Link Folder RH project, where some FM cross-reference are not linking in RH

Report · Dec 14, 2023

Hello, I'm using FM 17.0.3.546 and RH 2022.3.93

I'm having an issue with some of my FM cross-reference not linking in RH.

When:

in FM, I cross-reference a section or sub-section within the same chapter, the link is made in RH—I click the link in the generated output and it jumps to the correct section.
in FM, I cross-reference a section in another chapter, the link doesn't get created in RH—I click the link in the generated output and it doesn't jump to the section.

This is how I generated my output:

In FM, my .book contains 10 chapters, and in RH, I created a new projects, and used Link Folder to link my project. This works fine.

In RH, Author>Contents: I set up my FM link settings to start new topic from style (right-click link .fm file, click Edit Settings>General>Start new topic from style, and point to my FM paragraph tags I want topics for). This works great!

In RH, Author>Contents: I created the topics (right-click link .fm file, click Create Topics). This works great!

In Rh, Author>Table of Contents: I created a new Table of Contents, type BOOK_TOC, then build my Toc. Still good so far.

In RH, Output>Output Presets: I created a new preset Responsive HTML5 (I'm using template Charcoal_Grey for the layout).

In RH, Output>Output Preset: I generated the output and viewed it. It works beautifully. Except for the cross-references.

Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

Cindy

Report · Dec 14, 2023

Check the length of the path+filenames for both your source FM files and the RH project location - shorter is good - I found there's an invisible limit to the absolute path+filename # of characters that will break xrefs coming from the FM content.

Report · Dec 14, 2023

I believe what you're saying is true, shorter is always better. I don't think that's the issue though.

Topics that cross-reference to another topic inside the same folder work great.
Topics that cross-reference to a topic in another folder get broken.

In the example here:

under folder Ch6_Transfer_Module, topic "Agency_List" can cross-reference topic "Contact_List"—link intact.
under folder Ch6_Transfer_Module, topic "Agency_List" cannot cross-references a topic under folder Ch7_ListsModule, let's say topic "Changing_Display_Characteristics" —the link breaks.

Report · Dec 14, 2023

The path relates to the entire file system path, not just the path within the project. So for example if you keep your projects in your Documents folder in Windows, this can easily hit the character limit as the path is actually something like:

c:\User\jonathan.citizen\Documents\My Robohelp Projects\My_long_project_name\folder1\folder2\my_long_topic_name_as_well.htm

And it gets worse if that location is mapped to a cloud drive, which is often the case with corporate computers these days.

Report · Dec 15, 2023

It seems to be even more important on the FM end of things - once I shortened up the absolute path to my FM content on my network server, the busted xrefs in the resulting RH project stopped happening. It really got my interest when links on the same page would have some working and others that didn't.

Report · Dec 15, 2023

Thank you Amerb & Jeff_Coatsworth.

I will test this theory out. FM & RH being so sensitive, it's giving me anxiety just thinking how I will test it out, but I will do this and get back.

Not sure who marked both your answers "correct" before I got a chance to test it out, but I will be back on this thread to confirm the suggestions. 🙂

Report · Dec 15, 2023

"Not sure who marked both your answers "correct" before I got a chance to test it out..." - Let's fix that - there's been some phantom "correct" marking going on in the forums lately.

Report · Dec 15, 2023

I can't create shorter paths, still doing the same thing.

Linked FrameMaker folder: C:\P911

Robohelp project:

Figure 9 link

If I place my cursor on "Figure 9": RH Content Properties shows the source (Figure9_contentproperties.png).
If I right-click on "Figure 9", I can "Locate in the Contents panel": in C:\Help\P911\contents\P911\Ch1_TheBasics\Lists_Module.htm

Overview link

If I place my cursor on "Overview: RH Content Properties shows blank (Overview_contentproperties.png)
If I right-click on "Overview", I don't get that option to locate in the Contents panel. Just doesn't find the .htm to link.

If I understood code, I might understand a little more what's going on under the hood, but sadly I'm not 😞

Report · Dec 15, 2023

Are the misbehaving xrefs in FM all inside tables? It's hard to tell just from the RH end. What you need to check with the Overview link is if RH got a #XREF at the spot in the destination topic - if that didn't come over into RH, then it's not going to work upon generation.

