Publisher hypertext and cross-reference links not working

[CaptLauren]

I am using FM 16.04 to create HTML5 help. Although hypertext and cross-reference links work in FM and PDF output (via Publisher), they are often broken in the OLH.

As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with the links when I examine the HTML in Notepad.

[Winfried Reng]

Hi CaptLauren,

Are the targets of these cross-references and hyperlinks in the same book? Or do they point to other books? This would not work.

Best regards

Winfried

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

They should work (I think) if you employ the "book of books" strategy.

[CaptLauren]

On a related issue, when I added a book as a sub book, none of the links from the sub book to the parent book files worked. I believe that Adobe recognizes this as a problem.

So, in Explorer, I created a child of the folder that contains the main book source files. Then I added each of the FM files in the child folder to the book individually.  The links worked in FM and in PDF, but not when run through Publisher.

I will now try to shorten the paths to the source FM files and see what happens. At the moment they are a bit "deep" in the directory structure.

I appreciate all your suggestions and will keep everyone posted about the results.

[CaptLauren]

The targets are in the same book. Some targets are even in the same FM file withing the book!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Another thing to check is the total path + filename length of the link targets - FM doesn't have an issue but the RH publish engine certainly does. You can test by moving a copy of your FM content to a nice short path off your C:\ drive and looking at the links that were "bad" before.

[CaptLauren]

I moved the source files to the C: drive but unfortunatly got the same result.

Even within the HTML5 output of the same FM file, I get a "Page Not Found" error even though the target topic does exist.

[Winfried Reng]

Can you post some of your broken links and if possible also, how they should look like?

And as a comparison also the same for a good link?

[CaptLauren]

Unfortunately the content is proprietary. However, I'll create a new file and post that soon. Is it possible for TOC markers to "mask" the cross-ref markers? I am also finding that some index markers are also coincident, position-wize, with cross-ref markers.

[StudioSm]

I believe the feature is broken. I have had the same problem and the conclusion was that hypertext just did not pass over into HTML5. I may be wrong though.

[CaptLauren]

Wow! That's quite a bug if true! I'm about to call Adobe TCS support to help sort this out. I am running way behind on my project.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

• what are examples of the hypertext markers and the xref-ed headings?
• what is the html code produced in the output?

[CaptLauren]

I have cross-references to headings and table titles only. I have "gotolink" hypertext markers jumping to named destinations within the same book. Everything works within FM and the PDF created by Publisher.

[CaptLauren]

Hi Matt-

I now wonder if one of the problems is caused by the target headings containing too many characters? For example, the html output for the broken link is:

Step_1._Configure_RACF,_ACF2,_and_Top_Secret_security.htm#XREF_94249__Step_1__Configure_RACF%2C_ACF2%2C_and_Top_Secret_secur6

The attachment shows the offending cross-ref.

Thanks for your help!

[CaptLauren]

You can disregard the question about the heading name; I shortened the table but the link still opens up a "Page not Found" message.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

My concern would be how the characters in the heading and in the filename are matching up. Can you test with a filename that has no spaces or punctuation, (and a heading that has same) to see if it works?

(Hoping to narrow down to nonalpha character mapping like the & entries and the _ vs. space characters) 

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

elaborating on my May 2022 response...

The comma in your heading is creating an entity in the HTML (&#44:)

That comma is creating another notation in the link itself (%2C)

I believe that the %2C is your issue. What is the marker text for both the inserted cross-reference and the destination of the cross-reference?

The markers should work if you edit both of these markers to eliminate commas and/or odd notations, while maintaining a uniquely identifiable string.

The open bug report may have been closed as a result of the underlying marker insertion issue being resolved, but that "fix" wouldn't go back and remedy markers you've already entered. For that, you should be able to use Find/Change to identify "problem" strings like this example and eliminate them in both the reference and destination markers.

-Matt

P.S. I had a very similar issue with eBook output somewhere around Fm 11. I had spot cross-references that used # in the marker text, and each of these caused multiple validation issues with the eBook, for a total of about 1700 errors!

Fortunately, I was able to use Find/Change on the marker text to remove the offending characters and only spent an hour or two in total to remove the offending characters, resulting in valid output and working links.

[StudioSm]

In november 2021 I uploaded an example (and example files) on the prerelease forum regarding hotspots not working in HTML5. That was hotspots leading to named destinations. Not quite sure we are talking about the exact same thing here, though. But that was a bug in both FM2019 and 2020

[CaptLauren]

Yes, that is what I am talking about. I am using the latest release, 16.04, and having the same issue.

[CaptLauren]

It now appears that Publisher can not handle and cross-reference to a heading that contains any unusual characters such as commas, slashes, backslashes, periods, and several others. This is a huge issue for me.

Is this a bug? Adobe really fell down on the job here.

[StudioSm]

I would say that this is a bug, yes. And you should report ita as a bug on the Tracker.: https://tracker.adobe.com/

[CaptLauren]

Will do. I already sent sample files to TCS support, but I'll send this as a bug as well.

Thanks again to everyone for helping me out.

[A-Bel]

Hi! I think I have the same problem, I can't find the bug report. Which one is it? Number?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@A-Bel I've lost track what version this was reported in - are you running the latest FM 2022 build?

[A-Bel]

Hi Jeff, think so 17.0.1.305

Here is my problem more detailed:

We have defined hyperlinks (Message url) in older projects, which should open files with relative paths, e.g. a zip with test data contained. Example
message url ../../_data/test.zip
This hyperlink still works with the Publisher in FM 2022, when I have PDF output. With an HTML5 output, only the hyperlinks with web links work, e.g. message url ../../https://www.testsite.com
Is this the bug (see above)? Or do I have to include the local data
differently in my HTML5 project?