Responsive HTML5 generation appears to be stuck in a continual loop

[defaultzq254wfawyhz]

Inherited a large project generated in an older version of RoboHelp, which doesn't seem to want to successfully generate the Responsive HTML5 now that is has been migrated to RoboHelp 2020. The generation process appears to be caught in a loop, as it will remain patching the topics for days (doesn't appear stuck, as the name of the topic being patched still changes). Attempted shortening the length of the output path and creating a new Responsive HTML5 output preset without success. Also confirmed that the project did not contain any broken links. In terms of the generated output, a review of one of the generated htm files shows gRootRelPath and gCommonRootRelPath with a value of "../../" defined. However, checking the same htm file later in the generation shows the gRootRelPath and gCommonRootRelPath has been updated and now has a value of "../../../../../../.." defined. The longer the generation is left running, the longer this value gets.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What point version of RH are you running? It's up to Patch 7 now (Feb 2022).

[defaultzq254wfawyhz]

I wasn't running Patch 7, but after applying this update, I'm still having the same problem.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Is it possible to upgrade the old project again using Patch 7 now or have you added changes since upgrading?

[defaultzq254wfawyhz]

There have been changes made to the project since it was original upgraded. However, I have tried upgrading the old project again using Patch 7, but the problems with the generation of the responsive html5 still exists.

[Amebr]

While there might not be broken links in the project, perhaps there are links pointing outside the project to your local hard drive. I don't think those would show up in External References, as they would likely be relative links, nor in Broken Links because they are technically valid. Or perhaps a script or css file referenced in one or more topics or master pages is external to the project - all sorts of odd corruptions happened in Classic, so this is possible. Another idea is to check that all references to images, fonts or @ import css files in your css are correct.

[defaultzq254wfawyhz]

Thanks. Unfortunately, the project contains hundreds of links, so identifying problematic ones without any guidance from the tool itself is going to very time consuming.

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

Well, there's always the old method of taking a copy of the project, chucking half the topics, generating & seeing if it works or still fails, rinse & repeat until you get something working. But before trying that, have you run the sample project to assure yourself that the project is damaged vs. something in your environment or RH install?

[defaultzq254wfawyhz]

Other projects are generating their responsive html5 successfully. I therefore took your advice and used the 'rinse & repeat' method and eventually found a single link that when edited caused RoboHelp to throw an application error. Removing and recreating the link fixed the problem. Thanks for your help.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Brutal! But I'm glad you figured it out & posted back to let others know.