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Question

TOC not opening to the selected topic

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
September 20, 2022
42 replies
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We have a RoboHelp 2020 help project posted on our website. We have links to topics in the help project from other places on our website. For the URL in the link, we use the URL displayed in the address bar when the desired help topic is displayed, such as:

http://hsv.ternion.com/Documentation/flames21.0/WebHelp/flames/index.htm#t=SAS%2FCreating_a_User.htm

(Note that Creating_a_User.htm is in a folder named SAS.)

This works. The correct topic is opened in our help project when the link is selected. However, the TOC of our help project is not expanding to the proper place (to the entry associated with SAS/Creating_a_User.htm). Instead, the TOC is opening to some random place not associated with the topic.

Has anyone else experienced this issue, and do you know how to fix it?

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Send me an output only that is failing at your end. Include a few specific steps that fail for you. I will almost guarantee it will work here but I'll try.

Try the Edge browser as well.

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deniseh47762385Author

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Done; it might take a few minutes to get it. Edge browser same issue.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I have sent you the output created from the first project but using the preset sent earlier today.

Test that.

If that fails, the problem is at your end and there is no point testing anything else.

________________________________________________________

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

You have sent one project and then a preset that I tested with.

Please give up blaming names of the presets and folder names. They make no difference. As I said, you need to test on a clean machine and a machine outside your network.

I will send you the latest output. Do nothing more than open it from the index.htm file and test following the steps you sent me. If it does not work for you, then the problem has to be where you are running it.

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deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

Ok, but do you have any ideas why our specific machines are producing unusual results?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I used the HTML preset and followed the steps in your email. All working perfectly again. There has to be something wrong at your end.

Can IT let you use a fresh machine to test the output in a browser? Ideally a standalone machine.

Take it home and test it.

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deniseh47762385Author

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I will try some more things later; have to get back to my other (main) work. My manager was having the same problems originally too.

deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

Did you try the last project I sent?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Well if you didn't send it, I probably didn't try it. 🙂

Where in the UI are you seeing those differences?

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deniseh47762385Author

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The difference was when I did a Compare of the 2 files from File Explorer. See attachment on the bottom.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

The name of a preset and the folder to which you generate have no bearing on this. As long as they are permitted Windows characters, which these are, they can be whatever you like. Try TheKingOfThailand and it will work. Either you believe me or you don't.

Using my output, what is going wrong?
If you go to a topic, copy its link into another tab, does it work or not
Have you compare line by line the presets you have?
Please try your outputs on more than one PC and more than one browser. I hope you are not using IE.

________________________________________________________

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

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deniseh47762385Author

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Your output looks good but you were probably using the DocHelp.preset and not the WehHelp.preset I didn't send you.

In RoboHelp, the OUTPUT PRESET settings look the same.

However, I did look at WebHelp.preset compared to other presets I made that work and there is a difference that is not in the WebHelp.preset. I don't know where this comes from:

<serversStatus type="array">
<serversStatusitem>
<name>flames</name>
</serversStatusitem>
</serversStatus>

My manager decided that we are going to use the term HTML everywhere (preset, generated/publish folders, inter-project source links) so I'm working on that now.

deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

We are using Chrome and not IE.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

There is only one TOC in the project you sent. I think you mean if I generate with an absolute path the TOC in the output is good but if I generate as below you mean the TOC in the output is bad.

Sorry to disappoint but the TOC is working the same and correctly. RoboHelp will generate regardless of the name as long as the characters are legal. I repeat it is not a reserved name. Generate one of the sample projects to a folder with WebHelp in the path.

I followed your steps for the tests and everything is going to the right topic in the TOC.

In short, I can find no fault. I will zip up the output and send it to you.

________________________________________________________

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

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deniseh47762385Author

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Peter, thank you for your ongoing support and time!

I think now the issue may something more with the Preset name and folder combination? I tried various tests today (see below) and Preset-Folder WebHelp-WebHelp is always a problem.

If you could try one more thing - create a Preset WebHelp too, generate to ../WebHelp/flames/ and see what happens.

Tests all using D:\Development project & generated files under D:\Development\<Folder>\flames folder:
Preset Folder Result
WebHelp WebHelp Bad
WebHelp HTML Good
HTML HTML Good (we may change to use this)
HTML WebHelp Bad
DocHelp DocHelp Good
DocHelp WebHelp Bad
DocHelp HTML Good

I tried the sample AboutRoboHelp project w Preset/Folder WebHelp and all is Good. However, that is a very small project with only one level of books/topics.

