RH 2022: Responsive help is not getting generated

[TTFWRH_2025]

In a project, there are more than 10 book with sub-books and topics (700+). 

Observations:

• Ouput is getting generated for some specific books of TOC.
• But, the entire project with the complete TOC, the responsive output is not getting generated. Can see the output generation process, but after some time, the ouput process gets stucked with a specifc topic (somtimes differenct topic names) and not moving ahead. 
• Removing the specific topics from the TOC is not a proper solution. RH is not showing any logs or error messages for this issue. 

RH version 2022.4.179

Please help

[TTFWRH_2025]

Patching topic xyz.htm..

[Peter Grainge]

When generation completes, there is a log file. Obviously you are not seeing that. There is also a different log file at C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Local\Temp\RHTMP folder.. That said, it is intended for Adobe use so you may find it doesn't help.

• Does removing the topic(s) then allow the project to generate? 
• Has the project generated OK before?
• Is this a project just upgraded from a Classic version?

Typically in this situation the best solution is divide and conquer. 

Zip up the project so you have a copy that cannot accidentally be opened and worked on. That gives you a copy that you can safely revert to later if needed. Save the zip file somewhere safe.

METHOD ONE

In the new UI the output is controlled by what is in the TOC so create two copies of your TOC and delete different halves of the content from each. One should work and one should fail. 

Assuming one half only failed, create a copy of it and again delete different halves. By repeating that you should narrow things down to the topic(s) that are giving grief.

If both failed, you need to create smaller and smaller sections.

METHOD TWO

Create a new TOC and drag to it the first folder in the Contents panel.

Generate that and if it works, drag the next folder.

When generating fails, delete all other folders from the TOC and then create two copies of the TOC.

Delete different halves of the content from each.

Generate again and one should work and one should fail. Repeat until you track down the rogue topic(s).

Once you know which topics are causing the issue, then it's a case of looking at the code if you know how and/or removing chunks of the content until you find the problem. By removing I mean applying a condition tag and expression to exclude parts of the content.

________________________________________________________

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

[TTFWRH_2025]

Thank you for the reply, @Peter Grainge.

• Does removing the topic(s) then allow the project to generate? 
  Many topics are inter-linked (hyperlinks), hence it is difficult to identify topics.
• Has the project generated OK before?
  It is worked for sepecific folders (individual toc), But now we need to includes all the folders (topics) in a toc and generate output.
• Is this a project just upgraded from a Classic version?
  No. we had faced many issues for this. Hence created the new project from scratch and added all the content manually (without importing topics).

[WoutJacobs]

Without the htm code we can only speculate.

• Maybe you have folders with forbidden names like 'CON'
• Maybe you link to topics with HTML that RoboHelp fails to correctly parse
• ...

[TTFWRH_2025]

What is the logic of these things? We can have folders and topics/files with the names start from the letters con, for example, configuration. 

We have created all the topics using RH's own new topic creation feature and how can it fails to parse.. 

Anyway thank you for your reply.

[Peter Grainge]

Configuration is not the same as CON or even CONA. What @WoutJacobs is saying is that certain folder names in Windows are not permitted but somehow RoboHelp is ignoring that. It's unlikely that is the issue, just an example of some such problem.

Is your project on a local drive and are you generating to the same drive?

Have you double checked your preset?

As I've said, divide and conquer is the sure way to find the fault. It's been posted on these forums on and off for 25 years.

Post back if you still can't find it.

________________________________________________________

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

[WoutJacobs]

I mean that literally.

Try creating a folder named 'con', 'prn', 'aux' in Windows. It will prevent you from doing so.

Amusingly enough, RoboHelp has no such checks which causes chaos.

But that's unlikely to be the cause unless you really do have folders named con, aux, prn, nul, or com{N}.

Like Peter said, your best bet is to narrow down the issue.

1. Control group: try publishing with a TOC of just one topic. If it succeeds, you are quite certain it's a topic-related issue.
2. Delete the latter half of your TOC and publish. If that works, the problem is in the first half of your TOC. Repeat this process.

The issue could be anything, frankly. Impossible to tell without input.

I've had crashes stemming from CSS list indents, accidentally naming my file extensions '.HTM' instead of '.htm', incorrect table structures, ...

RoboHelp has never really been keen on developing error checks (just a generic 'oh no'), so manual troubleshooting is your best bet.

[Peter Grainge]

It will allow the project to generate if you have removed the rogue topic. 🙂

The point here is we don't know what is causing the problem. Another solution might be to add another TOC for the purpose of troubleshooting. Add one folder at a time and generate. That will find the folder with the rogue topic. Then you remove a few topics at a time from the folder.

You will get reports of broken links, just ignore them.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

Let us know how you get on or if you find the rogue topic but can't see the problem.

________________________________________________________

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

[TTFWRH_2025]

Not solved the issues. Even generating outputs for set of TOCs did not work. RH is not giving any error messages and just gets stuck with some random topic names.

[Peter Grainge]

Can you share the project? If you can, then see the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

________________________________________________________

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

[TTFWRH_2025]

Hello @Peter Grainge ,

Thank you for your replies. We need one more help.

We have to add a JavaScript file that will help to focus images using keyboard, open thumbnail images and close it using Esc or other button. 

Please guide us where to add the JS file in RH source using user interface, and the file should be called in the output.

We have tried it, but no success.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

See https://www.grainge.org/Archived_Topics/pdfs/Customising%20Help%20-%20Links%20to%20Customer%20Files%...

[TTFWRH_2025]

Thank you for the reply, @Jeff_Coatsworth. Actually, we need a global/common solution (not topic specific) for this. In the provided pdf file only topic specific solution is provided.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You want to add JS to every topic to make whatever it's going to do, work, right? You've got to get a reference to the JS asset file you're shipping with your output, right?

[TTFWRH_2025]

No, we have more than 500 topics in the RH project. Adding JS to every topic is not good way to solve the issue. We have to use the JS as a common solution, such as CSS or other JS files.

[Peter Grainge]

This thread started as an output would not generate, now suddenly it is related to adding a script that seems to be related to another issue. That issue seems to be the same as this thread.  Is that something started by a colleague and is the failure to generate linked to some javascript you are trying to add?

________________________________________________________

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

[TTFWRH_2025]

Thank you for the reply, @Peter Grainge. We are working on it and connnect with Adobe support, if required.

[Peter Grainge]

The only place in the UI to add javascript is in the Layout tab of the template. Whether or not that will achieve what you want is another matter.

________________________________________________________

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