RoboHelp 2022: Topic not loading in author view

[Christine301653386cjz]

Hello.  I have just converted a classic (2017) project to 2022, and there are a couple topics that aren't loading.  The "loading author view" message appears, nothing happens from there.  It gives you an option to dismiss the Loading author view, but nothing happens when I click on it, and I can't work within the topic or any other topics.  Will it eventually load?  (Right now it's been 24+ minutes.  Previously I'd exited RoboHelp and reopened it, with the same results).  Is there a limit to the file size of a topic?  The topic in question is 3051 kb.  

Has anyone experienced this and is there a way to get it to load?  I'm not sure if it eventually will; I'll keep it open longer as I work on other things.

thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

I don't think there is an official limit but 3mb is one massive topic. I have some topics that take a while to load but I am talking about say 5/10 seconds for 200kb.

Upgrading does not overwrite the Classic project. How big was the file there?

Do you still have a Classic output? Open that and go to the offending topic. Don't actually print it but start the process to get a count of how many pages.

Let us know that first.

________________________________________________________

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

[Christine301653386cjz]

I do still have classic for a while longer - the topic is actually 3051 kb in classic (my fault for checking there when I originally posted) and 3531 kb in 2022.  I didn't make any changes to it so I'm not sure why it's that much bigger in the 2022 version.  It takes about 3 seconds to load in classic; in 2022 it eventually loaded after 40+ minutes.  And once it does load, there is lag trying to navigate in it.  Is this just the way RoboHelp 2022 performs?  That a massive 3 mb topic takes less time to load in classic than a 200kb file takes to load in 2022?

With all of the drop-downs open, print preview says it would be 524 pages.  No one would ever print it or open all of the drop-downs at once however; it's kind of a repository of data by year/month, so users only open the particular drop-downs they need.  

I'm guessing the only solution will be to break it up into multiple topics, but if there is another solution or if it's a known issue that 2022 is slower, it'd be good to know.

thanks!

Chris

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Where is the project located? Is there any source control at play here? What's in this big topic that stalls out? Images, or objects that it's trying to get updates for? 

[Christine301653386cjz]

Hi Jeff!  Both projects (the classic and converted) are on my hard drive and there is no source control.  The topic is only text and links; no images or objects.  It just has a lot of drop-downs (37) and inside each drop-down is a table with 5 columns and a varying number of rows.  The tables have standard links to other topics, but that shouldn't require any loading.  Other than that, there's only text.  No expandable text or images or anything else.

thanks!

Chris

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hmm, seems ideal then for fast opening. The only thing I could think of that it might be doing is testing the links to see if any are broken - that could lead to a big slow-down.
I don't think you mentioned what exact version of RH2022 you're running - did you convert using the latest version (patch 5) or was it done with an earlier patch version? It might be worthwhile testing the upgrade again with patch 5.

[Christine301653386cjz]

It's Version 2022.2.22, which I'm guessing is patch 2?  Check for updates is (of course) disabled for me but I'll see if IT will do it.  I'm not sure if they need to do a whole testing process for it first.  

I'll try wait for that before I post about other issues I'm finding (applying styles, extra paragraph marks in author view that aren't actually there, etc). 

[Christine301653386cjz]

Also - the idea of testing the links makes sense to me, but then I would assume that once that had been done and the topic was opened and ready to be edited, it wouldn't lag.  (If I click on something or start typing, there wouldn't be a delay for the cursors to appear there or the typed text to appear).

[Peter Grainge]

I suspect the dropdowns have a part to play in this. The topic I have with dropdowns and tables is slow to open but it has way more of them and does not take as long as your topic. Against that, it has nothing like the amount of content. The fact that no one would print it is irrelevant, it is the indication of size that concerns me. Have you seen any web page that would print to that many pages? I think you are right in saying you need to break it down.

The increase of the file size in 2022 is simply the code behind it.

I doubt Update 5 will make any difference to this issue  Don't wait for that re the other issues. Post them in new threads.

________________________________________________________

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

[Christine301653386cjz]

Thanks; it's just frustrating to have to do that since it worked without any issues in classic; not in loaded or editing, and not in the output for users.

I just got a response that it takes 4-6 weeks to apply the latest patch and there's a freeze in December.  I will go ahead and request that now anyway since it seems that we are several patches behind.  Given that it dakes that long, would you say I should always request this when a new patch is applied?  (Perhaps waiting a little while after it's available just in case...)  Or only if I think it will fix specific issues I'm having?  (For IT, this is considered a repackage and deploy).

I'll add my other posts shortly.

thanks!

Chris

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Can you share the project with one of us to test it out? We might be able to spot something going on that you've missed (on the off chance).

[Christine301653386cjz]

Would it have to be the entire project, or just the topic?  I can't share internal company information, but I might be able to change text in that one topic to random text (in classic), convert it again, and then send it over.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

If you can reproduce the effect with one topic that's been randomized in a new cloned project, that should work fine.

[Christine301653386cjz]

Where can I send it?  The new topic is the same size as the old one and is taking as long to open. 

Thanks!

Chris

[Peter Grainge]

I think the lag will go some time after loading. I wouldn't like to say how long after as this topic is crazy long. In over twenty years on these forums, it is at least ten times bigger and maybe 20 than anything I have seen reported.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

Only you can make that decision. Sometimes an update can break something and it only comes to light after a while. On my site I publish under Issues the more important things that I am aware of. 

________________________________________________________

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

[Christine301653386cjz]

Thank you.  In that case I'll look it over to see if the upgrade should help.  I haven't published with 2022 yet; I have classic until they replace my laptop so it isn't urgent until then, but I'd like to move sooner than that just in case.

[Peter Grainge]

That topic and the associated CSS should be OK for an initial look. 

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

See the Contact page on my site. 

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

Did you send the topic and CSS? I haven't received anything.

________________________________________________________

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

[Christine301653386cjz]

I have just sent it.  It took some time to edit the topic and then get around the file transfer sites being blocked at work.  But the text in the marked up topic I sent should now make no sense to anyone, but it is the same size and has the same number of characters, drop-downs, and tables.

Thanks!

Chris

[Peter Grainge]

I am seeing roughly the same times and having looked at the content, the issue is clearly way too much in one topic.

I think the way I would structure it is to create one topic per month and then have a topic like your existing one where the link opens the chosen month in a new page. That way the user clicks on a link, the topic opens in a new tab that they can close when done. The original page will still be there for them to choose the next month that they want.

________________________________________________________

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

[Christine301653386cjz]

Thank you very much for taking a look at this.  I'm glad to know there wasn't some messed up code in the topic.  Or sad? If it was the code then maybe it could have been fixed.  I assume that you have the most recent patch, so upgrading that won't make a difference.  I know that it's a large topic, but it is frustrating that it takes so long considering it takes 3 seconds in classic.  Is this something I should bother reporting?  I know it's not really a bug or feature so I'm not sure if there is another way to send feedback - it could even be general and not specific to this file.  I have noticed that topics in general are slower to load, and you mentioned your 200kb topic takes 5-10 seconds, which is slower than my giant one in classic.  Maybe there somewhere to send a general "this application runs slower, could it be sped up?" type of feedback, or is that just the way it is based on things behind the scenes and it's not reasonable to expect it to be as fast.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Did you send your dummied-up topic to Peter as a Classic topic or one that you already upgraded using your 2022.2 version? @Peter Grainge , maybe it's worth trying upgrading it with 2022.5?

[Peter Grainge]

It was the 2022.2 version but I don't think the upgrade is the issue. I have seen it in topics created in the new UI. To give you some idea of the size of this topic the code would print to 1224 pages!

________________________________________________________

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