Conditional tags work locally but not on web server

[maryann1366]

After I generate my pages and view locally, the content that I have excluded with a conditional tag is not visible - everything works great!

I have 3 conditional tags and all three work properly when viewed locally.

When I ftp the files to the web server, only content from one of the tags is hidden.

When I look at the properties of the conditional tags, only Quick Tips shows the NOT expression.

I tried removing all 3 conditional build tags and only using one and still have the same problem. It works locally but not after I ftp the files to the web server.

I must be copying something I shouldn't?

Thanks for any ideas you can provide.

Mary Ann

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Sorry, but we have questions that need answers before we proceed.

First - What version of RoboHelp are you using?

Second - What is your output? WebHelp? Responsive HTML 5?

If you can help us by answering those questions we can better guide you.

Cheers... Rick

[maryann1366]

Sorry about that, my version is 2017 and I am generating responsive html.

[Captiv8r]

Okay. First, you need to understand that with conditional tagging, you apply tags to content or to pages for two different reasons.

Reason 1. You want to create an output and control what the output contains. So you tag information and at the time you generate the output from RoboHelp, you decide what information is included or not, based on the tags and build expression. That seems to match what you are showing in your screen captures.

Reason 2. You are creating a Responsive HTML5 output and you want to use the Filters option. In this case the end user (not the author) decides what information is presented based on the filtering mechanism.

So which of the reasons are you using Conditional tags?

Cheers... Rick

[maryann1366]

Reason 1

[maryann1366]

Here are two screen shots of what I was describing.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are you manually FTPing the contents of your local \!SSL!\ folder up to the web server or using the Publish feature inside RH? Because if you manually copy stuff up, you should be able to delete all the files already loaded & upload all the contents of the locally generated files to get an exact copy of what's local. If it's still not behaving, I would try flushing your browser cache or experiment with a different browser/machine.

[maryann1366]

I am manually copying the files.

I have deleted all the files on the server.

I have cleared cache and used different browsers.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

And still getting the same results as before? Bizarre! There's got to be something going on on that web server that's showing the incorrect files.

[maryann1366 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your help and questions. It is a problem with our load balancer and it is pointing to my dev site (which doesn't apply any conditional tags)

Your questions and comments helped me test and figure it out!