Context Sensitivity not working for all users

[LMardenTyler]

This is an odd problem. Needs some back story.

My team produces several help systems for the apps offered by our division. We have come up with a relatively simple way to deliver our WebHelp with context sensitivity. In each project, we create Map IDs and assign them to topics, just as if we were going to create chms. This of course updates the .ali file. Before publishing, we take a minute to copy the contents of the ali file into a specific .xml file. The dev team has programmed the applications so that when a user clicks on Help, the xml file is polled to determine if there is a Help topic assigned to that window.

If there is a Help topic attached, it is displayed. If not, we display the Welcome page by default, with the navigation pane, so that users can try surfing / searching if they want to.

For almost every project, this works perfectly, as long as we help authors remember to update the xml file. It's easy, and handles any file / folder movement, and dev doesn't have to do anything extra to maintain the relationship.

But then there is one program that wants to be all poopieheaded about this process. For SOME (not ALL) users, and for now users are internal - they have not rolled out the new Help to their client base yet - all they can get to is the welcome screen. No matter which program view they are on, they always get the welcome screen. Everyone else sees the appropriate topic for the window they are on.

So this tells me that RoboHelp is producing the output properly, and the xml file is correctly maintained - or else NO ONE would see the correct topic.

This also tells me (I think) that the dev side is fine too, or again, NO ONE would see the correct topic.

So the issue must be environmental, right? What is causing some users to have the incorrect experience? Browser settings? Network access issues or rights?

Any suggestions for troubleshooting or even confirmation that you have experienced this will be greatly appreciated. Because really, it's driving us crazy.

Before you ask, we are all on RH11, and work on our Help projects locally - neither the app or the project is on a network drive.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You’re right – it does smell like something like security settings on the workstations are interfering with the launching of the help. I’d investigate browser settings first.