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MeghanS17
Participating Frequently
October 18, 2022
Question

RoboHelp 2017: topic not showing up in "Find Topic" search, but .htm file exists and appears in CHM

  • October 18, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 295 views

Hello! Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this question and is able to assist. 

Earlier today, I was working in RH 2017 when the application froze and then crashed. I had a few topics open at that time. When I restarted RH, everything appeared fine. 

However, I used Visual Studio for version control and the next time I went to check some of my local changes in, I noticed that several of the .FPJ files were updated to remove references to certain topics/.htm files. I did not make these changes, and assumed they were something that happened during the crash, as some (but not all) of the topics that were removed from the .FPJ files we the topics that were open in RH during the crash. (Please note that I only use version control to keep a backup of my files. There is no one else checking in changes that I am pulling down and using, as my team found this paradigm problematic within RH). 

I rejected the changes and reverted to the previous .FPJ files that still referenced the topics. I confirmed that the actual .htm topic files were still on my local drive. I confirmed that I could still find the topics via the TOC in RH and open the topic from there. I also confirmed that the topics appear in my CHM output, and appear in the output Search, Index, and TOC. However, the topics no longer appear in the Project Files list within RH, and are also not able to be found through the "Find Topic" search feature available in RH 2017. Does anyone know what I can do to get these files back in Project Files and searchable again? 
If I try to re-create the topics manually in the same location, I am told that I cannot because they already exist. 

Please let me know if there is any other information that would be helpful for me to include! Thanks very much. 

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    A
    Community Expert
    AmebrCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 25, 2022

    Two things to try.

     

    Close RoboHelp and delete the cpd file; this can clear up various problems. It's recreated when you reopen the project.

     

    If this doesn't show the files, create a new, temporary folder anywhere in your project. This can force RH to rebuild all file references and I use it regularly to redisplay "lost" css files. Once RH has finished thinking (may be slow for very large, image and table heavy projects) you can delete the temporary folder.

     

    Oh and make sure the following files ARE NOT in source control: *.cpd, *. ldb, *.pss

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 19, 2022

    After posting my reply I thought to myself that surely taking a fresh full copy from source control should revert you to a stable position. I'm not clear whether you have just taken some files from source control or a full copy of the project.

     

    I have suggested what I would do with a standalone project but clearly that's not the answer here. I'm sorry but I can't help you on the source control. Hopefully someone else can.

    ________________________________________________________

    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

     

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 18, 2022

    I think it's as simple as importing them back in. Alternatively with the project closed, edit the FPJ file with a text editor.

    ________________________________________________________
    My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

     

    Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
    M
    MeghanS17Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 19, 2022

    Hi @Peter Grainge ! Thank you for your response. I should have said this in my earlier message, but I did try importing them again and I am unable to. When I try, I get a message: The file "____.htm" already exists in the project. (The message actually has the file name that I tried importing, I am just not listing it here.)


    Also, the files that I cannot search for in RH's in-application topic search are referenced in the .FPJ (confirmed by looking at them in a text editor with RH closed). This was accomplished when my version control system alerted me that the .FPJs had been edited during/after the crash to remove references to topics (that I didn't do) and I rejected/undid those changes, which effectively rolled back my local .FPJs to versions that no longer had those references removed. 

    I feel like the list of topics in RH's Project Files, and thus the topics that I can search for within RH, must be looking at something other than simply the .FPJ files. I tried renaming my project's local .CDP and .GLO files with RH closed so that when I re-opened the software would create new ones, but that did not fix my issue either. 

    M
    MeghanS17Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 19, 2022

    @Peter Grainge One more change I just noticed is that in my project's .xpj file, it used to have a line close to the top that said:
    <Flags>92</Flags>
    But it has now changed (for reasons I don't know) to: 
    <Flags>220</Flags>
    Just including this info in case it is helpful!
    Thanks very much for your time and assistance on this issue. 

     

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