Combining AIRHelp using RoboHelp 8's Help Viewer Wizard is not working.

[I_am_Sammy_Spencer]

I am having problems successfully combining

multiple .RHA documents into one AIRHelp file (as

discussed in RJ's Webinar).

I am hoping someone can assist me.

Here is the process in which I'm using:

1.) Output each individual document as .RHA files.

2.) Create the "combining" document as an AIRHelp file using RoboHelp HTLM 8's Help Viewer Wizard.

3.) In the same directory as the "combining" AIRHelp file, I create using Notepad a file called "help.helpcfg".

4.) In "help.helpcfg", I have the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<contents>

<data id="Help1" label="Help 1 Document" onlineurl="" offlineurl="file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Student/Desktop/Document 1/Output/RHA/UltimusClient.rha" useoffline="true"/>
<data id="Help2" label="Help 2 Document" onlineurl="" offlineurl="file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Student/Desktop/Document 2/Output/RHA/UltimusClient.rha" useoffline="true"/>

</contents>

5.) I install the "combining" AIRHelp document.

6.) In the directory in which the "combining" AIRHelp document was installed, I place the "help.helpcfg" file. Note that all documents are on one accessible network location, so accessibility between the "combining" document and the individual .RHA files is not an issue.

Whenever I launch the "combining" AIRHelp document, I receive the typical message that it cannot find the main application.

Could someone assist me with what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you very much in advance!

Most sincerely,

Sammy Spencer

[Praful_Jain]

Hi Sammy,

Can you please clarify some points to me.

• You had installed the AIR file on some machine, and copied the help.helpcfg file in the installed AIR file location. when you run the AIR file do you see dropdown having Help 1 Document and Help 2 Document.

• Second thing, can you do one thing, go to start menu select run option, and type following, C:/Documents and  Settings/Student/Desktop/Document 2/Output/RHA/UltimusClient.rha and Press enter, and see if you are able to access this file or not.

AIR file reads the helpcfg file and tries to load the offline or online Help content. so if the help content is not accessible on that machine for some reason, then AIR file shows error in accessing help file MainApp.

Thanks

Praful

[I_am_Sammy_Spencer]

Hey, Praful! Thank you for your quick reply!

To answer your questions, even though I have the "help.helpcfg" file in the same directory as the installed "combined" AIR Help file, when I launch it from Windows Explorer or the Start menu shortcut, I receive the message that it cannot find the main application.

Furthermore, when I copy the path to my .RHA file and paste it into "Run" command, it successfully finds it; Windows doesn't know how to access the .RHA file, but it at least accesses it. In reality, the "combined" AIR Help file and the associated .RHA files are all on the same computer (and doesn't even need a network connection to access each other). Furthermore, the "combining" AIR Help file is installed on the same computer in which the .RHA files are located.

I am guessing by your questions that I at least have the XML syntax correct?

Thank you again for your assistance!

Most sincerely,

Sammy Spencer

[Praful_Jain]

Hi Sammy,

Can you please share with me the installed AIR application folder. Zip the installed AIR application folder (which contains the help.helpcfg file as well), and upload it to https://share.acrobat.com/ site and give sharing rights to praful@adobe.com. I will try to look into the AIR application folder and try to find out the root cause of the issue.

-Praful

[Praful_Jain]

Hi Sammy,

Thanks for sharing the AIR help file directory. I was able to see the issue. The main root cause of the issue is the helpcfg file is stored as a unicode file, and AIR help is not able to read the helpcfg file correctly.

Solution:

     Open the helpcfg file in notepad, select file > save as and in the encoding combobox, select ANSI as the encoding option and resave the helpcfg file.

Now try running the AIR help application. I was able to run the AIR help with this change.

Let me know if you find any issues.

-Praful

[I_am_Sammy_Spencer]

Hey, Praful Jane! Thank you, as always, for your great assistance!

I have come closer to combining my two test documents into a "shell" AIRHelp. As you know, my two test documents are identical, but have made duplicate copies in two separate directories. Just to tell the two apart, I regenerated new .RHA files for each but changed the document titles (both in the .RHA file generation and on the actual title pages) to "1" and "2," respectively.

Once I saved the help.helpcfg file to ANSI format, the "shell" AIRHelp file was able to load the first test document. However, there is no drop-down box beside the Search text box to select other documents in which the help.helpcfg file points. So, I cannot view the second test document.

Could the issue be that the names for the .RHA files are identical (but in different directories)? (I tested this theory to no avail.) Or could it be that the document IDs and version numbers are identical, and AIRHelp is smart enough to realize this (and is only displaying the first one)?

Have any ideas?

Most sincerely,

Sammy Spencer

[Praful_Jain · Accepted solution]

Hi Sammy,

Great to hear that AIR help viewer is working for you now. One important thing, related to helpcfg files is it loads different help RHA(directories as well) in the same viewer. Now to distinguish between different Help data files, the helpcfg file has to provide different IDs to it. As I see your helpcfg file, there are 2 entries for RHA files, but both of them have same ID, we need to provide different IDs to the different Help systems only then AIR help viewer will show different entries.

Please see the URL for more information @ http://help.adobe.com/en_US/RoboHelp/8.0/RoboHTML/WSC6D74158-7BEE-4d0b-BE5A-CDE7709EC109.html

Hope this solves the problem.

-Praful

[I_am_Sammy_Spencer]

Hey, Praful!

Yeah, that was it. Since I had been using one document for testing, they had the same document ID. When I changed the document ID for one iteration, it worked just fine. In the real world, I'd be using actually different documents, so this test was great! Thank you again for your help!

