Robohelp 8 Search not working

Report · Sep 08, 2009

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!

Report · Sep 15, 2009

Actually, creating the project with the dictionary Português UK are found 3 results, since the dictionary Portuguese (Brazil) is not found any.
I did more tests, I found that all generation options, with the "Section 508 Compliant Output" enabled, the project is the word "zero", even with the dictionary in Portuguese (Brazil).

In the case of my company the "Section 508 Compliant Output" is not the solution as we need an appropriate skin. I believe that the compilation should not be tied to the dictionary used, but use a kind of index for all the words in your project. I do not know what kind of relationship that the dictionary is a tool to search, since the word has been in both.

I will document this situation the link that you indicated.

Thanks,

Fernanda.

Report · Sep 16, 2009

I am finding it difficult to follow your post. Also you now seem to say the with the Portuguese dictionary three hits are found. You original post showed that was not the case and so did my test.

Sorry but you will have to explain things more clearly.

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Report · Sep 17, 2009

Sorry, I wrote incorrectly in previous post. With the English UK dictionary found 3 results, with the dictionary Portuguese Br was not found any.

With the "Section 508 Compliant Output" any of the dictionaries brings 3 results for "zero".

Report · Sep 17, 2009

So I think where we are is that Section 508 also fixes the problem but not in a way that suits you, so discard that option.

The English UK dictionary does get you around the problem and in a way that does not affect the end user. The topics are found and there is no downside.

Maybe the dictionary should not affect things in this way but it does and we have a workround. Now you must report it as a bug.

The more people who report a bug or request a feature, the more likely it is to be actioned. Please follow this link.

http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38

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Report · Sep 17, 2009

It would be nice to know if this solution also works for Erika.

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Report · Sep 17, 2009

Peter, I created the task of error the same day of my previous post.
The "Section 508 Compliant Output" really is not the solution and we will not adopt, but if I posted the solution to someone.
We are now compiling the project with the English UK dictionary and when we edit the project changed to the dictionary Portuguese Br, just like to outline the problem.

Report · Sep 17, 2009

Hi all...no, it doesn't......

Thanks..

Report · Sep 17, 2009

Erika, that is not the required answer! Sorry it doesn't work for you. It might be worth poking around with a few other languages or trying 508 compliant help, just to see what happens.

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Report · Oct 02, 2009

Hi,

I just installed my RH8 upgrade. I have now imported a few projects that have been working fine in RH7. After compiling, my Search does not give any results for any search ?

Not sure what could be wrong. Compiling using FlashHelp.

Thanks,

Tom Whelan

Report · Oct 02, 2009

Tom

You don't say whether or not you have tried any or all of the suggestions in the thread.

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Report · Oct 05, 2009

Hi Peter,

I was trying everything in the thread, still with no Search results to be seen. I have an associate working in another location that also did the upgrade to RH8 with the same source code, and he reported different results. He was seeing much better results in his Search test, although he has reported some inconsistency concerns. I then took his imported project source code, and now I am getting similar results as he reported to me, however with one additional and concern so far. On any two or even three word phrase search, I am getting a "stack overflow at line 174" error, my associate is not seeing this.

Thanks!

Tom

Report · Oct 05, 2009

Hi Tom

When you view the topics in your RoboHelp editor view, do you see little red squares sprinkled here and there through your topics?

If you do, my suspicion is that somehow you got your source files replaced with output files. That would likely explain the Stack Overflow message.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 05, 2009

Hi Rick,

We do see the red squares in some topics. But they are not there in the same topics in the RH7 version. As soon as we do the import to RH8 we see them. So far in the "HTML" view we see the red squares associated with ehlpdhtm.js and with CDATA.

Also I should mention because this info was in a different thread...the import was not initially succeeded for us. We had to delete the cpd and the xpj files, and then open the project with the HHP file in order for the project to be imported.

Thanks!

Tom

Report · Oct 06, 2009

Hi again Tom

Usually the red squares indicate you have inserted WebHelp output files back into your source. And if that's the case, that could may account for why your search is failing with the stack overflow message. A stack overflow has been an indication of WebHelp output in source for many years.

What will help us narrow this down a bit is if you could copy the HTML code from one of these topics and post it. It should be easy to tell you from looking at this whether you have this condition.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 08, 2009

Hi all,

We are having the same problem. After upgrading to RH8, the WebHelp Search was returning only 7 results for the term "override" when there were 54 topics that actually contained the word.

After regenerating with the "Enable substring search" option, the Search returns all 54 files. So thank you for that workaround!

Unfortunately, this is not an optimum solution because we now have double the number of files in the whgdata and whxdata folders. This is already a large project and I don't want to ship more files to the user's system.

While troubleshooting the original problem, I looked at the files in the whgdata folder and discovered that the file containing the target search term has links to all 54 files. The file has an entry that looks like this:

So the whgdata file is correct, but the Search mechanism is not returning all of the possible results.The .xml file that contains "override" in the whxdata folder also has 54 entries. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to use these files to force the Search mechanism to work correctly.

