Robohelp 8 Search not working

[Guest]

I upgraded a project from Robohelp 7 to Robohelp 8.  Before upgrading, the Search function in the published Robohelp worked fine.  Since upgrading, it finds things but not all of the time.  For example, I search for "lost" which I know is in a few of the topics.  Nothing is found.  Does anyone have an idea why this wouldn't be working?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

Craig

Are you saying this fixes the problem when people are not using stem searching? That was what puzzled me yesterday as that file should be irrelevant if you are not using stem searching. I want to be sure I understand before setting anything up.

Thanks.

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[Craig_Haiss]

Hey, Peter. RoboHelp appears to use the "stem" search even when the Enable Substring checkbox is not marked. The fix (editing OdinStemDictionary.XML) allows you to get more accurate results without marking the Enable Substring checkbox.

[Guest]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the information about OdinStemDictionary.xml. One of our problem terms is "override." I tested your method by deleting all entries that included the word "override" in OdinStemDictionary and regenerating WebHelp. Now, when I search on "override" I get 40 topics in the results. This is better than before, but not complete because the total number should be 54.

The only way I've been able to produce the complete search results is by editing the whxdata\package_*.xml output file. For example, "overrid" and "override" are listed in package_6.xml. There are only 7 entries associated with "overrid"  and 54 associated with "override." If I copy the 54 entries from override to overrid in  package_6.xml, the Search mechanism works correctly.

Examples of other problem terms are driv/drive, resid/reside. The driv, overrid, and resid terms do not contain the full listing of associated topics. However, in WebHelp Search, they seem to take precedence over their drive, override, reside counterparts, even when I enter the full term. I've reported this behavior and my workaround to Adobe.

Of course, editing the xml output file is not desirable. But I also don't want to use the sub-string search workaround. If you have further suggestions, I'm all ears.

Diana

[friedlanders]

Hi, Diana -

I'm not very technically oriented but am the only person here who is using RoboHelp. I was able to use the sub-string search workaround and was wondering why you didn't wish to - just wondering if I'm missing something is the discussion because of my limitations. Our known problem was with the word findings - but I'm concerned that there are other words out there that are being missed, also.

(Also wondering why putting the word in parentheses - before the workaround - allowed the word to be found in a Search.)

Thanks.

Leanne

[Guest]

Hi Leanne,

We have a large help system and we check the output in to ClearCase for inclusion with our software kits. The whdata, whgdata, and whxdata folders in our WebHelp output contain over 400 files. Because these change so often, we need to check them in frequently and it's a time-consuming process. When I used the sub-string-search option, the number of these output files jumped to over 600. That's why I don't love this workaround.

I've tried putting the search term in parens and quotes. I still don't get the full search results until I edit the package*.xml files.

The way I've identified some of these problem terms is to open each whxdata\package*.xml file and look for similar terms (driv/drive) that have different numbers of entries. It's tedious work, but it helped me understand the problem better.

HTH,

Diana

[friedlanders]

Thanks, Diana - that's good to know.

Leanne

[friedlanders]

I've read Diana and Craig's reason for not using the Enable Search Substring checkbox, and agree that I would like to stay away from this option, even though it works.

I've tried to use Craig's fix with my problem word: findings. Unfortunately, I can't find any reference to this word in the OdinStemDictionary.XML file. I could suggest using quotation marks, but really dislike the idea of asking people to do something that shouldn't have to be done (I certainly don't mind workarounds on my end, but when we are trying to encourage people to use Help topics, I hate to put the onus on them).

(I might mention that I am not generating an index - just Contents, Search, and Glossary.)

Any other ideas regarding what I might be able to do?

Thanks.

Leanne

[Peter Grainge]

After making a backup, have you tried removing all the words in OdinStemDictionary.XML?

Have you tried the dictionary change suggested earlier?

I've got nothing else to suggest at the moment.

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[Guest]

Did you try searching through the package*.xml files for "findings"? Is it preceded by another word that may be blocking it in the search? In my example, the word "overrid" was causing a problem with "override." My workaround requires editing entries in the package file, keeping in mind that this is output that will be overwritten each time you generate WebHelp.

If you want help with this method, you can try attaching the file and I'd be happy to look at it. (I think you can attach a text file.)

Diana

[friedlanders]

Hi, Diana -

Thanks so much for your offer to look at the file, but because we are doing the Help files for another state agency, we aren't allowed to send them out - this is absolutely no reflection on your offer.

I'll need to take another look at the package*.xml files - but will need to grab someone to help me understand what I'm looking at .  (I'm much more of a designer/writer than a programming person - but I'm the only one here using RoboHelp.) I'm also concerned that I would need to do this every time I generate WebHelp - I do that fairly often. But if it works ...

Thanks again, Diana.

Leanne

[Guest]

No prob! And I have another possible workaround for you.

