RoboHelp 8 and Chrome

[Trevor00000]

We're using RoboHelp 8 to create html help files. These files reside on our server. Context-sensitive help is displayed by calling RH_ShowHelp().

In IE and FF, calling "RH_ShowHelp(0,'/help/help.htm>NoNavPane', HH_HELP_CONTEXT, 102)" opens a new window displaying the appropriate context-sensitive help page.

In Chrome, the same RH_SHowHelp call opens a new window with no content - url bar has "about:blank".

Is there a workaround for this issue in RoboHelp 8?  If not, is the problem corrected in later versions of RoboHelp?

Thanks in advance,

Trevor.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Just clarifying:

Which flavour of help? CHM or WebHelp?

Where's the server? LAN or Web server?

[Trevor00000]

Hi, thanks for the response.  It's not CHM  - the help files are HTML.  The files are on the web server.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So you're making WebHelp and placing it up on a web server - hmm..you shouldn't be running into any issues with Chrome's insane security paranoia change that they did a couple of years ago - that's the "local files access" thing mentioned in the other post. Are you all patched up on the latest RH8 version? You might try upgrading a copy of your RH8 project with the RH10 trial and see if that has any effect. Remember to do it on a machine that's not already running RH - not good to mix production and test machines.

[Peter Grainge]

Trevor

It is your version of Rh. See Snippets \ Browsers on my site.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So that tweak should be included in any RH8 patch that's come out lately, right?

[Peter Grainge]

What recent Rh8 patch are you thinking  about?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Whatever the last RH8 patch was - recent being a relative term when dealing with old obsolete versions ;>)

[Trevor00000]

Here's a page that demonstrates the problem:  http://www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/web-to-help.htm

If you go to the page and click either the "Basic topic 1" link or the "Advanced topic 1" link in Chrome you should see the problem.  In IE and FF, the popup comes up with the correct content.  In Chrome, the popup comes up blank.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Did you check the lines that Peter was describing in that Snippet? What's you exact point version of RH8 (in Help > About)? Have you checked for any updates to your version (either through Help > Updates or the http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/ page)?

[Trevor00000]

Hi, thanks for the response.

Yes I did verify that the lines mentioned in the Snippet are there.

I've asked our technical writer to verify the exact version of RH8.

I did look through the readme files for both the 8.0.1 and 8.0.2 updates - didn't see anything Chrome specific or anything that describes the behavior I'm seeing.

[Trevor00000]

The RH version is 8.0.2.208

[Peter Grainge]

@Trevor

Sorry, I pointed you to my site without checking. I thought what I had there on this issue was Rh8 related but as you have realised it is Rh7 related.

I don't know what is causing this but there is something I can do that may help if no one else has a solution. Create a new project with just a couple of topics and put the output on the same server. Does it behave the same way? If it does, see the Contact page on my site and send me that project. I will put the output on my server and see what happens. Also I will upgrade it and see if there is any difference.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Trevor00000]

Hi Peter, thanks.  I'll talk to our technical writer about getting a small project created.

[Trevor00000]

Hi,

thanks to all who answered.  I tracked the problem down to a bug in whcsh_home.htm. If there's interest, I can post the details.

Thanks,

Trevor.

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Trevor. When you get time please do post the details. I'm sure it will help someone in the future.

[Trevor00000]

The basic issue is Chrome is falling into a block of code designated for IE4.

Details:

function SwitchURL in whcsh_home.htm includes this block:

    if(gbNav4)

    {

        if (gbIsFF) {

                goNewWnd=window.open(sURL,sNewName,strOpt);

                goNewWnd.focus();

                setTimeout("goNewWnd.focus();",1)                           

        }else{

            if (gbNav6)

            {

                gsURL = sURL;

                goNewWnd=window.open("about:blank",sNewName,strOpt);

                setTimeout("postWindowNSOpen();",100);

            }

            else

            {

                window.open("about:blank",sNewName,strOpt);

                var oNewWnd=window.open(sURL,sNewName);

                window.close();

                oNewWnd.focus();

            }

        }

    else

    {

        if(gbIE5)

        {

            window.open("about:blank",sNewName,strOpt);

            goNewWnd=window.open(sURL,sNewName);

        }

        else

        {

            gsURL = sURL; // IE4 had hard time to handle bookmark.

            goNewWnd=window.open("about:blank",sNewName,strOpt);

        }

        setTimeout("postWindowOpen();",100);

    }

Based on the values of the various flags, in Chrome, program exection falls into the last section, which I've bolded.

postWindowOpen is called, which looks like this:

function postWindowOpen()

{

    if(goNewWnd)

    {

        if (gsURL&&!gbIE5&&gbIE4)

            goNewWnd.document.location.href=gsURL;

        goNewWnd.focus();

    }

}

Based on the settings of these flags, the line which sets the href is not executed and therefore the context-sensitve help window remains blank.

The fix I made was to add a case to the code block I noted above in the SwitchURL function to handle Chrome:

    }else if(gbChrome){

        gsURL = sURL;

        goNewWnd=window.open("about:blank",sNewName,strOpt);

        setTimeout("postWindowChromeOpen();",100);

    }

and to create a Chrome specific function for setting the href of the CSH window:

function postWindowChromeOpen(){

    if(goNewWnd){

        if(gsURL){

            goNewWnd.document.location.href=gsURL;

        }

        goNewWnd.focus();

    }

}

[Trevor00000]

hi, thanks for the response Peter.

Can you be more specific?

I looked at snippets \ browsers, but didnt see this issue mentioned. Closest I saw was "WebHelp TOC does not display using Google's Chrome Browser" which is noted as being a RoboHelp 7 issue, not RH 8.

[Guest]

We use Chrome here with RH8 but you have to start Chrome with an allow access statement:

For example:

c:\blahblah\chrome.exe" --allow-file-access-from-files

We found if not the navigation panel is blank...

[Trevor00000]

Thanks for the response.

As I understand it, the --allow-file-access-from-files command line switch resolves a problem accessing local files, not files that reside on the server. In my situation, the help files on the web server.