Report · May 27, 2024

I'm back! I've since updated to FM 17.0.4.628 & RH 2022.4.179 (I have the latest TechComm suite). This is still an issue for me, I have never figured out how to fix it.
In a next test (without tables):

Any reference to a section inside the same chapter, once linked in RH, works fine—Source displays.
Any reference to a section outside the chapter, once linked in RH, doesn't work—Source is blank.

My paths are as follows—can't get any shorter:

FM: C:\MyFMProjects\ProjectA

RH: C:\MyRHOutput\ProjectA

FrameMaker Link Settings>Cross Reference for Heading (FM) IS <$paratext> (RH).

Jeff, can you explain further about "if RH got a #XREF at the spot in the destination topic". Do you mean that I should look in the RH destination file Content Properties for something—if so, what should I be looking for?

At the moment it seems like I'll have to manually create cross-references. So much for single-sourcing? This cannot be the answer.

Report · May 28, 2024

Yes, if you open the RH topic with the place where "Overview" is supposed to link to, you should see (in the source or code view - I forget how RH2022 refers to it) a bookmark code that came over from the FM source content. If you discover that there's no bookmark present, then that means RH failed to create it from the FM source.

I have another thought - re-reading this thread, you are all about doing the linking function - have you tried experimenting with the import route? Create a new blank project in RH, open up FM and just leave it sitting at the intro screen, and then go into the RH project and Import (not Link) your FM book into the project. You should get the same mapping choices to determine pagination (topic splitting) and style mapping of your FM paragraph and character tags. See if that produces healthy bookmarks and correctly working xrefs in the RH project and then try generating the output to also test its links.

Report · May 28, 2024

Hi Jeff, thanks for replying so swiftly!

I opened the RH topic with the place where the cross-reference is supposed to link to, and looked at the code view.

I have a comparison between the good (inter topic) cross-reference vs the cross-reference outside a section outside to topic—I hope the graphics are large enough that you can see them?

Good (internal):

Bad (external):

I don't know what to make of it because I'm not a coder 😞 I'm trying to research on W3 Schools and I see in the second one that it's missing href= and #value (https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links_bookmarks.asp), but still not sure what to make of it. I'm going to speak to my dev collegue and see what he says.

Report · May 28, 2024

Yes, the second link is definitely mal-formed. In FM is it located in another .fm file within the same book structure?

Report · May 28, 2024

Yes, the 2nd link in my example above is to a section located in another .fm file (Chapter 2) within the same book.

----

I tested the following links in a PDF and all work great! I then updated RH and only the first link works:

Red: cross-ref to a section in Chapter 1.

Green: cross-ref to a section in Chapter 2.

Blue: created a hypertext "named destination in Chapter 2", then created a hypertext command "Jump to Named Destination" with command gotolink Ch2_HandlingVoiceCalls.fm:MultimediaSharing.

Do you think I should report a bug?

Report · May 28, 2024

How did you create the PDF? Via FM or via RH?
I think you should try out the Import function as a test first to see if the RH topic gets the right coding.

Report · May 28, 2024

I created the pdf in Fm>(book)Save As PDF.

I'll try the Import function to see if it gets the right coding....

Report · Jun 07, 2024

I am confirming that if I insert a cross-reference in a document (ex. chapter 1), and the source document (the document containing the target for the cross-reference) is other than the current document (ex. chapter 2), the link in RH doesn't work (linking or import).

Report · Jun 07, 2024

How are you making the xref in FM? I ask, because there's been a report over on the FM forum that links created using the Hyperlink command (vs. the Cross Reference command) in FM fails to create working links in the resulting HTML5 (which is done through the Publish route in FM).

Report · Jun 07, 2024

Report · Jun 07, 2024

Also, I tested the Jump to Named Destination, etc. and that didn't pan out either (see my post just above dated May 28, 2024).

Would you be so kind as to link me the FM forum you speak of. I'd love to read that. Trying to do everything I can on my side before I reach out to tcssup.

Report · Jun 07, 2024

Here's the FM discussion I was thinking about - https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker-discussions/hyperlinks-between-files-not-recognized-in-res...

Report · Jun 10, 2024

Hi Jeff, thanks for the link to the discussion. It seems to be the exact same issue that I am having.

Report · Oct 17, 2024

Did updating to the latest patches in both products solve the issue?

Report · Oct 22, 2024

Hi Jeff,

No. I updated FM with update 5 (17.0.5.725) and RH with update 5 (2022.5.28), did a reboot just in case, and no difference. Meaning, only inter-chapter cross refs created in FM work in RH after linking.

Report · Oct 22, 2024

Have you reported this to the TCS crew?