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Question

Styling doesn't apply when I generate an output (<div class="topiccontent"> missing in script?)

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 29, 2022
6 replies
217 views

Good afternoon,

I am facing a problem with using Rohelp at my organisation. Maybe you could help me.

We are using Robohelp 2019 (together with Smart SVN, but I don't think this is relevant).

Yearly we make a new project by copy paste the project of the previous year and change the dates in the relevant files. This time some issues came up. We had problems with the variables. That problem is fixed eventualy by someone at Adobe. But now the styling seem to dissapear when I generate an output. The CSS files are coming with, but there is a lot missing in the htmlcode of the topics (in the output file) (see the attached images). Someone at our ict-department said to me that there service is looking for <div class="topiccontent"> within the html tag and using that part. And that part is now missing, so the topics are not showing at their end.

Where can I add this in the outputscript or somewhere else? I cannot put it manually in each topic, because there are alot (more then 800).

Hopefully you could help me!

Kind regards,

Eline

The Netherlands

This topic has been closed for replies.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

The bit that bothers me is that I thought the upgrade was designed to only let you use an empty folder. That begs the question as to how this happened. With that said, multiple CSS files and so on suggests someone seems to have managed it.

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A

Amebr

Community Expert

I think I'm with Peter, that you may be best to get an old, known good copy and start again. If you have New UI content mixed in with your Classic project I don't know how to manually fix it.

However, I'll provide some further information about where my questions were leading.

The div class="topiccontent" as far as I'm aware isn't standard code in any Robohelp skins.

The screenshots you included suggest this code was added in every topic, including much other custom code. You could add it to every new topic, if that code is included in the master page and you create new topics using that master page. However, this won't work for existing topics - the code won't be copied in to your topics. If this is how the code was added, it also doesn't explain how the code was removed from all the topics.

So if the code isn't in your topics, perhaps there used to be some script run after the output was generated, to insert the code? It would be a pretty complex script to add all the code though, and I'd have thought hard to forget.

The only other option I can think of, as a theory, is to edit the correct seed file in the Robohelp installation directory. Assuming this would work - I haven't played with webhelp in a very long time, so I'm not even sure it's possible. I wouldn't recommend it though as those files may get overwritten when the product is patched. And would not be copied when a new version, such as RH2019, is installed. If this is where your change was made, you'd need to look in the old installation folder, assuming you still have the same computer and the old software hasn't been uninstalled or overwritten. Then you'd need to make the correct changes in the new software directory - I wouldn't copy and paste as the underlying code may also have changed. Frankly, there's a good chance any changes made this way would have been lost. But you or the devs could have a poke around to see if you can find anything in an old installation folder.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

This sounds like a bit of an unholy mess.

All that changing the master page has done is clean up the head section. I would guess the content of the topic also has a combination of old and new code. If I am right I don't know how you have managed that but the issue is sorting it out.

I think I would be looking at getting a fresh copy from source control and upgrading again, this time using Upgrade Project and making sure you generate to a new folder.

Maybe when @Amebr is awake and downed her first coffee, she will have some other ideas.

________________________________________________________

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

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

@Amebr is likely tucked up in bed right now but I will pick up on one point that concerns me.

.rh folders are part of the new UI versions of RoboHelp so it looks like somehow you have got the two versions in one place.

Look inside the head section of the topics. I think I am right in saying you will see this in Classic

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

and this in the new UI.

If you are seeing the new version, that might explain the problem as you cannot mix the two. How to sort it out if that is the problem is another matter but take a look and post back.

________________________________________________________

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

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E

Eline25057584tbfjAuthor

Participant

Hi Peter,

Thank you! Indeed, both lines were in the topics.

I changed it in the file ContextSensitivehelp.htt (removed the new UI line, so only the classic one is there)

Generated a new output

But unfortunately it still doesn't work 😞

A

Amebr

Community Expert

From what I can see of the code, the javascript stuff looks like webhelp output. It is the output you took a screenshot of, right? If it was a screenshot of your source, please let us know as this will mean you have a big problem.

The html in your "right" screenshot seems to be part of the body of the topic. Is the missing code a problem for every topic or only some topics - for example, only new topics you have added recently?

I apologise for the cryptic questions; I just want to get some further details so I don't start chasing rabbits down rabbit holes. 🙂

E

Eline25057584tbfjAuthor

Participant

Hi!

Not a problem! Happy you would like to help me 🙂

Indeed, the screenshots are of the output. But normally in the source a don't see this code also. It is always placed in the folder by generating the output (if i say it correctly). We only set up a css file when we are editing a topic (always ola.css).

The missing code is a problem in every topic.

Yesterday I compared all files with the files from another year, and there were a view little differences but it still doesn't work after changing those little things. I did notice a difference in the folder structure of this year's project and last year's. In the new year there are two extra folders: !SSL! and .rh

In the SLL folder there are 3 css files, but they are in the headfolder too. (they look the same)

For the output we are using another file then webhelp or something else as primairy output file. We are using our 'own' script. (Which is the same as previous years). It is called: VA_contextafh.sll

It is so difficult to explain to you how we work, because it is devious. But I hope this helps a bit for understanding the problem for you. Happy to answer your questions!

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Someone else may be able to give more help than I can but let's try.

First of all, please use the photo icon to insert images within the post. Seeing an image inline with the text makes it easier for anyone answering or viewing the post. The images you have posted are not too clear but they are of the end result. What's causing it is more the issue?

Is this 2019 Classic or the new UI?

My thinking is the issue is likely in your CSS file. Have you done a line by line comparison or used something like Beyond Compare to find differences.

________________________________________________________

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

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