Upgrade of robehelp

[sameer15C3]

Hi 

I have been tasked to upgrade robohelp.   However the issue is that the client does not have the robohelp code flies or the project file.   

So, of course I am struggling to understand a couple of things:

1.   Can you upgrade robohelp if you don't have access to the project files.  Of course I am inclined to say not but I am hoping someone can guide me.   

2.   This is the most important part, the output of robohelp is a bunch of html files.   why should I care if they were generated in robohelp 2019 or 2005. 

[Amebr]

When you say "upgrade robohelp" do you really mean "upgrade robohelp projects"?

You can update the Robohelp application at any time, but If you don't have the source files, then you can't upgrade the help projects themselves.

You may be able to create new projects using the output files, but it will be a lot of work to clean up.

Post back with some more details about what you're trying to do and what you have access to.

[Peter Grainge]

You would care because depending on the version used to create the output is how you can reverse engineer the files. If the output is webhelp there are two solutions but if it is a responsive skin there's only one.

Open the output. I don't know your RoboHelp level of knowledge so you do that by opening what's known as the start page. It should be something like index.htm but it could be named whatever the author decided. That file will be in the root of the output and will open it with the TOC, toolbar and a topic. Any HTM file that just opens that file without the TOC is not the start page.

Once you have it opened, reduce the window size drastically. Does it change the layout? If it does it is responsive and if not it is webhelp.

• If it is webhelp then the Reverse Engineering (grainge.org) topic on my site gives you two options, one is a third party paid script and the other is a lot of clean up. Output files are nothing like source files and worse still may not be the complete set of topics.
• If it is responsive help, I don't believe the paid script works there.

Before you pay for the script contact the site owner at Contact – Help Essentials as I'm not sure how well it is supported now as it focussed on Classic versions. The price shown is £74.99. Also ask about responsive skins in case I am wrong on that.

The game changes if you are lucky enough that a CHM file with the same content was created. That is much easier to reverse engineer into a RoboHelp Classic compatible project. You could then upgrade that into the new versions of RoboHelp.

Let us know how you get on.

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See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information

[sameer15C3]

Peter 

Thanks very much for your response.   When I said ,"  why should I care if they were generated in robohelp 2019 or 2005" what I was trying to say is when I look at the html help file from robohelp , for example:

Whats the down side if we don't upgrade.    Is there a security vulnerbility ?

[Peter Grainge]

If you don't upgrade then you cannot work on the files. You cannot work on output files in RoboHelp.

Old outputs will contain code that modern browsers do not support so you might also find issues there. As to whether they are vulnerabilities I think I am right in saying that would only apply to your users rather than you if you have put some dodgy code in. 🙂 I will leave it to others to comment on that aspect.

________________________________________________________
See www.grainge.org for free Authoring and RoboHelp Information