Skip to main content
M
MSCaroline
Known Participant
September 16, 2008
Answered

Browse sequences in merged WebHelp

  • September 16, 2008
  • 2 replies
  • 5249 views
Hi all,

I'm working on a merged WebHelp project and I've noticed that in the output each child project's browse sequence is handled individually. That is, there's a full stop at the end of the browse sequence for each child project and I have to select the first topic in the next child project within the TOC to start that browse sequence. Is there a way to integrate these so that the browse sequences are handled consecutively?

Incidentally, has anybody else noticed a long delay in loading the TOC in Firefox when one of the child project outputs is missing? This help file contains information for 3 separate but related software products, so users may have between 1 and 3 of the products (and, consequently, between 1 and 3 of the child help files) on their machine. If anyone has any ideas on how to kick Firefox into displaying the TOC in a more timely fashion, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks,
Melinda
This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Peter Grainge

Sorry but I am having to ration the miracles.

Beyond the tweak applied and Snippet 1, there's nothing else I can suggest.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips


I have noticed that although changing the refresh rate fixes the load problem, the TOC is not autosynchronising immediately. It does start to sync after the user has clicked some topics but that is not really satisfactory.I have found an alternative method.

Remove the redirect.

Paste the following above the </head> tag, amending the path to the same as you had in the redirect.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[
<!--Script courtesy of http://www.web-source.net - Your Guide to Professional Web Site Design and Development //-->
var time = null
function move() {
window.location = './mergedProjects/child_1/child_1_topic.htm'
}
//]]></script>

Amend the body tag as below. Change the timeout if required, it is set in milliseconds.


<body onload="timer=setTimeout('move()',100)">

This gives the same redirect but the TOC will sync OK. It works OK in IE as well.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

2 replies

Peter Grainge
Peter Grainge
Community Expert
September 18, 2008
That'll teach you to leave one of the children behind!

I just renamed a child project and it does then delay opening the help in Firefox. That has been reported to Adobe.

I didn't get any errors. Maybe you are viewing the help locally without having applied the Mark of the Web, introduced in RH6.

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.
M
MSCarolineAuthor
Known Participant
May 19, 2009

Reviving this thread, unless anybody would prefer to see a new thread. Peter, on 9/18, you said:

I just renamed a child project and it does then delay opening the help in Firefox. That has been reported to Adobe.

Any further word on this? I'm (finally) going to present a proof of concept on all of this soon, and this delay could be a sticking point.

Also, I'm running into a new(?) issue in Firefox: When I open the main page (index.htm) in Firefox, I don't see the Table of Contents at all. It will appear as soon as I refresh the page, but not until I do so. Has anybody seen this? Any insight into the source of the problem?

Thanks,

Melinda

Peter Grainge
Peter Grainge
Community Expert
June 10, 2009

http://www.adobe.com/go/wish is the place to report bugs and feature requests.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips


MS Caroline

Solution found!

I reported this to Adobe and they asked for a copy of my project as they could not replicate it. That made me think what was different about the way they would likely create a merged project and I realised it could be the use of the redirect.

I changed the refresh value from

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=./mergedProjects/child_1/child_1_topic.htm" />

to

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=./mergedProjects/child_1/child_1_topic.htm" />

and that fixes the problem.

I was also given this information.

FF has fixed a security issue related to the Refresh header in 3.0.9 the link of which is http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2009/mfsa2009-22.html

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.
Peter Grainge
Peter Grainge
Community Expert
September 16, 2008
No.

If you have more than one browse sequence within a single project, they don't run on. It's the same across projects.

Browser support has improved in RH7 but I don't know if it will help on this issue. Perhaps someone else can comment?

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Brainiac
September 16, 2008
Hi Melinda

I agree with Peter on the Browse Sequence bit. But I have something that may help. What you might be able to do is to create as the last topic in each sequence a redirect topic that simply points to the first topic in the next sequence.

Might be worth exploring if you really want that seamless connection. It's also worth noting that there could be issues if a project were missing.

Cheers... Rick
M
MSCarolineAuthor
Known Participant
September 17, 2008
Peter, you raise a very good point about these being separate browse sequences. When you put it that way, it occurs to me that I should have realized that.

Rick, that's one heck of a smart solution. It would work very well for what most people seem to be using merged projects for, which is basically modularity. Because I'm trying to use it in a case where not all modules might be installed, it won't really help me. Impressive, nevertheless, and I don't think that this browse sequence issue is a real deal-breaker in my case.

A day further on, though, I'm more concerned about the possible issues with missing modules-- both Firefox's delay in loading and one other thing I've noticed. In testing this project with the CSH Test tool, I've found that if I remove one of the child project outputs, I get an IE script error message stating that access is denied to this URL: file://C:\ProjectFolder\generate\whskin_pdhtml.htm. Anyone have any experience with that, or any knowledge of whether this problem shows up when using actual context-sensitive help calls? (Note that this particular error is generated on a machine running IE6. I did some preliminary testing on a machine running IE7 and ran into different problems-- notably a security warning asking to run active content followed by a runtime error debug notice that seemed unrelated.) I guess I'm questioning how true to user experience my results in the CSH Test Tool will be...

Thanks,
Melinda
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices