Output Generation Warning: Skipped Copying External File

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

Hi. I'm using RH 2020.8.34 on Win10.

I've just published our output for the first time since upgrading and I'm now getting two output generation warnings:

1. Skipped copying external file "C:/1RoboHelp/OutputPaths/publish/browsesequence/InformaCast_Fusion.brs"
2. Error occurred while parsing inline style :1:1: Unknown word: "Bullet"

For the first issue, the file path RH is citing does not exist. I did a search for "InformaCast_Fusion.brs" in both Contents and Find and Replace (with Source View on) and I got no results. I do have a browse sequence named InformaCast_Fusion.brs, but I've not done anything substantial with it lately. It is included in the project I'm generating and it seems to have published just fine. I read the responses to this earlier discussion, but the fixes don't seem to apply to me. I'm not using hyperlinks or images in my variables and this is not a child project. I'm just not sure why I'm getting this warning.

For the second issue, I do have a character tag of Bullet. It appears in many topics. I'm not sure why I'm getting the warning for this particular topic. The code looks right to me: 

<ul class="Bullet">
    <li data-condition="Others:Advanced">
      <p>When a Paging Gateway first registers with <span data-keyref="AppName">InformaCast</span>... </p>
    </li>
    <li data-condition="Others:Advanced">
      <p>When preparing to run the <strong>certificates</strong> command, you must:</p>
      <ul>
        <li data-condition="Others:Advanced">
          <p>Ensure all are registered with <span data-keyref="AppName">InformaCast</span> before running the command</p>
        </li>
        <li data-condition="Others:Advanced">
          <p>Run the <strong>certificates</strong> command. </p>
        </li>
        <li data-condition="Others:ADV_InformaCast_Not_Fusion">
          <p>For standalone <span data-keyref="AppName">InformaCast</span>, i.e. a non-resiliency environment, after running the <strong>regenerate-ssl-certificates</strong> command, begin using the new certificate.</p>
        </li>
        <li data-condition="Others:Fusion">
          <p>For standalone <span data-keyref="AppName">InformaCast</span>, i.e. a non-failover/distributed activation environment, after running the <strong>certificates</strong> command, perform a factory reset.</p>
        </li>
        <li data-condition="Others:Advanced">
          <p>Ensure that all have a chance to re-register with each <span data-keyref="AppName">InformaCast</span> <span data-condition="Others:Fusion">on-premises </span>server in the cluster before running the <strong>regenerate-ssl-certificates command</strong> on the next <span data-keyref="AppName">InformaCast</span> server. </p>
        </li>
      </ul>

[Peter Grainge]

The first point has been covered in a thread in the last week or so. 

I'll look at the other one later. 

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

Peter, can you link to that discussion? As I outlined above, I thought I tried everything in the two discussions I found on the skipped copying external file. I also looked at the content you have on your site. I can't seem to find this supposed reference.

[Peter Grainge]

Basically it is external file is the same as this. Skipped copying external file - Adobe Support Community - 13371784

Somewhere in your project you have created a link to something that is not in your project. It is on your local drive so when a user clicks it, the browser cannot access your local drive so it will be a file not found matter. What is odd here is you seem to have linked to a browse sequence in the published output.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

Have you looked at Broken Links?

Can you grab a screenshot of the warning?

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

On the list issue I believe it is possible the checker can throw a "parsing" error when there isn't one because it hasn't been programmed in.

Does everything look OK?

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

Yes, I agree it's odd, and I would never intentionally link to my browse sequence. I'm just not sure how to find it. That file path doesn't exist on my computer. There is no C:/1RoboHelp/OutputPaths/publish/browsesequence/ anywhere.

I also searched for that path in the source code for my project. No results. I tried searching for InformaCast_Fusion.brs in the code and it also doesn't exist. I did look at the Broken Links report and there are no broken links. 

This is what the warning looks like:

For the parsing issue, yes, everything is displaying just fine in that topic. I don't understand what you mean by "because it hasn't been programmed in." 

[Peter Grainge]

Search on the file name and parts of the path. It's there somewhere. 

The parsing checker is software and I think it is reporting an error that it needs reprogramming to know it isn't an error. Alternatively it is technically incorrect but it's not breaking RoboHelp. Maybe Support can help. 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.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

No combination of that file path exists in my project. I'll try Adobe Support.

[Amebr]

The bullet issue might be some formatting problem in your css file. Can you search for Bullet in the css text and post the code you find?

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

Searching through my CSS, it seems to appear several times. This is a very old project (updated several times over the years) and upgraded from RH Classic. 

First instance:

ul.Bullet {
  margin-top: 0px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
  --prefix-size: 40px;
  --prefix-fixed-size: false;
  --prefix-gap: 12px;
  --list-indent: 40px;
  --vertical-spacing: 0px;
  counter-reset: item1;
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: var(--prefix-size);
  margin-left: calc(var(--list-indent) - var(--prefix-size));
}

Second instance:

ul.Bullet>li>ul {
  --prefix-size: 40px;
  --prefix-fixed-size: false;
  --prefix-gap: 12px;
  --list-indent: 24px;
  --vertical-spacing: 0px;
  counter-reset: item2;
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: var(--prefix-size);
  margin-left: calc(var(--list-indent) - var(--prefix-size));
}

Third instance:

ul.Bullet>li>ul>li {
  --prefix-size: 40px;
  --prefix-fixed-size: false;
  --prefix-gap: 12px;
  --list-indent: 24px;
  --vertical-spacing: 0px;
  position: relative;
  margin-top: calc(var(--vertical-spacing) / 2);
  margin-bottom: calc(var(--vertical-spacing) / 2);
}

Fourth instance:

ul.Bullet>li>ul>li:before {
  counter-increment: item2;
  content: "–";
  text-align: right;
  position: absolute;
  left: calc(-1 * var(--prefix-size) - var(--prefix-gap));
  margin-right: var(--prefix-gap);
  width: var(--prefix-size);
  overflow: hidden;
}

Fifth instance:

ul.Bullet>li>ul>li>ul {
  list-style: none;
  --prefix-size: 40px;
  --prefix-fixed-size: false;
  --prefix-gap: 12px;
  --list-indent: 20px;
  --vertical-spacing: 0px;
  counter-reset: item3;
  padding-left: var(--prefix-size);
  margin-left: calc(var(--list-indent) - var(--prefix-size));
}

Sixth instance:

ul.Bullet>li>ul>li>ul>li:before {
  counter-increment: item3;
  content: counter(item3, disc);
  text-align: right;
  position: absolute;
  left: calc(-1 * var(--prefix-size) - var(--prefix-gap));
  margin-right: var(--prefix-gap);
  width: var(--prefix-size);
  overflow: hidden;
}

Seventh instance:

ul.Bullet>li>ul>li>ul>li {
  --prefix-size: 40px;
  --prefix-fixed-size: false;
  --prefix-gap: 12px;
  --list-indent: 20px;
  --vertical-spacing: 0px;
  position: relative;
  margin-top: calc(var(--vertical-spacing) / 2);
  margin-bottom: calc(var(--vertical-spacing) / 2);
}

Eighth instance:

ul.Bullet>li {
  --prefix-size: 40px;
  --prefix-fixed-size: false;
  --prefix-gap: 12px;
  --list-indent: 40px;
  --vertical-spacing: 0px;
  position: relative;
  margin-top: calc(var(--vertical-spacing) / 2);
  margin-bottom: calc(var(--vertical-spacing) / 2);
}

Ninth instance:

ul.Bullet>li:before {
  counter-increment: item1;
  content: counter(item1, disc);
  text-align: right;
  position: absolute;
  left: calc(-1 * var(--prefix-size) - var(--prefix-gap));
  margin-right: var(--prefix-gap);
  width: var(--prefix-size);
  overflow: hidden;
  font-style: normal;
}

I'm (clearly) no CSS wiz, but it's probably not normal it's in there so often?

However, we've stayed current with our upgrades,and I've made no CSS changes in between our last one and this latest one, so it's a little weird it's generating errors now.

[Peter Grainge]

I think that @Amebr will confirm that looks like some old code upgraded to the new UI. Lists are more complex in the new UI.

Working with the code in source view is not for the feint hearted. Maybe duplicate the project and trash the lists styles in source view in the CSS editor and then recreate them through the UI. That way you have nothing to lose. Otherwise it's Adobe Support unless @Amebr has any further thoughts.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Amebr]

All that looks fine. It looks like new way of doing nested lists using the Level field. (The only "Classic" bit is the class name "Bullet".) I was thinking the problem might have been from a property in classic not upgrading properly, for example I've see the semi-colon at the end of a line deleted which will cause errors. But all that code looks correct. 

Looking at the error again, it says "inline style". Perhaps there is a style tag in a topic somewhere that hasn't been upgraded correctly. What does the log say just before you get the parsing error? (Perhaps post a snippet that includes text from both sides of the error.)

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

Here you go: 

Updating InformaCast/InformaCast_Management/Configure_Messages_and_Broadcasts/Manage_the_Bell_Scheduler/Add_a_Ring_List.htm...

Warning: Error occurred while parsing inline style :1:1: Unknown word: "Bullet"

Updating InformaCast/Virtual_Appliance_Management/Trust_Certificates/Regenerate_Trust_Certificates.htm...

I already checked the first HTM file and "Bullet" doesn't appear there. It does appear in the second, but that's the code snippet I posted above and I didn't see any errors.

[Amebr]

Hmm, I'd normally think the error was in the file immediately before the error. But the word doesn't appear there. The :1:1 part of the error I think means the application thinks the error is in the first line, at the first character. Is there anything wierd looking at the top of either file? Or around the body tag (I'm not sure exactly where RH will count from, given the head sectio of the source topic doesn't really count in the output)

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

I'm including two pictures of the initial source view for each topic around the Warning. 

This is the one that does not have Bullet in it anywhere:

This is the one that does have Bullet: 

[Amebr]

I'm out of ideas as everything looks fine from what you've shown. 🙂

If there's no errors identified in the code view of the css file (little icons on the left side of the page) and the output looks fine, then I think I'd ignore it until some problem turns up.

If the output isn't right, or you are determined to find the root cause and you have access to source control then maybe using a comparison tool such as BeyondCompare on a known good version vs the current version would show where the differences are and perhaps lead to a solution.

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

In your browse sequence near the end there is an empty line. Delete that and the error goes away. 

No warning about unknown word Bullet. Are you still seeing that?

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Singlewire Tech Writer]

You found it! I deleted that, the warning went away, and so did the error about the inline styling for Bullet. That was a weird one.

Now, a new question: how are blank lines appearing in my browse sequence? That is not the first time that has happened, and the other times I noticed it were happenstance. I am never in the code for a browse seqence. I always use the UI to add/delete/move topics. 

[Peter Grainge]

First of all the two issues are not connected. I generated before fixing the issue and only got the external file warning.

As to how you are getting blank lines, no way of knowing.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.