Editing HTML of Responsive Layout Breaks Search Function

Report · Jun 25, 2015

Hi everyone,

I've been using William's incredibly helpful webinars on editing a responsive HTML5 layout to redesign the Theme 1 Standard layout for my project in Robohelp 11. However, it appears that if I edit the HTML of the layout (mainly the default Topic layout), the result is that the search function no longer works; i.e., I can type in a search term, but submitting it does nothing. The issue is not browser-specific because the search function stops working in Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 38.0.1, and Chrome version 43. I also tested this on two different computers and the result is the same.

It appears that I can edit the CSS without any issues, but I cannot edit the HTML of the layout without the search function breaking. I tested this by creating a new responsive HTML5 layout and editing only the main.css file and not making any changes to the HTML of any of the layout pages. The search function still works in this instance. However, if I make any changes to the HTML of a layout page, it results in the search functioning not working. Even if the change is minor to the HTML, such as changing a word of visible text, the search function is affected. Strangely, the search function is still nonfuctional even when I copy and paste back in the original HTML of the layout page (again, I am mainly editing the default Topic layout page). It's as if RoboHelp knows that I edited the HTML of the layout (I know this sounds paranoid, but right now it seems perfectly reasonable to me).

I downloaded William's Responsive Theme 1 Layout without a table of contents from his blog post on May 14, 2015, to see if it's something I am doing or if it's inherent in RoboHelp (or, at least my version of RoboHelp 11). Unfortunately, I get the same result after importing the layout and generating the file. The search function is not functional with William's layout either -- at least on my on workstation and another colleague's workstation.

Is there something I am doing to cause the issue? Or is it something that is inherent in RoboHelp?

For reference, here are the changes I've made to the HTML of the default Topic layout:

Added an additional menu bar that runs on top of the RoboHelp toolbar
Added links to four locations on the additional menu bar, one of which is a link by way of an image
Added in a title that is anchored on the right side of the header
Revised the alternative text for the logo
Removed the glossary icon and glossary tab contents as I won't be using the built-in glossary
Removed the table of contents and index icons and replaced them with text (in an effort to be more accessible)

Note, though, that the search function breaks even if I make a minor change.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

I also want to extend a thank you to both William and Peter for their blogs and websites that offer immeasurable assistance to a novice Robohelp user such as myself. I owe a debt of gratitude to you both for your time and efforts.

Report · Jun 30, 2015

Willam resolved the issue in a response to the same question on his blog. The response is included below. I've confirmed that his solution does work.

Thank you very much, Willam, and everyone else contributing to this forum!

Response:

The problem is that if you open the Topic.slp in RoboHelp 11, RoboHelp removes the Search Results widget from the topic page, breaking the search. To avoid this, only open the .slp files with notepad outside of RoboHelp.