403 Error when using Frameless Output Mini-TOC - Part 1

[Timothy386187870sd3]

I am using RoboHelp 2022.4.179 to generate frameless output.  The mini-toc links recently appear to have stopped working.  When I click on a mini-toc link, I now get the error, "403: Forbidden: Access is denied: You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied." The error is not browser-specific.  It occurs in both Chrome and Firefox.  The system is truncating the mini-toc link (the portion after the pound symbol) to 15 characters.  I think this truncation is causing the error.  Is anyone else experiencing this issue?  If yes, any known workarounds?  Thanks!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Haven't heard any reports of this before - was it working for you before? If so, what's changed? If not, is it working locally?

[Timothy386187870sd3]

It was working before.  It is not now.  I do not know what changed. I have attached two images. The first image shows the "In this Topic" link working. Notice that the URL shown at the top of the page is the URL to the topic and the URL shown at the bottom of the page is different but reflects the selected "In this Topic" link. The second image shows only one link, and it is the link that is shown at the bottom in the first image, not the link to the actual page that is shown in the top URL in the image where the link works.  Curious.  If I access the same topic in my local, I get the URL shown in the image below that does not work (file:///C:/FramelessOutput/240/Installation_Guides/Install_Guide_files/E-automate_Installation_Overv...), but the link works as expected in my local. Guess that means it's not a truncation issue as I first suspected, but I am at a loss to explain/understand why it is not working in our production environment for newly generated outputs and is still working for older outputs (as well as for newer outputs in the local environment).  Thoughts?  Thanks!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So it was working before on your webserver and now it's not? But the same output is behaving on your local? That kind of implies somebody has changed something on the webserver.

[Timothy386187870sd3]

Our help output URLs for different software versions are reflected in the three-digit number in the URL.  In the screen shots above, both the 201 version that is work and the 240 version that is not working are on the same production web server.  For that reason, I don't think it's a server issue.  I suspect it is an output issue.  Both outputs were generated from the same project using different conditional build tags.  The newer output (which does not work) was likely generated with a newer version of RH.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Does the newer 240 version work locally?

[Timothy386187870sd3]

Yes, it works locally, but again the URL structure in the top URL field is different in 240 than what it used to be in 201. Note that in the image below, the URL at the top and bottom of the page are the same, but both include the pound symbol (unlike the top URL in the 201 image shown above, which did not include pound symbol).  When a URL in this format is in the URL field at the top of a page in the local environment, it still works.  When a URL in this format is in the URL field at the top of the page in the production environment (or in our stage environment), it does not work.  What would control the format of the URL in that field?  Would it be our server?  The output files?  Some combination of the two and/or something else?  Thanks!

Checking. Would it be a useful test if I can find an old set of output files (generated with an earlier version of RH) and have IT copy it to our production environment now to see if the "In this Topic" links do or do not work?

And, again, just curious.  For anyone else generating frameless output with "In this Topic" links using RH 2022.4.179, do your links still work as expected? Thanks! 

[Peter Grainge]

Same as @Jeff_Coatsworth I haven't seen reports of this issue.

If I access the same topic in my local, I get the URL shown in the image below that does not work (file:///C:/FramelessOutput/240/Installation_Guides/Install_Guide_files/E-automate_Installation_Overv...), but the link works as expected in my local. 

You say if you access the same topic in my local you get the URL shown. The URLs shown are to a webserver.

Please clarify what you see if you generate to your C drive.

What you report has all the hallmarks of a webserver permissions issue.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

This thread is now locked. See https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp-discussions/403-error-when-using-frameless-output-mini-toc-p... for Part 2.