How can I get a child CHM in the output folder?

[D.Desmet]

With a parent project that outputs a CHM, I would like to include a child CHM and link the child CHM from another folder. Linking the child CHM is no problem. If I change the child, in the contents panel, I see the green arrow near the child chm change red and I can sync to update it. Fine.

The only problem is that the child CHM is not copied to the same output folder as the parent CHM. I don't find how I can do this.

If I copy the child CHM manually to the parent CHM folder, and then open the parent CHM, I can see the child topics, so that's fine.

[Peter Grainge]

2020?

In the preset for the child you should be able to set it to generate wherever you want.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[D.Desmet]

2020.6.76

What do you mean with the preset for the child?

1) Contents panel? There I just sync the child and can see the file info. Nothing to set.

2) Table of Contents? There I can hide it from the output or apply a condition to exclude it from the output, but I didn't.

3) HTML Help output preset? I don't see anything related to childs here.

[Peter Grainge]

In the Preset you have to define the path for the output.

Set that to where you want the CHM generated.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[D.Desmet]

That path was set. In that folder, only the CHM of the parent appears when I generate the output. The CHM of the child is not copied to that folder.

[Peter Grainge]

To sure, you are saying both the parent and the child have the same path in their respective presets?

Then when you generate the two projects the parent goes into the folder but the child does not? 

I have never seen RoboHelp generate to the wrong folder so please check again.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[D.Desmet]

No, the child is a different project with a different output path. The child is used with several different parent projects. As I understand, I should compile the child to each output folder of its parents? So when I add a new parent, I have to add an output folder for the child?

Therefore I choose to generate the child to its own folder and to copy it via a sync link to each parent project. I supposed that when I compile the parent project that this copies the child CHM (which is an asset in the parent project) to the parent's output folder.

[Peter Grainge]

No.

The parent project(s) will be set to where you want them. In a typical scenario with one parent you would set the child project preset to go to the same folder. Here you want the child to go to multiple parents. Duplicate the child presets so that you have one for each parent. Just change the output path in each.

Top right when you are in the presets there is a quick generate icon. Click that and select which of those preset you want to generate. To make it easier, rename the child presets to Parent 1, Parent 2 etc.

Does that help?

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[D.Desmet]

It is clear. Thank you.

Since the output folders of my parent projects change more often than the CHM of the child project, I stick to adding it to the assets folder of the parent and to create a link with the child. Then I at least see a red arrow if the child CHM changed. The only thing to do manually is to copy the child CHM from the parent's asset folder to the parents output folder. I don't have to adapt or add folders to the child project then.

I think that it is logical that child CHMs are automatically copied to the parents output folder when this latter one is compiled. I will create a feature request.

[Peter Grainge]

Could you not create a batch file to do the copying for you?

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[D.Desmet]

Good idea. Even better: a post generation script (js). These can be added to the General tab of the output presets. Copying files with js is possible: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/node-js-fs-copyfile-function/

[D.Desmet]

Done this with a post generation script and it works. However, there are some issues:

- Script that are added via Author > Scripts do not appear in the General tab of the output preset unless RH is restarted. Same result with removing a script.

- Scripts are stored in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\RoboHelp\2020\scripting which is good for general scripts, but not for project specific scripts. For this reason, it is not possible to use relative paths for the source and destination folder. I would have to create a script for each project and update it for every change of the project folder.

Then I created a batch file (with xcopy) instead. Unfortunately, I still have to execute it manually, but this one is stored in the project. I will keep the same file structure in each project, so I don't have to change the batch file for every project or if the project folder changes.

[Peter Grainge]

I doubt you would have much luck with a feature request on this one as CHMs are being used less and it is an unusual scenario. 

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.