403 Error when using Frameless Output Mini-TOC - Part 2

[Timothy386187870sd3]

I reported this same issue in a different post ("403 Error when using Frameless Output Mini-TOC") searlier this month, and I am still experiencing the issue.  Peter, you and Jeff said no one else had reported the issue. You also suggested in that post that it might be a webserver permissions issue.  I still think it is a RoboHelp issue.  One of our IT people looked at this issue with me today. I showed him a copy of the project generated with an older version of RoboHelp, where the miniTOC links work, and a copy generated with RH 2022.4.179, where the miniTOC links do not work. He had me inspect a miniTOC link in the output that works and in the output that does not work.  In the output that does not work, he found an extra set of span tags. See the image below.

He removed the span tags from the link that did not work, and the link worked again.  Does this still sound like a webserver permissions issue?  Is there something I could have done in the project that would have added the span tags to the miniTOC links?  Given the above, does it sound as if this is an RH bug that I should report? Thanks!

Note: As noted in the other post, the miniTOCs links in a frameless project generated with RH 2022.4.179 work if I test them locally, but they do not work after the project is copied to a server.

[Timothy386187870sd3]

Jeff, not sure how to send you a PM.

[LT Documentation]

I'm curious if a change could be made to the installer file used with patch 4, so I don't have to manually replace the file each time I generate all 50 RoboHelp Projects.  

I see several installer files with topicpage.js in the file name.  The following is one location.  

Adobe RoboHelp\resources\data\template\layouts\preview\en_us\frameless\template\scripts\topicpage.js

[Peter Grainge]

A common theme is H2. It makes no sense that the style should be part of the issue but has anyone tried not using H2 to see if it makes a difference. Stranger things happen at sea, as they say.

Also has anyone contacted Adobe Support on this?

________________________________________________________

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

[LT Documentation]

My Heading 2 links work as long as they are not associated with a drop-down.  If a drop-down is associated with the Heading 2 style, then the In this topic link does not work when accessed from the server.  Locally, everything works fine.  

[LT Documentation]

 @Jeff_Coatsworth @Peter Grainge 

Same as what @Timothy386187870sd3 said, if I remove the span tags that are generated for these H2 drop-downs, then the link works.  I just need to figure out how to prevent those tags from getting added in the first place.  

[Timothy386187870sd3]

Jeff, again, I will be happy to share the working and non-working files. Let me know how.  If it is reasonably safe to include an email address here, let me know and I will add mine so that you may contact me. It may also be easy enough for you to generate them using the current and previous versions of RH and, in my case, the Orange skin.

Peter, I logged a bug report with Adobe quite a while back.  I had less information at the time.  They may have also been ready to conclude the issue was a permissions issue.  I also subsequently contacted Adobe Support by email.  I mentioned several issues (not just this one). So far, no progress (at least that I am aware of) on any of the issues I sent.

One Oddity: As reported previously, when removing the span tags, the mini-TOC links worked on our web servers when using the otherwise non-working topicpage files. When using the working topicpage files, the links worked AND the inspect showed that the span tags were still present (definitely not what IT and I expected).

[Peter Grainge]

On @Jeff_Coatsworth behalf, email addresses are not advised in any forum unless you want to hear from a lawyer who has millions stashed away just waiting for you to share your details. 🙂

Use the envelope icon top right of your browser to email him. That said, I thought you said earlier in this thread that you had examined the content of the two files.

________________________________________________________

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Timothy386187870sd3 - just PM'd you my email address.

[Peter Grainge]

Yes but ordinary links with H2 are not the same as dropdowns with H2. Maybe the code for a dropdown that uses H2 could be involved.

________________________________________________________

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

[Timothy386187870sd3]

I don't see an envelope at the top right of the browser window.  I also have PM enabled, but I did not receive the PM you sent, Jeff. I did receive an email that you sent it. Is it possible for my IT to have locked that feature out? I do see the Notification (bell) icon, but clicking that icon lets me know I have received notifications but does not show me the details of the notifications.

Peter, just to clarify, I see three topicpage files: topicpage.ejs, topicpage.js, and topicpage.js.gz.  The first one, the topicpage.ejs file, resides in the skin folder of the RH project.  This is the file that is identical in the projects from which "working" output files were generated prior to installing the last update and from which, at least on our web servers, "non-working" output files are now being generated after installing the last update.

When output files are generated, I am presuming the system is using the topicpage.ejs file, at least in part, to generate the topicpage.js and topicpage.js.gz files that appear in the template\scripts folder of the output files.  From the same source file, the system is generating these two output files differently after the last update than before the last update.  The files generated before the last update are smaller than the files generated after the last update.