If you know exactly the term that is missing from Search (e.g. findings) and you can identify the help topics that include this term, you can use the Robohelp Topic Properties to specify the term as a topic keyword. These keywords are embedded as metadata in the topic, which, theoretically, should give the topic precedence when searching on the keyword. I haven't found that this works consistently and reliably, but it's worth a try, especially if you have only a few important terms. The advantage is that this method doesn't require editing output.

Good luck and let us know how you do!

Diana

[friedlanders]

This word (findings) is a killer, Diane. I had high hopes for the keyword suggestion. I tried it in a number of topics that have the word, but no luck. (Just to be sure I was doing the right thing: I right-clicked in the topic, clicked Topic Properties, and put the word (findings) in the Keywords field in the General tab. Generated in WebHelp.)

My next step will be to see if I can try your package file fix (it looks like I have over 800 of these files) - I may have to do some research on the internet. As a last resort, I'll go back to the substring option - which I'd really like to stay away from. If this wasn't such an important word, I'd just let it go, but in this program it's the title of a tab that's used frequently.

Thanks again for your help.

Leanne

[Craig_Haiss]

Leanne,

Try deleting the following from your OdinStemDictionary.XML file.

<word org="found" stem="find"/>

After deleting that line and regenerating the help, I was able to find "findings".

[Peter Grainge]

Craig

Snap. I just ran the same test with the same result.

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[Peter Grainge]

I think I am on to another solution.

With a simple project I searched on Findings and it failed as expected.

I changed the project language to Turkish. No particular reason and I suspect (m)any other language(s) would do.

Hey Presto! Search on Findings and it works.

The catch is that the tab titles and search text also appear in Turkish. However that can be fixed. The skin editor allows you to edit the text back to English. The LNG File in Project Settings allows to do the same with the search text. Both of those are one off pieces of work.

You will need to test further for other unwanted effects but it does address the problem with Findings.

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[friedlanders]

YAY! Thank you so much, Craig, and thanks to everyone else on the forum - you've been great! Such a relief! (Actually, the word "found" came to me last night - but I forgot all about it today.)

Peter, you had suggested deleting everything in the OdinStemDictionary (I was actually just about to try that). What would happen if all the words were deleted? I'm so nervous about other people finding problems with other words. As I mentioned, one of our goals is to get people to use the Help files as a first resource - so I'd be very interested in finding anything proactive I can do until the "bug" is fixed.

Thanks again.

Leanne

[Peter Grainge]

I can't say what will happen as we are in uncharted waters, who knows what is lurking beneath the surface?

I think I would go for it but your company may have different views. Speak to the Product Manager or whoever you deem appropriate.

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[Craig_Haiss]

LEANNE - Glad to help.

PETER - That Turkish thing is brilliant; if I could give you points for creativity, I would!

[Peter Grainge]

I'm rather more impressed by how you found Odin!

I tumbled on the idea from the fact that the first project I looked at with this problem when applying English UK fixed it. That told me the project dictionary had some bearing so when it didn't work this time, I went for another language, Turkish, and the result was a delight.

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[Fernanda_Br]

I have seen various solutions to the problem of  search ... excuse me if I am repeating the solution, but when you enter the path  File> Project Settings, choose a dictionary to use to build the project.  Beside the field of the dictionary is the "Advanced ..." vision "Always ignore  words" are all words to be ignored in the project, including search. So Peter  that changing the dictionary project became operational. By removing all the  entries, the search improves.

[Peter Grainge]

I'm not sure what you are driving at here but the Always Ignore words, and indeed any Stop List words, are not relevant to the problem in this thread.

Can you describe the point in a different way?

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[Fernanda_Br]

If you look at the beginning of this discussion, I also had problems with the search tool, I could not find the word "zero". You've indicated to change the

dictionary English UK.

In Project Settings> Language indicate the value Portuguese (Brazil) and click Advanced> Stop List, there is "zero". If you remove this term, the search

will find the "zero" normally. No need to change the dictionary (and by consequence edit the skin) so that the search function, you need only delete the

existing words "Stop List".

[Peter Grainge]

With you. In your case the problem seems to be a word I was surprised to see there but of course it was the problem in your case. The other words causing problems don't seem to be Stop List related.

Thanks for explaining.

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[willnrk]

So I am having the same issue with AIR SSL.  I created my project in RH8 and the search has been working great.   Now it does not.  What could have changed to cause this issue.  If I create a new project and test it works fine.  I don't understand how it could have changed so easily.

-Will

[Peter Grainge]

Will

Please note the forum rules and do not cross post. You have asked in another thread and we are trying to help you. This just makes it more difficult by having some people answer one thread and others coming in on another. Then when someone else has this problem, it wastes their time too.

We try very hard in the RoboHelp forums to answer all questions but this doesn't help.

Thanks.

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@petergrainge