Search Results Not Displaying URL/Breadcrumbs for All Topics

[RoboFan]

RH2020.1 

Output is Responsive HTML5 using Azure Blue skin. When I perform a search, the results panel displays the breadcrumbs/URL for some topics, but not all. It's odd. Thoughts?

[Karin Albrecht]

I am just fiddling with the same issue. It seems that breadcrumbs for search results are not displayed in 2020, if it is a "one-project" output. They seem to be displayed if it is a merged output.

[Peter Grainge]

Have either of you tried Update 2? Don't if you also have PDFs linked to the TOC but otherwise see if that fixes it. Doubtful but needs to be tried.

I will run a test tomorrow.

[RoboFan]

This project is part of a combined output. However, the issue is visible/occurs whether I run the child project output as "standalone" output or part of the overall "multi-project combined" output.

The project originated in RoboHelp 2017 (frankly, it originated long before that). It was upgraded to RH2019 classic, then to RH2019 new, and finally to RH2020. 

I read on here under another post how to turn off ALL search result URLs using CSS. I'm not ready for that. I'm also leery of update 2, because if I have to rollback, it won't be fun. Longer term, I hope to procure a test VM machine where I can install and test/approve future updates on project copies before deploying to the rest of our team. 

[Peter Grainge]

In 2020 you cannot generate a project as a child and then run it standalone. See Merged Help on my site. 

If you want to run a child standalone you must generate again to a different folder. 

[RoboFan · Accepted solution]

Apparently resolved. In RH2020.1 no less.

I made the following changes to each preset in all 12 merged projects (1 parent, 11 children) - and yes, all 12 build presets used to generate the merged output were identical before this. Not sure which of these changes triggered the fix, but it was something:

• General>Use lowercase file names: Removed checkmark; was previously selected.
• Search>Use topic description as search context: Removed checkmark; was previously selected.
• Search>Set search context character limit: Changed from 100 to 150.
• Search>Number of results on a page: Changed from 20 to 10000 (merge consists of over 6.5k topics; audience can use included filters if they want).
• Search>Generate XML sitemap: Removed checkmark.

Was any of those actually causing the issue? Or did changing and saving one of those settings just insert a setting that was missing or corrupt (perhaps introduced at some point while upgrading the projects from 2017 to 2019c to 2019n to 2020)? Who knows? However, all search results now include a breadcrumb/URL below the preview.

Note: The changes above also resolved an issue (much smaller scale, but present nonetheless) I had with search result preview text not respecting the configured character limit (e.g., set to 100 but had one topic display 1397 characters for its preview).

Appreciate the feedback from the community. 

[Peter Grainge]

• General>Use lowercase file names: Removed checkmark; was previously selected.
  I always recommend that is deselected in merged help. The danger is you create a link to a topic in another child that is camel case. You then generate all outputs in lowercase. Put the help on a Unix server and the link is broken.
• Search>Use topic description as search context: Removed checkmark; was previously selected.
  Amber has covered that.
• Search>Set search context character limit: Changed from 100 to 150.
  
• Search>Number of results on a page: Changed from 20 to 10000 (merge consists of over 6.5k topics; audience can use included filters if they want).
  See below.
• Search>Generate XML sitemap: Removed checkmark.

Number of Results on a Page: I found some issues here.

• When I did a search with a limit of 20, I was told there were 61 results albeit I could only access 20.
• When I set the limit to 70 I was told there were 70 results.
• When I set the limit to 100 I was told there were 100 results.
• When I set the limit to 5,000 I was told there were 160 results.

I sent the project to Adobe and they are looking into. For now run some similar tests. Please let us know what you find.

[RoboFan]

The only "link" we have between projects is the redirect in the parent project to the merged help's home page, which resides in one of the child projects. We've always intentionally avoided them, for maintenance/long-term supportability reasons.

Incredibly, search seems to work.

• A search for 'save open changes button computer click wire watch' (no quotes and Include all words in search NOT selected) returns 5,176 results (these are frequently used terms, so I was trying to get a large results list).   
• Changed Number of results on a page to 1000 in parent project ONLY, compiled parent project ONLY, and ran exact same search: 1,000 results.

I have observed that the search results panel can be excruciatingly slow (10s or more) to load some topic previews/context within a results set; when this occurs, it isn't necessarily for all the topics in the results set. I'll have to monitor this more closely and try to identify more characteristics surrounding the behavior. 

[Peter Grainge]

Karin - RoboFan is reporting this is now OK and I am seeing the path in both merged help and a single project, specifically the RoboHelp Tour on my site.

[Karin Albrecht]

Peter, yes, thank you. It seems to be working now for single and merged projects. Even with RH2020.2.

[Peter Grainge]

I have just been advised that it was the Use Lowercase option that was causing the problem if checked. This will be fixed in a soon to be released update.