List topics in search tab causes the program to hang/crash (chm help file)

[Tord22166383ohis]

Hello, everybody.

We are using RoboHelp 2020 and generate Microsoft HTML help.

The user start the chm help from a dialogue in our software.

If he enter some search word and click List Topics the help hangs.

If he kill the process (clicking the x in the window) the program crashes to.

Any idea what might be wrong?

Regards

Tord

[Peter Grainge]

Where is the CHM installed?

Does it work OK if you open the CHM direct on your computer?

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Tord22166383ohis]

It's installed together with our software under Program Files:

C:\Program Files\Gemini\Ter17\Sys\Language\Eng

It does not hang if I open it direct on my computer.

We have one more issue. Full text search does not work for this dialogue help. 

[Peter Grainge]

I am dealing with someone else having the same issue with the search. They sent me their project and the output I generated worked fine including the search. I sent them the file back and the search does not work for them. 

When you say the search is failing, that is when you search from the file opened directly on your machine, correct?

Let me know that and I will see what I can find.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Tord22166383ohis]

We have two issue:

1. When chm is opened from our application, then the search (List topics) hangs

2. When chm is opened direct on PC, then full text search does not work. Could the Languange be a problem. We have both english, swedish an orwegian help files.

[Peter Grainge]

Try the About RoboHelp sample project that you can find in Documents > My RoboHelp projects. Does that work?

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Tord22166383ohis]

It does not work either:

[Peter Grainge]

I am advised the CHM is operating system language dependent. Test a project created for whatever OS you have and see if that one works. Assuming it does the projects created for other languages must be tested on machines with that language as the OS.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Tord22166383ohis]

OS language:

[Peter Grainge]

What is your OS language?

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Peter Grainge]

Compass Travel should work with that language. You may need to take this up with Support but let me make some enquiries first.

If you want to go ahead, see https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. The email link tcssup@adobe.com is recommended as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp. 

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Peter Grainge]

I have been dealing with someone else who has this issue and just got this from them.

Thanks so much for your help Peter – it helped me figure it out. It seems to be the hhw (Microsoft HTML Help Workshop) on my machine and by installing an older version from here:

http://www.helpgenerator.com/html_help_workshop.htm#.YbHtV71ByUk

The problem was resolved.

I have queried this with Adobe. It's up to you if you want to try this or wait to see what they come back with.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Peter Grainge]

Based on my earlier reply and information from Adobe, RoboHelp installs just the components it needs and that has not changed since Update 1 of RoboHelp 2019. I have not changed anything on my system so it follows that somehow the other person and likely yourselves have got a later version installed. I have no idea how other than a deliberate update or some other program.

The solution the other person tried has worked for them but I can't say that is what you should do. Let us know what you decide to do and how you get on as that will help anyone else who hits this issue.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[Tord22166383ohis]

Thanks for your quick and good help Peter and for taking the time 👍. I'll update you if or when we solve the problem 😊.

[Amebr]

It might be that some dlls aren't registered properly.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp-discussions/full-text-search-not-working-in-chm-file/m-p/485...

This provides more info and a diagnostic tool (I haven't tried downloading it for a while, but if it doesn't work, try using the WayBack Machine to get a copy).

http://kb.helpwaregroup.com/ms-html-help/mj-s-diagnostics

If that's the problem and the users are not part of your company, I recommend working with your developers to make sure the dlls are correctly registered as part of the application installation process.

[Tord22166383ohis]

Thanks for your tips, but registering this dll's did not solve the problems we have. 

[Tord22166383ohis]

Hi. We have solved the problem with full text search by installing htmlhelp.exe.

The link was provided by TCS support:

"Here’s the custom link I created to access this file: https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/70023d87-2a5e-4c81-7d29-c539d2cedd33."

Regards

Tord

[Peter Grainge]

I suspect that's the same download as the other link but always best to use an Adobe provided link. Thanks for coming back and posting that.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[abel001]

Hi Tord, 

I am currently facing the same issue as your original post:

1. When chm is opened from our application, then the search (List topics) hangs

I see that you have solved the problem with full text search, but did you manage to solve the first problem?

Regards,

Abel

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I suspect it might have solved both issues - did you try the solutions already?

[abel001]

Hi Jeff,

I've tried installing htmlhelp.exe but it didn't resolve the issue.

I have no problem with full text search, only that the search hangs when the chm is opened from our application.

Do you have any ideas? I am running Adobe Robohelp 2015.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

If you launch it directly (i.e. not through the application) does it behave the same way?

[abel001]

No, if launched directly, there is no problem.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ah, then that leads to suspecting something is happenning in the way the application is launching the CHM. Have a chat with your developers to see if they've changed something in their calls to it.

[abel001]

Hi Jeff, I checked with my developers and they confirmed that nothing was changed in the way they call the CHM. They said they tested with the same application version but an older version of the CHM and it worked. Do you know of anything in Robohelp that might cause the search to hang if opened from an application? 

(I was considering upgrading to the latest version of Robohelp if it will fix the issue, but Tord has informed me that they have not solved it too.)