I've also logged this bug on the Adobe Bug Report Form, but I'm not confident it will get resolved in time for our next release. Can anyone explain how Adobe responds to these user-reported errors, in what form, and in what time frame?

Thanks much,

Diana Garcia

Report · Oct 08, 2009

First Adobe do read all the bug reports so you need not have concerns there. Then I would guess they are the same as any other software company in that they get prioritised.

Trying to guess that, you have a workaround and my take would be do any of my users count the files and disk space is hardly an issue these days. Measure the space both ways and calculate one as a percentage of the other. That said, usability-wise you may not want to give users a sub-string search so the problem does need fixing and I don't think Adobe would argue otherwise, especially as there are some other linked issues they need to fix.

How long? That's anyone's guess.

Response, you will not hear back unless they have a question about what you have reported.

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Report · Oct 08, 2009

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your response. I didn't mention that the checkin for the whgdata output files is already a very long process and the larger number will add to it considerably. So this side-effect of employing substring search is not trivial. Also, I believe substring search is slower, so, as you mention, it's a usability issue.

FWIW, I'm attaching a file that contains screenshots of our help with RH7 and RH8 as well as the affected whgdata and whxdata files. It seems like there should be a way of using these support files as a backdoor method for kick-starting Search. At the very least, they should be good debug tools. I hope Adobe is aware of this.

Thanks again and cheers!

Diana

Report · Oct 08, 2009

Please use the camera icon to insert images next time, it is quicker for those of us trying to help you.

I don't use source control but from what I see most people just use it for source files, not the output. If you need a copy of the output as a record of what was issued, then just zip it up and put that in source control, much quicker. With the source in source control, you have the means to recreate the output later.

Bottom line is that none of us can offer you a workaround so the situation is what it is. I wish it were otherwise.

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Report · Oct 14, 2009

Oh - this is just what I needed! A user reported that she couldn't find the word findings in a search. Since that word is frequently used in the project, I tested it out and found the same thing. Interestingly, the correct search results did display if I enclosed the word in quotation marks (any idea why that would happen??). Since we had just done training on using the Help files, I was reluctant to have to tell people to put all their search terms in quotation marks. Clicking the enable substring search is working like a charm. Thanks!

Report · Sep 09, 2009

Now, NOTHING comes up in the search!

Erika J. Pasarela

Technical Writer

Conde Nast Publications

(212)790-6639

Report · Sep 09, 2009

Nothing is found in the new project or your main project?

If the former send it to me via http://www.cutesendit.com with a link to this thread. You can get my address from my site.

If it is your main project, how big is that zipped up?

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Report · Oct 17, 2009

By design, RoboHelp's WebHelp generation process converts variations of certain words into a common "stem" word. For example, "driven" and "drove" are converted to "drive" in the search data files during WebHelp generation. "Data" becomes "datum".

These conversions are defined in a file called OdinStemDictionary.XML. (Disclaimer: This file is part of your program installation, not your project files. Muck around at your own risk!) You could try editing your OdinStemDictionary.XML file to remove the entry for "data" as well as any other terms you want to search on. I haven't tested this, so MAKE A BACKUP COPY FIRST. I'll try to test this method soon and share the results.

Since this substitution is "by design," perhaps any bug reports would be more useful if they included specific suggestions about which terms seem to be troublesome. For example, changing "data" to "datum" seems to be a frequent source of complaint. Specific suggestions might help the wizards at Adobe improve the stem dictionary.

Also, we should keep in mind that this isn't necessarily a bug; when it works properly, the stem dictionary substitution allows users to find obscure bits of text such as "durst" by searching with common terms like "dare".

Report · Oct 18, 2009

Craig

That's interesting but if the person is not using stem searching, surely words like Data should be found and if they are not, then is it not a bug?

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Report · Oct 18, 2009

Good call, Peter. I only meant that it works as the developers intended, and wasn't the result of a malfunction. Just some misjudgement about what terms should be included in the stem dictionary.

But it's the users that matter, right? Anything that works against user expectation can fairly be called a bug, I suppose.

It's really "bugging" people that they can't find "data".

Report · Oct 19, 2009

Ok, I've tested the following fix, and it seemed to work fine. It would be nice if someone else could verify.

1. Make a backup copy of the OdinStemDictionary.XML file in your C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2\Adobe RoboHelp 8\RoboHTML\OdinExt\English folder. (This is in case you want to revert to the originally installed file.)

2. Open OdinStemDictionary.XML in Notepad.

3. Remove the entire line for any terms you don't want RoboHelp to "stem".

Example: <word org="data" stem="datum"/>

4. Save the XML file.

When you generate your WebHelp, you should now be able to search on terms that were removed from the stem dictionary.

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Robohelp 8 Search not working