Framemaker cross reference hyperlinks not recreated on import to robohelp

[LPMichael]

So, I am new to FrameMaker, but not to RoboHelp (been using it since 1994).

We have linked out User Guide FrameMaker book to a RoboHelp project. I generated the first update of the book to the RH project using the Force Update All. and now I see the cross reference content comes across as expected, but the hyperlink tags of the cross reference are lost. The text is formatted to LOOK like a hyperlink, but the aref tabs are missing.

I have been told that is a known issue and that I need to recreate them manually in the RH topics. There are over 300. I am beside myself. Can anyone confirm that this does not work as I expected? I just cannot believe that this is not imported with the hyperlink - or maybe it is that I just don't want to recreate 300+ hyperlinks in my source project.

ANY help/confirmation would be greatly appreciated.

[LPMichael]

Forgot to add, I am using FM 11.0.2.084 and RoboHelp 11.0.0.287.

[LPMichael]

Sorry for the piecemeal nature of my information (finding more as I test).

I just tested a new generic webhelp project linked to a FrameMaker book that I just created for testing.

The cross reference hyperlink that I create in a new FrameMaker file linked to a new webhelp project seem to work.

What would be the cause of my existing project with links to an existing FrameMaker book not carrying over the cross reference hyperlink to RoboHelp?

[LPMichael]

More testing - sorry again for all of this piecemeal...

I may have uncovered a key element that I did not consider.

In my test project, I have a FM book with 5 Chapter files.

The cross reference mentioned above was WITHIN a SINGLE chapter file.

I set up a cross reference from Chapter file ONE to Chapter file TWO.

I updated the linked files in RH project and in Chapter file ONE I see the cross reference to Chapter file TWO.

But, it is only formatted to look like a hyperlink, there is NO aref tag data in the HTML source to Chapter file TWO.

Is this the true issue?

Cross references within a chapter convert the hyperlinking over to RH intact.

Cross references from one FM chapter file to another do not convert the hyperlink over to RH.

So, could anyone shed light on this? Have some tips that will make this work?

Hopefully for me, those 300+ broken links will be whittled down to a handful (hope, hope, hope).

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Check the length of the path to the Chapter TWO file – there’s an invisible limit (of about 30-35 characters) of total path+filename length to xref destinations. I ended up having to move my entire book of books FM content to a shorter path location (that was easy because all paths were relative within FM). That cleared up my busted “malformed” hrefs in my RH project.

BTW, you mention using both RH11 & FM11 – TCS 4 would have RH11 & FM12 in play there. Prior to FM2015 I believe, you needed to be running the TCS versions to get the “secret sauce” of linking content (you could always import though without it).