RoboHelp 2020 to 2022 Upgrade: command-line error

[AdobeInAdobo]

Hello,

We've installed 2022 on the same system as 2020 and are running the newer version against the upgraded project file to generate help. When we run the command, we get the following output:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp>
(node:8368) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `robohelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
App is ready
Adobe (R) RoboHelp
Copyright (C) 1992-2022, Adobe Inc and its licensors. All rights reserved.

(node:8672) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `RoboHelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
(node:8744) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `RoboHelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
(node:332) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `RoboHelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
(node:4372) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `RoboHelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
getWindowReady getting window is ready..
in handlecommands..
(node:332) [DEP0005] DeprecationWarning: Buffer() is deprecated due to security and usability issues. Please use the Buffer.alloc(), Buffer.allocUnsafe(), or Buffer.from() methods instead.
In Generate Method..
Created Promise of generate..
Starting work in startWork..
defaultWorkerWindow is ready..
defaultWorkerWindow is ready with responseKey: 4b43ec86-6c08-4502-8cd2-12e2e5f57f12..
defaultWorkerWindow is ready with updateKey: 4b43ec86-6c08-4502-8cd2-12e2e5f57f12_update..
(node:11120) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `RoboHelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
(node:5864) Warning: Accessing non-existent property 'padLevels' of module exports inside circular dependency
(Use `RoboHelp --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
Compilation complete.
ipcMain.once recieved on key responseKey: 4b43ec86-6c08-4502-8cd2-12e2e5f57f12..
Broker start work: WorkDone..
Resp recieved

This error does not occur in the 2020 version of the exe. The output is never generated in 2022. I've attempted to search for this myself, but all results refer to Node.js, which is not installed on the system. 

Has anyone run into this? We are running Java 8...should I update the JRE?

[Peter Grainge]

2022 did not change the java requirement so if it worked with 2020, it should work with 2022.

I have 2019 Classic, 2019 New UI, 2020 and 2022 all on one machine so that is not an issue. However, there I am talking about working with each version via the UI. What I don't know is whether multiple versions on one machine is an issue when it comes to command line. I suggest for this one you need to go to Adobe Support. 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.

I haven't seen anyone report what you have posted.

________________________________________________________

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

[AdobeInAdobo]

Thanks, I'll email them. It actually does appear to be generating help, but still exits with -1, so the build plan fails. Trying to build it from the UI to see what happens.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What patch version of RH2022 are you running? I would also suggest that you try creating the output using the UI to see if it's an issue with your Preset or just the command line method.

[AdobeInAdobo]

We are running on U5. I'll try the UI now (as soon as I figure out how to use the UI. Never done anything outside the CL).

[AdobeInAdobo]

As far as I can tell, it is generating the output with warnings for failing to copy some font files (that don't exist in the location that is referenced). I can't find that location set anywhere in RoboHelp, but I can see the font selected in the Layout Font for the template the preset uses. 

It does seem like the command line is generating help, but the warning that occur regarding the padLevels seem to prevent the robohelp.exe from ever closing. It also seems to return a value of 1 which fails the CI/CD pipeline.

[AdobeInAdobo]

It's the CLI. Everything works in 2020, and it builds in 2022, but the warning apparently prevents the robohelp.exe from terminating successfully and returns a 1 to our pipeline. I can see the help generated in the directory, but since it claims to have failed the build stops.

[Peter Grainge]

I don't know which output you are generating but this topic will lead you to the "how to" for whichever it is.

________________________________________________________

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

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Was it this topic - https://www.grainge.org/RoboHelp_Tour/rh2022/outputs/outputs_general.htm  ?

[Peter Grainge]

Oops. Thanks @Jeff_Coatsworth 

________________________________________________________

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

[WoutJacobs]

Commandline in RH 2022 is quite adept at getting stuck or not publishing variables, though it seems to have improved somewhat in version 5 (crash rate seems to have dropped from 40% to 20%).

I think I once had this error because I had a crossreference in a topic reference to the topic itself.

Try to use commandline on a TOC with just one simple topic (just a title and a paragraph) to check if the error is caused by Java or some problem in the project.

[AdobeInAdobo]

Thanks for this. Just tried with a brand new project with a single TOC for frameless output and got the same error in CLI. It builds in the GUI with no issue.

Also tried updated the JRE 8 to the latest release, but this had no effect.

[WoutJacobs]

OK so it is not a project (topic) nor a font/asset issue, as the error persists in a new project.

Other avenues I can think of:

• You may have both RH 2020 and 2022 on the same system and are pointing to RH 2020's Robohelp.exe
• You can try to downgrade RH 2022.5 to earlier versions of RH 2022 and see if that fixes it.

Just a sanity check, but I assume your command is written similarly:

(e.g. "C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe RoboHelp\\RoboHelp.exe" --cl "XXX\\test_project.rhpj" -o "test_preset" --path "C:\\Documents\\test" - double slashes cause Python and laziness)

[AdobeInAdobo]

Correct, I'm using this from command line, executed from the location of the EXE:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp> robohelp.exe --cl "C:\Source\master\Online Help.rhpj" -o "Generic Help" -l "C:\Source\master\HelpStaging\Logs\GenericHelp.log" -p "C:\Source\master\Help"

The CI/CD pipeline pulls in the exe location from a script, but I'm testing directly on the VM used to build the help, currently.

Adobe Support has request that I update the JRE on the VM from the latest 8 version to 21. Given that the current requirements still list 8 or later (with no mention of the recommended JRE version), I'm not too hopeful, but I'll give it a go.

[WoutJacobs]

To add to this: are you sure the output actually failed? On closer look, the commandline output you showed displays a successful result.

This is what I see in my builds:

Broker start work: WorkDone..

Is your output online help/HTML completely functional?

The fact that the commandline hangs afterwards is actually """normal""" (feature not a bug apparently), insofar that it has been the default way of doing things ever since I've first worked with it. I just make the script force exit after a fixed amount of time, since no commandline generation should ever take longer than 30 minutes (whether it is a fail or success).

[AdobeInAdobo]

I found an older post of yours here:
Re: rh-render-process-gone log message with RoboHe... - Adobe Community - 13765655

We are building 8 cli outputs concurrently in our pipeline. When I build one of them manually, it works sometimes, and other times the "rh-render-process-gone" error appears. If I had to guess, 1 of those 8 generations is failing here and showing as hung and the help isn't there to be moved out, thus failing the build.

I've got a ticket opened with Adode support, so we'll see where we get with that. So far I've just updated the JRE to 21 and removed RH 2020 as a test, with no change. I'm bringing up a Win 11 VM to see if there's any difference on that then 10, but I have a feeling that RH 2022's CLI is just more broken than it was in 2020 U5.

Does anyone know the version of Node that RH uses? I can see the package being called and no version is specified, so I wonder if it's downloading the latest version at run or if it references something internal.

[AdobeInAdobo]

The fact that the commandline hangs afterwards is actually """normal""" (feature not a bug apparently), insofar that it has been the default way of doing things ever since I've first worked with it.

By @WoutJacobs

This is so crazy to me. Also odd that the "DeprecationWarning: Buffer() is deprecated due to security and usability issues." has been in the CLI for years and nothing has been done to fix that.

[WoutJacobs]

If it helps, removing the log parameter (-l) increases the chances of your generation succeeding.