One last question regarding how combined AIRHelp files work (which was not in RoboHelp 8 technical documentation)... I understand that if I use this configuration, all I would need to do to update a document in the document set is to overwrite the existing .RHA files, and the "shell" AIRHelp will automatically open it. Likewise, if I wanted to add another document to that document set, I would upload the new .RHA files as well as replace the .helpcfg file with the appropriate path to that new document.

Here's my question...

When I create actual AIRHelp documents that would ultimately go into the "shell" as an .RHA document, I can specify where updated iterations of that document can be found; then, once I create the .RHA file of that document, will the .RHA file remember where the updated document/CheckUpdate.xml file is, and when the reader views/selects that document from the "shell," will the reader be notified that an update is available?  This would be a preferable solution, so that as the technical documentation manager I can upload only specific documents which have updates without burdening readers from having to download the entire document set again.

Or, is the only way readers receive updates to .RHA files is if I update the "shell" AIRHelp file with a new version? This would be the less beneficial option, as I would require the reader to download a new "shell" document update, and then potentially the entire document set (instead of only individual documents).

Oh! And a follow-up question: Once a document set has been created like this, can you perform a search across the entire document set, or does text search only function within the selected document?

As always, thank you again for all your help! You do Adobe proud!

Most sincerely,

Sammy Spencer

[Praful_Jain]

Hi Saamy,

Currently AIR Help does not allow updation of individual topics, if you are using RHA files, then you need to update the whole RHA file. AIR Help viewer will automatically update the help system when new RHA file is accessed.

Now regarding the Search functionality, when a user search any term, it is searched in the entier Help data(in a specific RHA file in your case).

So if you have 2 different RHA files associated with a AIR help viewer, then user need to select a help system from the drop down, and AIR Help viewer will then show TOC/Index/Glossary/Favorites/Comments/Search for that specific Help System only.

-Praful

[I_am_Sammy_Spencer]

Hey, Prayful Jain! I feel like I'm really getting to know you, with how much we have corresponded lately!

Actually, I have no problem at all updating the entire .RHA document (rather than just individual topic/HTML files); that would become too cumbersome to keep track of anyhow!

But what I was more asking about is if a compiled document (a "shell" referencing a number of .RHA documents) is installed on a customer's computer, and the .helpcfg file references both online and offline iterations of the .RHA documents, is there any way to notify the customer that a new .RHA file is available for their locally installed iteration of the .RHA document (much like how AIRHelp can notify that an updated iteration is available, download, then install it). Or does the "auto-update functionality" only work with AIRHelp using the EXE file, since the runtime aspect of Adobe AIR is required to check for a new version?

In other words, if I were to use a compiled document to distribute my technical documentation to customers, the auto-update functionality would not work? Granted, customers would still be able to read the latest online iteration, since I would update that on my Web server. But I would lose the ability for my customers to have updated content both offline and online. Would that be correct?

Here is another question I have regarding compiled documents...  What do I tell my Development team in regards to how to display a specific .RHA document within a set of documents? How do I tell my Development team that since the "Help command" from the product was called from "Application B," that the .RHA document for Application B is displayed when the compiled document is launched. I am guessing that it has something to do with the Document ID for the .RHA document. But what is the code and syntax required, so that I can pass that along to my Development team if we decide to go along with a compiled document structure for our product?

As always, thank you very much for all your assistance! Have a great day!

Most sincerely,

Sammy Spencer

[Praful_Jain]

Hi Sammy,

The AutoUpdate functionality is updates the AIR Help system (shell) installed on the user machine. It does not update the RHA files, as they are not included with Help system.

Regarding the CSH API call, to specify which help document to show, Please check the help documentation @ C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 8\CSH API\. This folder contains, all the language specific API function calls, for example, RH_AIR_ShowHelp function in C++ folder talks about the way to call CSH API call from C++ applications. This function expects a Help ID (which is the ID provided in the helpcfg file). and AIR help will automatically load the help from that specific ID.

Again, auto update of RHA files is a nice feature, but not present in current RoboHelp 8 version.

Thanks

Praful

[Guest]

Reviewing this exchange has been very helpful to me as I prepare a combined help system using the viewer -- Thanks!
I have a couple of related questions as far as distributing the combined help to users.

I have created my RHA files, which are stored presently on my hard drive. I've created the HELPCFG file pointing to those RHA files. There is my air installer for the viewer, which is in another location. I run the installer, which creates the necessary folders and help executable in C:Program Files. I then copy the HELPCFG file into the folder with the executable. When I run the executable, the viewer comes up and everything works as it should.

Now I want to provide this combined help to a user. The user runs the AIR installer, which creates the executable in his/her Program Files. But he/she doesn't have either the HELPCFG file or the RHA files at this point. How should I package all the necessary files so that everything gets put in its proper place? I don't want the user to have to manually copy files from one place to another. Is there some other installer that can do this for me? Am I going to have to develop such an installer on my own?

[Lydia_Auzenne]

Hi Sammy,

I was able to successfully follow your steps to view a single AIR app through the viewer. I can't get multiple AIR apps to appear in the viewer and I think I've isolated the problem to your below step 2.

"2.) Create the "combining" document as an AIRHelp file using RoboHelp  HTLM 8's Help Viewer Wizard."

Questions:

1. Can you please elaborate on how you created the "combining" document using the Help Viewer Wizard?
2. Which AIR Help file did you select when creating the viewer using AIR Viewer Wizard?

Thanks,

Lydia