Robohelp 2020 duplication of asset folder in the output file

[ANJIL30206801slhq]

In the Robohelp 2020 and 2022 project files, after generating output there is a files or output duplication in the Asset of output folder in the name of download. Why? 

Find the Attached GIF for referance.

Please provide the solution....

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but the gif is too indistinct to follow. Perhaps a couple of screenshots? Please use the photo icon to insert images within the post. Seeing an image inline with the text makes it easier for anyone answering or viewing the post.

I could see you are using OneDrive. Quite a few posts on this forum about issues when using OneDrive. GoogleDrive seems to work OK but not OneDrive. I am not saying that is relevant here but it's worth try to generate to another folder outside OneDrive to check.

________________________________________________________

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

[ANJIL30206801slhq]

Sorry for the inconvenience with the GIF file. Find the photos with indicated serial number which displays the output duplication inside the output.

The Duplication path is Output > Asset > Downloads > Contents > 

[EDIT - fixed up your post to stick the images in it & not attached to it as requested - moderator]

[Peter Grainge]

In the source the Contents panel should show "assets" and all your folders but not a Contents folder unless has set up a folder by that name. The output should assets and the other folders you see in the Contents panel, along with some other output folders.

You cannot generate to within the source so I cannot see how you would get duplication that way. Also the fourth image does not show a whx folder which should be in an output.

I think Step 1 here is to generate your output to a new folder and see what ends up there.

Then post back an image of the Contents panel and the Output folders.

You have mentioned two versions of RoboHelp. Please confirm you are not opening any one project in both versions. Also let us know which output type you are generating.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

Also see if you get the same issue with the About RoboHelp sample project.

RoboHelp creates two copies of the samples on installation. 

• The copy to use is put in My RoboHelp Projects in the Documents folder that Windows creates in your profile.
• Another copy goes into Program Files and should never be run from there as Windows will block some of the functionality.  The idea of the copy in Program Files is that it is a clean back up if you need to replace the copy in Documents.

________________________________________________________

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

[notedejestimar]

Hello Peter,

Let me try to rephrase "ANJIL"'s question:

- When we "Generate the Webhelp output" from Robohelp and go to the folder that contains that output, under "assets", there's an extra folder there, named "Downloads". (i.e., ".\assets\Downloads")

Regardless its content (and to simplify the question), why is that folder for, and why is it being generated?
Is it for any kind of compatibility with other Internet browsers?

Thank you!!

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry but you can't say "regardless of its content". RoboHelp generates such folders as the output requires so something in your project is making use of what is in that folder.

I have posed a number of questions that aren't answered and they will help me answer. Please answer those and we can take it from there. In particular, if you generate one of the samples, you will not see that folder. That confirms it is a project issue rather than a RoboHelp issue.

What is in the folder might help identify the issue.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

Does your project contain files for end users to download? 

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

[Amebr]

If you specify a PDF to Download in the frameless output preset, you'll get the download folder in your assets folder. This will contain the pdf file you specified. Theoretically that should be the only file included.

While I don't use the pdf feature, I have seen RH get overexcited in other scenarios and duplicate related folder structures. I haven't exactly worked out why, but in my case it seems to be related to relative hyperlinks, somehow. Maybe that explains the extra folders?

[Vincenz25891398isum]

I come across the exact same issue. Generating an output, a folder named "download" is created within the assets folder which was not included on the original project. When I delete this folder, nothing seems to happen in the frontend. Even removing the "Create pdf" feature from my preset doesn't result in my output beeing generated without that folder. The problem is, that the download folder contains all contents of my project, including all assets, which results in a few thousand unnecessary duplicates in the output and roughly 60 mb of unused data. 

Is there any way to prevent this folder beeing created? We really dont want to deliver 60 mb of trash to the customers which want to use our onlinehelp.
 

[Achal__]

Hi @Vincenz25891398isum ,

You can try playing with these options. It helped me to get rid of that "Downloads" folder.

[Vincenz25891398isum]

@Achal__ thanks for the quick response. I allready tried all of this configs but this doesn't seem to have any effect on the issue.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I think you've messed something up - nobody else is having all the contents of their project included in a downloads folder in their output.

[Vincenz25891398isum]

I guess the fact that this thread has existed for almost two years now probably proves you wrong. Obviously, I'm not the only one with that issue. And there is still no systematic fix for that issue and different explanations what this folder is used for.

[Peter Grainge]

@Vincenz25891398isum I disagree. If there were a system issue, far more users would have reported it. It's more likely you have duplicated the same setup that is causing this problem.

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.

[Vincenz25891398isum]

@Peter Grainge Thank you for the kind offer but unfortunately, the project contains a lot of data I'm not allowed to share. And as I can totally follow your assumption on the one hand, one could also assume that many users don't stumble upon this topic as this issue is not really causing any real problems besides the project increasing in size.

[Peter Grainge]

OK but are you sure it doesn't cause other problems such as when the user searches?

