A few topics not displaying once published

Report · Jul 30, 2020

Does anyone have any ideas why a few topics which were working, and still work locally, wouldn't work after the project is published?

Tested locally the topic displays correctly.

On the server the topic appears blank but no error message is displayed. Browsing using file explorer, the file is located in the correct place and double-clicking opens the topic correctly. Double-clicking on the index.htm and navigating through the TOC also opens the topic correctly. Only using the web address results in these topics displaying as blank.

There are no error messages when viewing the developer tools.

I've tried Chrome, Vivaldi (chromium based) and IE with the same results. I don't have access to Firefox to try.

RH2019 Classic. Multiscreen HTML5 (desktop output only).

Report · Jul 31, 2020

I'm sure you will have done some of these but just in case:-

Have you got Republish All set?
Have you tried publishing to a new folder?
Have you viewed the source on the server to make sure it is getting uploaded correctly?

If that fails can you share the project and I will publish it to a private area on my server? Please use WeTransfer or suchlike rather than emailing the project. Particularly important with Classic projects.

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

Report · Aug 03, 2020

1. I have Republish All set. Hangover from problems I encountered years ago in multi-author situations.

2. Publishing to a new folder is problematic due to a merged help setup, being a production server, and extra slow upload speeds due to WFH and generally rubbish internet. It'll also be a problem because there are links littered all across our intranet which will break. 😞

3. I checked that the files were in the correct spot first thing. They work when browsed to using file explorer, just not from the web address that staff use to access the help.

The weirdest bit is most files work fine but others just don't display any content but also don't throw an error. So the server knows the file is there, just seems to be blocking the content somehow. Using dev tools shows the entire file contents as <html><body></body></html> (not a typo...).

Report · Aug 03, 2020

Another wrinkle.

I opened one of the problem files in a text editor, typed a space and saved, and that file now displays correctly.

However, doing the same thing on another problem file did not fix the problem for that file.

Report · Aug 03, 2020

And a topic that was working before now isn't.

I think I'm going to have to delete this project's folder and republish to see if that fixes things. :S

Report · Aug 04, 2020

It's starting to look related to a Chrome update. I downloaded Firefox and that works fine. I also tried IE again, and while it didn't work on Friday it is now showing correctly (weird, I know, but that's the story of my life).

That said, I'm going to delete everything in this project's folder and republish tonight to see if that fixes things and will report back.

Report · Aug 04, 2020

Deleting everything for this project off the server did not fix the issue in Chrome.

Firefox works fine. IE now works fine.

Making a manual change (such as adding a random space) to some problem topics fixes the display issue. This does not fix all topics. And sometimes making a change to one topic will cause another topic to stop working.

The timing seems to coincide with a Chrome release ~28th July. (Chrome 84.0.4147.105). If anyone has any ideas what could be in this release and causing the problem I'd be eternally grateful.

Report · Aug 04, 2020

Okay, I got a server admin to clear the server cache and that seems to have fixed things. Will see how it goes.