Given what appears to be the limitation of my not being able to see the PM functionality (and please let me know if you see it in the first attached image and I am just missing it), I see a few possible options. Peter, you have my email address. Please feel free to share it with Jeff.  If you want to see the .js files, too, and want me to send a zipped file to you to share with Jeff via your web site, let me know. Thanks!  

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, so I used Beyond Compare to check the "good" js file and the "bad" one - there are differences between them - so something has changed. Was the good" source coming from an earlier version of RH?

[Peter Grainge]

This is what you should see with PMs turned on.

I'll send Jeff your address.

________________________________________________________

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Timothy386187870sd3 - if you got the PM notification email, you should have been able to click on the link contained within it to go to your PM inbox. I don't know why your screen doesn't have the envelope icon.

[Peter Grainge]

Worth trying an uninstall, reboot and reinstall? Hoping it might update those files.

________________________________________________________

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

[Timothy386187870sd3]

I uninstalled RH 2022.4.179. I rebooted.  I downloaded RoboHelp_16_LREFDJ and ran the Set-up.exe file. I checked for updates. The installer installed RH 2022.4.179, so there were no updates to install. I do not have an old copy of my project files to go back to, so I could not update/upgrade my projects from the previous version.  I verified that the source topicpage.ejs file still had the 3/29/2021 11:54 AM date/time stamp.  It does.  I generated the output files from one of my projects.

I could tell from the file sizes on the two generated topicpage output files that the system had generatted the larger (non-working) files.  I SFTP'd them to our stage2 server anyway, after removing the entire contents of the existing output folder. I am again getting the 403 error on any mini-TOC link I click.

Jeff, yes, the "good" topicpage output files I sent you were generated from the same topicpage.ejs source file identified above, but were generated using a prior version of RoboHelp.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I suspect it's time for you to create a small non-working example and send that in as a bug report to the RH folks using the Tracker (https://tracker.adobe.com/) - make a link to this thread for them to use too.

[Peter Grainge]

@Jeff_Coatsworth Tim did that and sent it to me. It worked fine on my server. Go figure.

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Do you want to take a look at the js files that were "good" vs "bad" - I can forward the link to you.

[Peter Grainge]

OK but it won't be until tomorrow. This has to be escalated. 

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I'm not having any luck at all sending the zip to you - @Timothy386187870sd3 can you send Peter the link (or the zip)?

[LT Documentation]

Here are the differences I see in the generated topicpage file for one of my child projects, where there are references to Mini TOC:

[LT Documentation]

I noticed the generated topicpage.js file is identical to the file in the RoboHelp source (install) folder:

So, if we fix the file here, then it should always be fixed in the generated output.  See my above post for changes between RoboHelp Patch 3 and RoboHelp Patch 4.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes, until the next patch is installed - then your changes are wiped out. So keep a backup of them someplace else.

[Timothy386187870sd3]

Thank you to all who have helped troubleshoot this issue!
LT Documentation, I was able to copy my working topicpage.js file to the source file locations and generate frameless output where the mini-TOC links work on our servers.  At least on my system, I see that the topicpage.js file is included in four source file locations.  I replaced it in three of them, not realizing I had missed one, generated the output, and still got the non-working topicpage.js file in the generated output.  The generated output included the working topicpage.js file for me when I copied the working topicpage.js file to the C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp\resources\data\frameless\js folder. While it may have still been necessary for other reasons to copy the working topicpage.js file to the other three folder locations, the generated output files did not include the working topicpage.js file if I copied it only to the following three locations: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp\resources\data\template\layouts\preview\en_us\frameless\template\scripts, C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp\resources\data\template\layouts\preview\en_us\frameless_homepage\template\scripts, and C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp\resources\data\template\layouts\preview\en_us\frameless_topnav\template\scripts.

Jeff, thanks for note to save the working topicpage.js file for replacement after applying future patches (provided Adobe does not otherwise resolve the issue and make a correction to include in the next patch).
Peter, thanks for doing the testing on your server.  I still wonder what the differences are between our servers, differences that would allow the mini-TOC links to work on your server and not on ours.
Glad to now have a workaround that does not require me to copy-and-replace files every time I generate and publish a new set of output files for any of our projects.  Again, thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

You will not get a fix from Adobe unless you hammer this with Support or report it as a bug. Personally I would go for Support first so that they can verify it. The problem with reporting it as a bug is Adobe being able to verify. If they get the same result as me, they will likely just mark it as unable to replicate. With Support, they will be able to screenshare and verify the issue.

________________________________________________________

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