnt_Cov_csh.htm

        Frnt_Cov_rhc.htm

        All RoboHelp graphics, javascripts and .htm files

    There does NOT seem to these folders that are in the sample:

    !Language!

    !SkinSubFolder!

    !SSL!

    The !ScreenLayout! folder is the only one present.  Does this have anything to do with only having MultiScreen HTML5 and WebHelp (Primary Layout) for my project settings?

    Again the most notable difference I see, is between the folders NOT included in my project (!Language!, !SkinSubFolder! and !SSL!).  I am not sure why these folders are not included in WebHelp.

    Thanks for taking the time to read this, as well as for any suggestions that can be offered.  I really need to get the search feature working by tomorrow.

    Regards,

    Jim

    Captiv8r
    Captiv8r
    Legend
    March 31, 2013

    Hi Jim

    You would most definitely NOT want to copy content from the sample project to the live project. When WebHelp is generated, the search part of  the content is broken up into the little "byte size" segments and many XML files are created. So the number and content of XML files from project A will differ from project B, as different words were used and the words are on different pages that are likely named totally differently. What would ensue would be a broken mess.

    It would likely prove helpful if you could use ScreenR or Jing or SnagIt to record a video of you stepping through the process and showing us the different settings you have enabled in the Single Source Layout recipe. Then post the link to view the video here.

    That might reveal something you are overlooking that we might notice.

    Cheers... Rick

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