See Amebr's post above. https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp-discussions/robohelp-2020-duplication-of-asset-folder-in-the...

I suspect somewhere you have a link that is causing this problem. When you generate are there any warnings and does the Broken Links report reveal anything?

It might also be worth trying a new preset, not a duplicate.

Your version is out of support but your subscription entitles you to upgrade without further charge. If the problem persists, then you can go to Adobe Support. ISee 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.

[Vincenz25891398isum]

@Peter Grainge thanks again,

the protocol doesn't contain any warnings. I think I'll get in touch with the Adobe support and report in here in case a solution is found.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Vincenz25891398isum - did you actually mention what version of RH you were running? Was this effect happening in a prior version or is this something new? Did you get the same effect happening with the sample project? Did you create a fresh preset to test to see if you get the effect? Do you have files that you want the end user of your output to be able to download/access? 

[Vincenz25891398isum]

@Jeff_Coatsworth not so far. Currently, we are running version 2022.5.28 . Unfortunately, I can't say if that issue occured in prior versions, as our software development just notified us about the existence of that folder.

A fresh project/preset doesn't contain that folder - so the reason for that hole issue will be hidden within our projects/presets config- as you and @Peter Grainge allready assumed. But comparing our preset with a fresh sample preset we couldn't find any differences in configuration. 

We also don't plan on supplying any downloadable files. The only thing which comes close to "downloading" is the print function in the toolbar of the minitoc. But even disabling this didn't result in that folder not beeing created. Well in the end I guess, we could simply delete that folder manually but somehow this doesn't seem like propper trouble shooting to me.  

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

A fresh project not having the folder makes sense - it indicates that you've got something in the existing one that is causing RH to think you want to provide files in the output.
Did you try a test with the existing project & a new preset? That would be more useful in narrowing down if the issue is caused by a preset problem or something else in your project.

[David Kinyon · Accepted solution]

I have been able to duplicate this problem, and I think I know what the problem is.

To duplicate the problem:

1. Create a temporary Frameless preset.
2. In the new preset, add a PDF to the Layout > PDF to Download option.
3.  Generate output and note that the output contains the downloads directory with the expected PDF in it (and nothing else).
4.  Return to the preset and delete the PDF from the PDF to Download option.
5.  Regenerate ouput and note that the output still contains the download directory, but now with a complete mirror of the contents/assets directory.
6.  Return to the preset and add the PDF back into the PDF to Download option, regenerate, and note that the downloads directory is once again behaving as expected - it only contains the PDF and nothing else.

This appears to be a bug in RoboHelp, that when you delete the contents of the PDF to Download option, it continues to create the downloads directory in the output, but now with a mirror of the contents/assets directory. To investigate further, I opened the xml version of the preset in a text editor (located in <project_dir>publish\presets):

•  When the PDF to Download option has a file listed, the xml version of the preset has the following markup: <downloadPDF>MyPDF.pdf</downloadPDF>.
     - When the preset xml looks like this, the resulting outtput will create a download directory with just the MyPDF.pdf file in it.
• When the PDF is deleted from the PDF to Download option, the xml version of the preset now has the following markup: <downloadPDF></downloadPDF>.
     - When the preset xml looks like this, the resulting output will create a download directory with a mirror of the contents/assets directory.
•  When a new preset is created without setting anything for PDF to Download, it does not have this "downloadPDF" markup at all.
     - When the preset looks like this, the resulting output will not create a download directory at all.

This lead me to believe that deleting the "<downloadPDF></downloadPDF>" markup from the xml version of the preset would fix the problem, and it did. 

@Vincenz25891398isum I recommend looking at the xml version of your preset and seeing if it has the  "<downloadPDF></downloadPDF>" markup. I bet it does, and I bet if you delete it, the output will be correct. If so, I recommend opening a bug with Adobe because this is errant behavior. 

[Vincenz25891398isum]

@David Kinyon Perfect, it worked! Thank you for your support. So in the end, it really is a system issue.

[David Kinyon]

As a very general rule, I've found that when there's some sort of problem with generating/publishing out of RoboHelp, the XML for the preset is a likely culprit. It appears, in my experience, to be one of the buggier parts of RoboHelp. If you're comfortable looking at raw XML (and unfortunately the preset XML isn't formated to be human readable), I find you often can pinpoint the bugs involved.

For example, my first troubleshooting action here was to create a preset, set the PDF to Download, and look at the XML. Then I deleted the PDF to Download and looked at the XML again. Having done that, I was pretty sure I knew exactly what the problem was before I'd even run any tests.

Necessary words of caution: Do this first with a test preset, so you don't mess up your production preset. And if you are going to edit the XML, be sure to save a copy of the preset before editing, just to be safe. You can actually completely hose your preset by accidentally deleting one too many angle bracket, which is frighteningly easy to do. 🙂

[Peter Grainge]

@David Kinyon To pretty it up a bit, try https://phcode.io/#/home

It's a bit like Brackets if you are familiar with that and can make the code easier to read.

________________________________________________________

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