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VeetsDavis
Participant
January 22, 2010
Question

Robohelp issues (folders & files are missing)

  • January 22, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1179 views

Hi there,
We're running Robohelp 7 HTML.
We have 3 users using this product. All client PCs are running Windows XP (fully patched). They access their Robohelp project/documentation on a Windows 2003 dev server (also fully patched).
Robohelp was working fine until several days ago. At this point, our users starting receiving Microsoft Visual C++ runtime errors & complained that they could no longer edit their files. Additionally, the .xpj file was missing. If it matters, there are 1774 files & 67 folders in the project. The project itself is only 38MB.
After checking the server logs, I realized that several 'old' office updates were pushed to the server the night before. After further investigation,  it looked like KB904018 was the guilty update (more info here -> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7497D7F0-BEF5-4054-B854-B1240B5135F5&displaylang=en). Basically, this update removes the functionality in Access 2002 that lets users add new data to or edit existing data in a linked Microsoft Excel worksheet. Figuring that was the culprit, we uninstalled the update (normally we don't do this but it isn't a critical update).
After rebooting the server, we ran a full restore (which included the .xpj file), Robohelp started working again & everyone was happy.
Several days later however, we started receiving complaints again. This time some of the directories & files within the Robohelp project had disappeared. I've double-checked the server logs, client logs, AV settings (on server & client), etc, but I don't see anything relevant. At this point I'm not sure what to do but I'm guessing there's some kind of corruption in the project now. What should I be looking at? Any advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated.
TIA
Regards,
VeetsDavis

ps: I've never worked with Robohelp before so forgive my ignorance

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    1 reply

    Peter Grainge
    Community Expert
    Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 22, 2010

    Running projects from a network, other than under source control is the kiss of death. See Snippet 120.

    http://www.grainge.org/pages/snippets/snippets.htm

    There's information about Opening Projects on my site as well.

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

    Follow me @petergrainge

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    V
    VeetsDavisAuthor
    Participant
    January 22, 2010

    Thank you Peter,

    Based on the number of users (3-5 max), which product would you recommend we use?

    Regards,

    Veetsdavis

    V
    VeetsDavisAuthor
    Participant
    January 27, 2010

    No better reason than to avoid all the problems I see in the forums from people using source control.

    We use a cheap backup program that zips the project to a network drive every night and adds the date to the zip file name. Gives me all I need.

    If we shared authoring across projects we would have to look at source control for that reason. As a means of backups though, I find it unnecessary.

    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

    Follow me @petergrainge


    Thanks again Peter.

    I'll discuss some different options with the team.

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