Unable to view project in RHS8 after publishing

[bjones91]

I am using RH8 to publish my project to RHS8.  We are using Tomcat/IIS, but after going through the integration to IIS, I feel I'm not yet to done with the integration there.  But for now, I am only trying to publish and view the project in Tomcat.  I was finally able to publish the project successfully to http://<servername>:8080/<context>/server.  However when I view http://localhost:8080/<context> or http://localhost:8080/<context>/server all I still see is the default Robohelp Server page, saying to publish my files here and for more information to check the documentation in the publishing tool.  Can anyone help shed some light as to how I can get the project viewable on the server?

[johndaigle]

Hi, bjones91 and welcome to the Forums.

When you published the project, did you publish to a particular "Area". Otherwise "general" is the default. Here are some things to check.

First, if you haven't tried this already, go to the Web Admin application by using this URL

http://localhost:8080/robohelp/admin

Log in and click on the "Projects" button along the left panel. Hopefully you will see your project listed.

If you do see your projects listed, you can click "View Project" and it will open in the browser.

If you would like to test the site directly from your browser, use this syntax for viewing the actual sites:

This shows the URL for a project titled EmployeeCare to an Area called "HR"
http://localhost:8080/robohelp/server?prj=EmployeeCare&area=HR

This shows the URL for a project titled Marketing to the Default "Area" which is named "general"

http://localhost:8080/robohelp/server?prj=Marketing&area=general

If you don't see your projects listed:

If not, then, there is definitely something wrong. Colum McAndrew and I  have seen situations where a simple "illegal" character in a filename  will prevent projects from showing up because the Tomcat server is very  fussy about legal names. (So, no *?)(&^%$#@!  or Spaces in your  Folder or Filenames. A dash - or underscore _ is OK. But good rule of  thumb is to keep Folder/Filenames alphanumeric and that goes for  anything on the web, not just RoboHelp projects

Of course there may be something else afoot. But, try these and get back to us if you are still having problems.

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

[bjones91]

John,

Thanks for the reply.  http://localhost:8080/robohelp/admin simply displays a Tomcat 404 error.  An IIS support person installed Robohelp for us, could this be due to something they missed or is 'robohelp' a context that I am suppose to setup through the Config. Manager?

I am able to get to the Tomcat manager, but I don't see a context for robohelp, only the context I created.

When I published, I did so by using the URL http://<servername>:8080/<contextname>/server.  It seems to have put everything under the Robohelp install path.  I see a folder with my context name and under that a server, database, and now a 'reserved' folder.  Everything appears to have been published to the server folder.

Also, oddly enough, it appears everything may also have been published at the same time to the root of D:\ (D is the drive where Robohelp is installed).

One last thing to note in the path to Tomcat.  There is a space in the folder path (D:\Apps\Tomcat 7.0\).  Is this ok or do I need to remove this space in the path?

Thanks again,

Brad

[johndaigle]

Something is definitely "undone" or not complete. Make sure they take a careful look at this online help link.

Especially the topic called, "Install and configure Microsoft IIS with Tomcat"

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/roboengine/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d11c0aaa9fd7-7ff8.html

Also, IT should carefully check this matrix of best practices in terms of OS and Database combinations:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/884/cpsid_88483.html

Regarding the spaces in the Tomcat path, this should not be a problem. I was referring more from the RoboHelp project folder and down from there.

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

[bjones91]

John,

Thanks again for the help here.  I am trying to back up prior to the IIS integration and just get the project to display via Tomcat.  My project doesn't include an index.htm page, however the default page being displayed from Robohelp (the "Congratulations!" page) is an index.htm.  I see in the WEB-INF folder, web.xml file, a value for welcome file -> index.htm and index.jsp.  Do I need to modify this web.xml and add the start page for my project?  Any thing else in this web.xml I will need to update?

[johndaigle]

Hi. That Welcome page is just a default greeting to let you know your are "almost" there with the install.You shouldn't have to modify any .xml files at this point.

Try this. Open the Configuration Manager application (under Windows Programs where it will be listed under the  RH Server 9 Programs section.) When you do, you "may" be asked to select an XML file named "server.xml" which usually appears in a small dialog box. Select server.xml and click Open to proceed. Then select the Tomcat Server version you are using (6 or 7).

When the Configuration Manager comes up, it will be oddly "greyed out". From this point, take a look at this good article on the Adobe Tech Comm Blog.

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2011/02/enhanced-config-mgr.html

Then, try the Web Admin URL I mention earlier to try and get the Web Admin application to come up in the browser so that you can log in with admin/admin as the default authentication to help you get started.

See if that helps you move forward.

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

[johndaigle]

Rats. I apologize, I now see you were trying to install the older RoboHelp Server 8 instead of 9. grrrr. Anyway, my suggestion should still work. Give it a try.

[bjones91]

John,

We've tried reinstalling Robohelp server 8 and then accessing the Web Admin application (http://localhost:8080/robohelp/admin) but it is still inaccessible.  That link you posted earlier about Tomcat with IIS, I read through it but I don't see anything that may be causing this issue.  Also the Web Admin application is not an option on the Start -> All Programs -> Adobe menu.  Only option there under Adobe is the Config Manager, which is also on the desktop.

[bjones91]

John,

We uninstalled Tomcat 7.0.15 and installed Tomcat 6.0.33 and we can get to the Admin page now, however it won't open properly.  I think it's trying to open a .swf and the server doesn't have flash support installed.  The login.jsp opens, but all that is displayed is an icon like a missing page element.  Is Flash support required to acccess the Admin page?  Is it required for the Robohelp projects?

[johndaigle]

Yes, the Web Admin application in the browser is a Flash application and requires the Flash Player. Also, to answer your previous question, there is no Desktop icon or Programs icon listed for the Web Admin application.

It's been so long since I used RH Server 8, I can't remember, but you might be able to circumvent this by viewing the Web Admin from your RoboHelp client app.

This would assume you do have the Flash Player installed on your own desktop even though it may not be on the server.

You may have already done some of this, but here are some steps to display the Web Admin a "pod" in your client app:

1. Open RoboHelp 8 on your local desktop
   Open a project and make it your "Primary Layout" in the Single Source Layout pod
2. Double click on the layout and proceed to the final screen where you create a Publish destination
   It should be something like "domainname.com:8080/robohelp/server" or whatever your IP address is (the /robohelp/server part may be filled in for you).
3. Put in your username and password (admin, admin to begin with)
4. Select and Area, General by default
5. Click OK and Finish.
6. See if you can publish the app to the server. This will validate that your desktop is communicating with the RH Server.
7. Now click  View > Pods > RoboHelp Server to expose the Web Admin app in a pod.
8. This "should" bring up the Web Admin app right within your RoboHelp client app on your desktop. From here, you can do almost everything you could in the browser-based app view.

See if this works and let us know.

John Daigle

Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor

Evergreen, Colorado

www.showmethedemo.com