Index Filter Not Working in Responsive HTML5 Output

[Freespirit-ST]

I am using Robohelp 2017 with 2^nd update.  This help system is VERY large, and the Index has several thousand keywords and subkeywords. We have been using WebHelp output that is called by our application web server for context-sensitive help for many years now.  However the TOC was not working in Chrome, and we need to support both IE 11 and Chrome for our applications. So we just switched to Responsive HTML5, with Azure_Blue layout.  So now, our TOC and Search are working, but Index is not working. Note that Index worked fine with WebHelp – we just switched to Responsive HTML5 because of the TOC issue. Our layout is set up so you click to view in full context (with the TOC, Index, and Search panels).

From other Forum threads here with related issues, we applied the updates to the JS files for Search, and that helped.  I looked for any other possible updates we needed – except for going to RH 2019! – and I think we are up-to-date.

Here’s the issue with our Index in Responsive HTML5, in  both IE11 and Chrome browsers:

• The Index initially displays the first portion of the Index.  I can scroll down to the bottom of the Index panel to go further down, and vertical scroll bar pops back up a bit so that I can continue to scroll further down. That happens at least some of the time! So, it is not a smooth scroll to go through the entire humongous Index, if at all. Because of the size of the Index, I’m not sure if we can do anything for this.
• If I enter a keyword into the Index Filter Keywords field at the top, then press Enter – nothing happens. If I don’t press Enter, nothing happens. My coworker is able to use the Index filter, some of the time.  For me, it just sits there. Because our Index is so very big, we really would like the Index filter feature to work.

We need to know whether this could be an issue or limitation of Responsive HTML5 output. We would like to continue using this, since it fixed our TOC problem in Chrome. But maybe a different layout would work better with such a large help system. Or maybe there is a RoboHelp setting or option that we missed. Or - would going to Robohelp 2019 help us with this Index issue with specific fixes??

Any suggestions and answers are greatly appreciated.  We love our Index and want it to work.

Thanks.

Susan

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

Couple of suggestions - try as an experiment - to create the same help using other layouts & see if you get the same effect or not. Also try out the sample projects & see if they demonstrate the same behaviour too. That might give you a clue as to if it's the project, the layout used or the version of the software.

[Freespirit-ST]

Thank you!  Do you mean other layouts for Responsive HTML5?  We will do that.

I did forget to say that I have several other much smaller help systems, and they have NO problems with our Responsive HTML5 layout. But index is much, much smaller. All navigation features work just fine.

I appreciate your response, Jeff - we will continue to experiment.

Susan

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes, other HTML5 designs - it could be that you find that the enormous size of the index just bogs down in the loading. I've seen that with WebHelp indices and TOCs that were the product of merged projects.

[Amebr]

There's this item in the bug database which sounds like your issue (RH-1190)

Tracker

[Freespirit-ST]

Thank you SO much!!  I switched to Charcoal Grey layout, with some customization for colors - and the Index filter is now working!!  So we can now use our beloved Index. It didn't occur to me that changing to a different layouts would make such a difference.

Plus I see that there is an existing RH bug for this, RH-1190 - thanks to all the help from Amebr and Jeff.

I feel much more sane now that this has been resolved, hopefully forever!!  How do I mark my post here as "Answered" or "Correct"?

Susan

[Peter Grainge]

Jeff's first reply suggested trying a different layout.

When you are logged in you should see buttons for marking replies.

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

[Freespirit-ST]

Definitely logged in.  But only seeing: Actions (with Report Abuse), Helpful, Like, Reply, and Translate.  If I click Reply, I just get the regular message entry area.  Not sure why I don't see anything else.

If a moderator wants to mark this as "Answered", that is great.  Sorry - don't see the links or buttons to mark the reply.

[Peter Grainge]

The reason you did not see a Correct button is that you started the thread as a Discussion rather than a Question. Only questions can be marked as correct.

I have changed your post to being a question so you should now see the Correct button.

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See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[Freespirit-ST]

Thank you, Peter!!  Another mystery solved!  Will remember this.

Susan

[Peter Grainge]

@Susan

An update on this issue. This can be made to work with your original layout, you don''t have to change to another just to make the index work.

1. Go to your output and locate the Gallery button.
2. Reselect your preferred layout giving it a slightly different name.
3. Test the index now works OK.

Assuming it does, you can either use this new layout or, if you had applied customisations, you can make the old layout work.

1. In Explorer, locate the new layout in your project.
2. Locate the file topic.slp.
3. Copy that file to the same location in the folders for your original layout.

It should now work in the old layout.

Do take a backup before you start and please let us know if this works. Assuming it does, please then mark this as the correct answer to help anyone else hitting the problem.

---

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[Freespirit-ST]

Thanks so much, Peter, for this update.  I will certainly give this a try. I do like to make the time to experiment - cause that's how we learn more! But I really appreciate your always helping us make progress.

We have been using Charcoal Grey, and everything is working well, even the Index filter for our humongous Index!  And we've even taken care of the situation where a user resizes down too much and loses the layout presentation. But I would like to also try our old layout again.

Take care

Susan

[JGaf]

thank you for posting this!