Participating Frequently

Question

RoboHelp 2017 not recognizing FrameMaker 2017

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
February 1, 2017
10 replies
7238 views

Hi!

Not unlike the comment of a user having a similar issue with RoboHelp 8, I have just had the latest versions of these programs installed and when I try to import a FrameMaker file into RoboHelp, RoboHelp advises me that I need to install FrameMaker.

Any suggestions on how I might fix this?

Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

T

tyronep41211051

Participant

Hello sylviec,

Did you find a solution to your problem. I'm having the same identical problem with Adobe TCS 2017. Robo Help say FM is not install, however it is installed and I have been using it for a few months. But I just tried to use Robo Help with Framemaker. Any suggestions is appreciated.

Adobe RoboHelp 2017 - 13.0.0.257

Adobe Framemaker 2017 14.0.0.361

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

I think this was fixed in subsequent updates - make sure you have applied all the patches for both products and try again.

T

tyronep41211051

Participant

Thanks Jeff Coatsworth.

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

Sreekanth, you'll need to have matching versions of Rh and Fm to link files. Either Fm2017+Rh2017 or Fm2015+Rh2015

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant

S

Sreekanth_S

Legend

Well, it is recognizing in my system. My colleague is having issues.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Again I think this is something to take up with Adobe if your system is working with different versions of Rh and Fm.

Contact me via my site if they cannot help. Include a link to this thread.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

gbarrelet

Known Participant

So to sum up the results of this dysfunctional RH/FM relationship:

If you are linking Frame files as your source files, RH2017 will attempt to access Framemaker when importing or updating these files. However, if you do not have FM2017 currently running, RH2017 will attempt to launch FM2015 automatically, which can lead to an error if 1) you do not have FM2015 on your system, or 2) your Frame files are in 2017 format.

Solution: you need to ensure that the File Associations are updated and that you have FM2017 running at the same time as RH2017.

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

If I may ask, what advantages are you gaining (honest question) by linking Fm to Rh?

Unless you're tethered to a format only supported by Rh, or you have other content in the Rh project, you are likely to have a vastly smoother experience publishing the formats available in Fm under the File > Publish pod.

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Personally, I still find that the controls exposed in RH are still superior to those in FM's Publishing engine - messing around with MapIDs, TOC fiddling, etc.

A

abhi_AdobeTC

Adobe Employee

Hi,

We have replicated the issue at our end and fixed the same. The fix will be available in the first update of RoboHelp (2017 release).

Thanks!

Abhishek

gbarrelet

Known Participant

And when should we expect the first update of RoboHelp 2017 to be? Because this bug is making itself a Critical Stopper for me right now (and if you look in the thread, it has caused at least one other person to miss a deadline).

A

abhi_AdobeTC

Adobe Employee

Hi,

This is scheduled for later half of April.

Thanks!

Abhishek

gbarrelet

Known Participant

Greetings!

I can see people were struggling with this 20 days ago and there's no resolution. ADOBE!! Look here -- This is a SERIOUS bug!

Context:

I had TCS 2015 installed (with the monthly subscription) with Frame and Robohelp running. I created projects in RH, imported Frame books, and everything was fine.
The 2017 update came out and I updated everything. I updated all the frame files to the new 2017 format.For some reason, the 2015 version of Framemaker did not uninstall itself.
Then I opened RH and tried to import a new Frame file. It registered an error and refused to load the file. I noticed that the process launched Frame, but then noticed it launch Framemaker 2015. I deduced that RH 2017 was launching Frame 2015 by accident and I thought that Frame 2015 could not open the converted Frame 2017 files.
I uninstalled everything: Frame 2015, RH 2017, Frame 2017. Ran CCleaner. Rebooted. Re-installed in this order:
1. Frame 2017.
2. RH 2017.
Rebooted.
Launched Frame 2017 and opened my files successfully. Closed Frame 2017.
Opened RH 2017, started a new project, tried to import a Frame file, and got the following error:

Closed RH 2017, opened Frame 2017, opened the project in question -- no issues.
Leaving Frame 2017 open, I reopened by RH 2017 project and tried to import (not link) a Frame file. Got the same error.

THIS IS A SERIOUS BUG -- A DEAL KILLER. If RH 2017 cannot work with Frame 2017 to produce the online help, then we will need to evaluate another tool.

Come Adobe... You cannot let this slide. The sad truth is that RH worked better when it was owned by Bluesky and Macromedia. The fact that you cannot link Frame files to a RH Project is bad enough. You've had 12 years to work this out -- what's the hold-up?

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

gbarrelet - try contacting Adobe Support - the forums are user-to-user & we've exhausted all our suggestions.

gbarrelet

Known Participant

I'm in contact with Adobe Support and he says that "Adobe is working on the problem right now." Seriously bad bug, if you ask me.

His suggestion is that I reinstall the 2015 version and work from there. That means I'll have to save everything down to the 2015 version. Bloody hell.

I wonder if there are people at BlueSky and Macromedia who look like this:

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

Sorry to hear that!!

I'm using Fm 14.0.0.361 and

I'm using Rh 13.0.0.255

I generally choose the more direct route of publishing from FrameMaker, but the integration is working for me.

ONE THOUGHT: Try renaming the preference folders (to something like "14-old") in your Roaming directory. There may be something in there that's keeping you from operating properly. These directories will autogenerate upon your next launch of Fm and Rh, but of course you'll lose any customizations stored there. If you want to switch back to the old versions, you simply delete the new prefs folders and rename the original folders accordingly.

In my example, I have Fm 12, Fm 2015 and Fm 2017 loaded on my machine. Thus changing 14 to 14-old preserves my prefs folder in case I want it back.

-Matt

techcommtools.com

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant

sylviec28123142Author

Participating Frequently

So just a follow-up in case anyone has a similar issue, this past week I have spend a few hours with the kind and competent staff of adobe (they are super nice) and right now I have been asked to try the TCS installation on a device out of my network. Sadly this is going to be hard to accomplish because my home lap-top is old and cannot handle it.

I may have to resort to saving all my files as MIF files.

It's not optimal but I'm running out of "software issue time" . :-(

Thank you all for your help!

doctester

Participating Frequently

I have the same problem. Thanks to TCS 2017, I've missed a deadline for Help for the first time in my career. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, restarted, reinstalled TCS 5 just so see what happens. No luck. The support person I chatted with Monday claimed there were no reports of this problem.

sylviec28123142Author

Participating Frequently

Uh huh… nice. I swear I have spent 6 hours with support about this.

If you are in a pinch, save the frame document as a .mif. That is what I am doing until we decide if we stay with Adobe.

sylviec28123142Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the replies,

I had in fact used the TCS installer but had run into a few issues along the way. I will re-install and see what happens.

Cheers!

Sylvie

M

moszapy1

Participating Frequently

Please keep FrameMaker2017 running and then try to import the file in RH2017.

-Sameer

Arnis Gubins

Inspiring

Did you install both using the TCS installer or as separate FM and RH downloads?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Back in the days of RoboHelp 8, it would only talk to FrameMaker if both were installed as part of the Technical Communication Suite. However, that was dropped in the 2015 release so the standalone products should work.

I do recall there was a point with the previous version where an update broke that and an update was issued to fix it.

In this case as both are new versions, if reinstalling does not fix the problem, I think you should contact Adobe support as installation issues are free.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

That sounds like something went wrong on the installation of TCS

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