I took the project I sent to you, moved in the same D:\Development folder and tried:
Preset Folder Result
DocHelp DocHelp Good (I sent him this)
DocHelp WebHelp Bad (Peter changed and no problems?)
WebHelp WebHelp Bad - TRY THIS COMBO

I copied project to C:\Development project & generated files under C:\Development\<Folder>\flames folder:
WebHelp WebHelp Bad

deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

Also, when I say bad or good TOC, I don't mean the .toc file; each test uses the same flames.toc.

I mean when you select a topic from the Table of Contents or a hyperlink from a topic, the "active" TOC item is correctly (good) or incorrectly (bad) selected. Clear as mud?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

On the subject of using an absolute or relative path, if you feel this is part of the issue, why not duplicate the preset and amend the names so you use one preset with an absolute path and your manager uses the other one with an absolute path.

I need to understand quite how you both have things set up. Is it that

you have the project in say C:\Project Name and you generate to say C:\Output Folder
your manager has the project in say D:\Project Name and generates to say D:\Output Folder

then you both publish to the server?

It is anything else, I am wondering if the relative path is correct on both machines.

________________________________________________________

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

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deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

The project I sent you already had the "good TOC" (Output Path = ../DocHelp/flames/) saved in the Output preset.
If you change the Output Path to ../WebHelp/flames/, the results will be different.
Try the project in D:\Development\doc-flames-git and generate the help to both D:\Development\DocHelp\flames and D:\Development\WebHelp\flames, respectively (relative or absolute - same results).

Next, open the generated index.htm to open the help in a browser. Try these steps in both:
(1) Select the 'How to Get Started' link on the home page (or expand Getting Started book and select topic).
(2) Select the 'Systems Requirements' link (or expand TOC to Setup and Administration Guide | System Configuration | System Requirements and select the System Requirements TOC/topic).
In the "good TOC (../DocHelp/flames/), the active TOC item is highlighted. In the "bad TOC' (../WebHelp/flames/), when you select the 'Systems Requirements' link, the active TOC item is 'What is FLAMES?'. Also if you right-click the Systems Requirements TOC item and 'Copy link address' and paste that URL in a new browser window, the "bad TOC" does open the correct topic, but if 'Click here to see this page in full context', the active TOC item is not highlighted or it's the wrong topic. Trying the same procedure with the "good TOC" and the index.htm produces the correct results.

Another test with both outputs is to go to Applications Manuals | FORGE User Manual | The Basics | Working with Datasets and select the 'Datasets Overview' or 'Managing All Datasets' from the TOC. The "bad TOC" output will jump down to the FIRE manual as far as the active TOC item.

Another test is to Search for 'Generating Entity State PDUs'. Select the top result to display the topic in the main frame. Then, go back to the Table of Contents tab. The "good TOC" output selects the correct active TOC item and the "bad TOC" output does not show any active TOC item. You can even change the URL 'DocHelp' portion to 'WebHelp' and see the differences.

This is consistent and goes to show that "WebHelp" may be a reserved term. However, my 10/3/22 test to ../WebHelp/flamestest/ was a good TOC? The other 3 projects do not seem to have this same issue.

When the output is generated, all the previous files are removed before the new output is created. I have tried to remove the local and "published" intranet files, cleared Cache etc but the test/results above are consistant.

If this is the case, it's easy enough to publish to /DocHelp folder, but we'll need to "Find and Replace" all the external links in all 4 projects (and generate). Also, and more importantly, a developer will need change the way we are building our installer. Currently, the 'WebHelp' (default) installed parent folder is C:\ProgramData\Ternion\FLAMESLauncher\documentation\flames21.0\WebHelp\flames.

Since my manager and I use the same repo and project, we should have the same (C or D drive) project/output structure so we don't have to keep changing the Output Preset location or create another preset. I will be the one that will produce the generated help for our developer (and also publish on our intranet for other folks to view) but he should know how to do it in my stead. We can use the absolute path, if needed, for C or D drive.

deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

My manager is convinced that 'WebHelp' is a bad folder name. I am going to try 'HTML' and see how that works.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I have generated your output and then used the TOC to go to a number of topics. For each one I have pasted the URL from the browser address bar into a new browser tab. Every time the TOC syncs correctly.

I also tried pasting into a different browser and it still works correctly.

Your issue was when calling a topic from elsewhere on your site, which is rather different. If you do what I did, do you then get the same issue or is the problem only when you call a topic from your website?

If calling the topic the way I did gives the problem, then please give me a couple of locations in your TOC where this is occurring?

Also have you tried deleting the whole output from the server and publishing afresh?

________________________________________________________

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

It's late here so I will look in the morning. It would help if you could send the project. It will help make more sense of it.

________________________________________________________
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.

deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

A .zip file has been sent via WeTransfer. TIA!

deniseh47762385Author

Known Participant

When you generate the Output Preset, the "external links" to fstarter etc will be shown as Warnings. That's okay.

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