Corrupted (binary) Topic File Crashing RH8 on WebHelp (& HTML Help) Generation

[MergeThis]

(This is a solution to a problem that doesn't seem to have cropped up in the forum yet. If it does to anyone else, I hope this will help.)

Generating WebHelp (also HTML Help) started crashing RH8 almost immediately, although Printed Documentation was working fine. Opening the project was not an issue.

I attempted the following fixes:

1. Created a new WebHelp layout (fresh, not a copy) and assigned it as the Default Layout. no joy
2. Renamed the .cpd file and launched the .xpj file. no joy
3. Had another writer Get the project and try generating WebHelp. no joy

Before I went the "copy project/delete .cpd and .xpj files/recreate conditionals/recreate non-default layouts/copy rhvariable.apj" route from Peter's site, I thought I'd check RoboSource Control and look at a file that I had been having trouble Synchronizing to the file on my local machine. That is, the row was shaded, indicating a difference, but resisted synching because the files were supposedly identical. I figured I'd try to Revert back to an earlier version of that file.

Well, when I tried right clicking and selecting View, I got an error message saying that this was a binary file and couldn't be opened. I got the same error message for all earlier versions of that file (15 of them over the past 7 months).

So I created a new topic, reproduced the content, replaced all TOC and Index links, then deleted the bad file, and generated WebHelp. Huzzah, there was joy throughout the land!

So it's still unclear to me how this file got corrupted in this manner; I know that hitting 3-4 keystrokes at a time seems to make RH gag, so it might have been that.

Good luck,

Leon

[Captiv8r]

Hi Leon

This was a topic file?

Note that I'm not a RoboSource user, but I do know that Source Control systems recognize files as being Binary or Text. I'm wondering if there is a way to coax it into accepting as one or the other? Perhaps a right-click option of some sort.

Interesting observation and thanks for sharing! Hopefully it will help others. What are your thoughts about moving this thread from the WebHelp forum category to the Source Control category?

Cheers... Rick

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[MergeThis]

Rick, I'm not entirely sure that this problem was initiated by RSC (which I mentioned in my initial post), and not by a fat-fingered user (moi) trying to conduct multiple operations all at once (which I often do, unfortunately).

Therefore, I'm reluctant to move it there. However, I'll not pout if you feel strongly that it's best in that forum.

Sigh...anxiously awaiting RH 8.0.1,

Leon

[Captiv8r]

Hmmm, perhaps I'll simply amend our troubleshooting topic for RSC and RoboHelp to include a link to your post.

Thanks! Rick