Full Text Search only searches some words

[Russ_Lowder]

I developed a help system on RoboHelp 9, then upgraded to RoboHelp 11 and most recently upgraded to RoboHelp 2017 about a year ago. A few months ago it was reported that the search function only worked some of the time. My investigation has shown that items entered into the system prior to upgrading to 2017 seem to be included in the search and items entered after upgrading to 2017 do not appear in the search. I've combed the forums and helper websites and cannot find anything related to this issue regarding searching. I've checked and double checked my settings and all appears to be correct.

Do I need to make some change to my 2017 so the full text search will truly search all words? Any help/insight is much appreciated.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Don't recall that one off the top of my head - you all up to date? Any difference by browser? Does it work locally, but not on a web server (or vice versa)?

[Russ_Lowder]

No difference by browser - I've used both IE 11 and Chrome. All updates are installed. The search results are the same locally or from the web server. In the past I've read that some issues are fixed by deleting the whdata and whxdata folders and letting them recreate. Mine are both dated 2016. I've been nervous to try that without consultation. Thoughts?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

No idea, but if you play, make sure you do it on a copy & not the real thing

[Russ_Lowder]

Thanks Jeff - I always test from copies or backups - never the real deal. Always good to be reminded...

[Peter Grainge]

When you generate, the folder to which you generate is cleared first. Thus

deleting those folders and files happens every time. It's not the same with

publishing but you say it's happening with the local help as well.

Are you testing by opening the help directly, not via your software

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

[Russ_Lowder]

I test locally from the local index.htm not from the software.

I have a confession... I don't usually test locally due to an issue with javascript on our machines (something to do with the image they use). The javascript issue prevents the search from working at all locally. From the server the help system runs fine and the search produces results for most files... as I said files uploaded prior to moving to RH 2017.

Sorry for speaking out of turn regarding the local test. When I said it didn't work locally I was going from memory the last time I tested it, but forgot that the javascript error was the reason the search didn't work correctly. So in fact I don't have a local test that is reliable in this case.

When the project compiles the "Scanning Full Text Search" part of the compile takes a long time - and it appears it's capturing all the uploaded files so I'm at a loss as to why newer files are not included in the search results.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

In that case, I would be tempted to zip it all up and play with it locally from home - then you can enable all the JS you want without corporate interference.

[Russ_Lowder]

I will give that a try and report back. Thanks.

[Amebr]

I wonder if the files inside the wh* folders on the server aren't being updated when you publish for some reason? I'd compare the file dates on my local copy with the ones on the server.

And don't worry about the folder dates, just the actual file dates.