Links between Child projects not working in Internet Explorer (WebHelp Output)

[MDennetti]

I have set up a test environment with two child projects in order to test that links will work between child projects. I found that when creating WebHelp output, the links work OK in Chrome, but not in IE. It is not possible to follow the link, or right-click it and open a new tab. Could this be a problem with the way IE handles relative paths, and if so, could anyone suggest a workaround?

Any advice would be appreciated. (Robohelp v11, IE version 11.)

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are you all patched up in RH11?

[MDennetti]

Think so. Windows updates are pushed out to us by IT, and I installed the latest updates today.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

RH updates, not Windows updates – what version of RH11 are you running?

[MDennetti]

Version 11.0.4.291. It has been patched recently.

[MDennetti]

Sorry, meant to say, It hasn't been patched recently.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Since I don’t play with parent/child projects at all, have you tried using the sample one that Peter Grainge has on his site (grainge.org) to play with?

[MDennetti]

I followed the instructions on this site when creating my own test environment. I haven't tried his example, but I think it will show the same problem.

[Peter Grainge]

Maybe you do think my demo will have the same problem but only testing that in your environment will tell us for sure. Then we will know better where to start looking.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

OK, I will install this and let you know.

Thanks

[MDennetti]

I have installed your demo in my environment and it works perfectly. Thanks

[Peter Grainge]

OK so now you will be able to see what is different about my structure and project compared with yours.

Come back if stuck.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

Will do, thanks.

[MDennetti]

I have not been able to isolate the problem. I created the two test projects by copying existing live projects. Many of the existing topics are in sub folders, which I thought may have caused the problem. I have, however, added topics at the top level and still have the problem. Could you suggest anything to test, to see if I can get a working link?

[MDennetti]

I have deleted the second child project , and then re added it. Still get the same problem.

I have noticed that breadcrumb links in the second child project do not work when clicked on, but these links in the first project do work when clicked on.

[MDennetti]

A partial breakthrough: the links worked OK after I moved the output folders to a network location. I also noticed that when the files were located on my local drive, there were three forward slashes after "file:", but when accessed over the network, there were only two.

The demo also has three forward slashes after "file:", and that works OK so don't think we have arrived at the root of the problem yet...

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

Normally I would suggest sending me your projects so that I could take a look. However, your timing is bad as I cannot offer to do that for several weeks now.

When you use IE are you seeing a message about active x and wanting you to allow it? I am thinking that could be the problem as that only occurs with local installations. On the other hand, if that was the cause, you would see it with my projects as well.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

Thanks very much. I am not seeing any messages. I also sent the output files to a colleague, who could follow all the links without any problems when accessing them on his computer. It appears that the problem lies with my computer, when accessing these files locally. If this is the case, I am happy as my aim was to prove that it was feasible to merge our live projects without encountering any tricky problems. I have not been able to get the redirect page working yet, but that may be the result of the problem on my computer. Do you know of any limitations we should be aware of when merging Robohelp projects, such as problems with the Index or Search? It appears to be a robust solution from the testing I have done.