My Browser Based Air help won't work can anyone tell me why?

[Guest]

I am using RH 8 and Windows 7.

I looked at the Grainge site which said it was similar to a merge.

So, since my project is a merged project I used that to do the Browser based help.

I accessed the parent .xpj file, clicked Adobe Air and let it generate browser based air wherever it wanted. It did generate an SSL folder and the folders for my merged projects were there. I accessed a child merge file and clicked Adobe Air to generate a browser based air help to the correct folder. It displayed but it did not display when I accessed the original parent file.

So, I accessed the parent .xpj file again clicked Adobe Air and changed the start page to c:\RHair82\HelpforSs.htm. This makes the path shorter.

It produced a mergedProjects folder with folders for all of my merged projects. However, it didn't produce an SSL folder. Again, the child file could display but I couldn't access it from the parent file.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Pat

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

By default the wizard will create a path to a folder within the !SSL! folder. However if you define the path as C:\MyAirHelp it will not generate an !SSL! folder, it will just create C:\MyAirHelp with mergedProject below it and you generate the child projects to their appropriate folder there.

You may have to generate all the child projects before it works.

The first thing I would check is that the setup works if you generate WebHelp. Also try working with the download from my site. It is very basic and that makes troubleshooting easier.

Post back when you have tried that.

It's a while since I tried merged browser AIR Help so I need to look at it again and I cannot do that tonight.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

I got it to work. However I'm wondering if what I did has any impacts. Here is what I did -

I removed the redirect in the parent file and made the topic in the parent file my first page.

It also allows the breadcrumbs to come back to this page when Home is clicked.

I can also access all the other files. I haven't tried this on a server and will try this on another pc tomorrow and see how it works.

But are there any other things I could be "breaking" by taking the redirect out?

More tomorrow and thank you so much, as always, for all the help. I couldn't do it without you and all the other wonderful helpers on the forum.

Pat

[Peter Grainge]

You don't have to have a redirect as I explain in that article, it's just an easier way to do things.

I'll look at merged browser air help again sometime but I doubt that having a redirect caused the problem, more likely something about the specific redirect.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Thank you for the reply.

Everything seems to be working just fine, knock wood. I removed the redirect and that made the breadcrumbs go to the correct file.

I even transferred it to another pc and it works.

Thank you for the help.

Pat

[Guest]

Everything works fine on my pc. I copied everything to another pc and it works fine there too.

We stored a backup on our server. We tried to take that backup from the server and put it on another c drive, and it did't work.

This is going to be a help system we deploy with our software. If we can't get it from a server and put it on a C drive it looks like we can't deploy it. Is there something else we should be doing?

The file used to access the help files is an htm file. I don't know if that makes any difference. We haven't actually tried it on a server yet, that's the next step.

So how do we deploy it?

Thank you for suggestions.

Pat

[Guest]

I just reread a posting to the forum from January 2010 and the problem sounds just like our problem.

Should I be generating the merged help and the AIR files to a server instead of my C drive?

I generate everything to the C drive at the moment. Is that the problem?

Pat

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

There may be a terminology issue at play here.

When I hear "Generate to a server", what comes to mind is the actual process of creating the output files. And that should NEVER happen on the server. Here's why. Consider creating WebHelp to be very similar to baking cookies. The first step is to place the cookie dough on the empty cookie sheet, right? But if that cookie sheet still has cookies on it from the last batch, you have to clear them off in order to make room for the new batch.

If you do this on the server, it's likely the same place folks are using to view the output. So the first part of generating will yank the rug out from under their feet. Additionally, things can slow way down.

The best possible scenario is to generate the files on your local hard drive. After you generate, you then Publish the files to the server. The Publish process normally copies the content from your local C drive and the files end up on the server where folks view them.

Cheers... Rick

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[Peter Grainge]

As Rick says, your source projects must be on your local drive. You also generate to your local drive. When what you have generated is what you want your users to see, that is when you publish.

If when you pull a backup of the source projects to a machine they no longer work, then either you didn't back up the right stuff or you didn't restore the rights stuff. It is much better to zip up the source, pull that source back and unzip than to copy and paste the whole folders. I have seen the latter cause problems.

I often get copies of projects from others and all they do is zip up their source and I unzip it.

Check your process again.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge