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D Christian Walters
D Christian Walters
Participating Frequently
September 7, 2016
Question

TOC building secure/https links?

  • September 7, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 617 views

Hi!

We're moving everything to https: here. Pretty standard stuff.

However, when generating a RoboHTML project, it's apparently building the TOC with insecure links and it's hiding some topics.  Clicking the "view all content" (or equivalent) option fixes that problem, but we can't expect our non-computer-savvy users to go do that.

Is there some setting I'm missing?

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
September 7, 2016

Hi there

I'm personally unaware of any setting that controls this aspect. Of course, I could be wrong, but I don't recall ever seeing any setting one would use that says: Create this link as a secure link.

Mind you I'm not a "security expert". To me, the fact something is using HTTPS vs standard HTTP seems that it should be simply that the basic HTML pages and coding are somehow behind other pages or a firewall or something that makes the HTTPS magick happen.

Obviously I have something to learn about it all and likely will via this thread.

Off to Google now to see what I can glean about this aspect.

Cheers... Rick

D Christian Walters
D Christian WaltersAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 7, 2016

Yeah, there's apparently not a setting on the RH interface. I suspect I am either doing something entirely wrong or I need to change a .js file.  Since I'm not a programmer of any sort, much less a javascript one, I'm not sure which

D Christian Walters
D Christian WaltersAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 7, 2016

So, after replying to you I googled and found a page that discussed how HTTPS works. Basically, boiled down, it seems that what you do is to place pages that should be encrypted into a special folder of the web server. Because the content is inside that folder, things are encrypted when communicating with the browser. And that makes total sense for a page here and there that may deal with something like Credit Card information or other kinds of information.

What baffles me a bit here is why anyone would see the need for help information to be encrypted via HTTPS.

What I read seemed to imply that there is no way to construct a hyperlink in a "secure" fashion. All that rot happens via the location of the page, the security certificate and the server. There is nothing special you have to do with the linking.

As you say pages "go missing", I'm somewhat concerned in how exactly your links are being constructed. Are you familiar with the concept of Relative VS Absolute links? If so, I'm wondering if the pages that perform the disappearing act have possibly been created using Absolute links. Is that a possibility?

Cheers... Rick


It's not a relative v absolute link issue.  The problem exists in the compiled project's TOC, which isn't actually a constructed file -- it uses the whtdhtml.htm file, which calls like half a dozen .js files (which is where I assume the TOC is built).

When I change the address of the help project to use https, the TOC doesn't list everything unless you tell it to show unprotected content -- I guess that happens when you click an unsecured link on a secured page.

As for why they're doing this -- they're really doing it for the whole shebang. (It's not that big a company.) It's not that they're worried about help text, it's that it's a global change for everything.

It fell on me to figure this out because I forgot to take a sick day during the last team meeting

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