Filter icon is displayed without using filters

[Gefasoft]

Hi All,

Today I saw that in my output of HTML5 Help, the filter icon is displayed in the navigation bar, even though I'm not using filters. Previously, this icon wasn't displayed; as far as I can see, it shall be hidden if not used. I know that the filter icon is displayed, if I run into a "too many recursions" error with my merged project (this happens, if my Index gets too large), but then, the index isn't working and the search doesn't stop trying to load. Now, the output is working, even though the filter icon is displayed.

As of today (or maybe a couple of days before), the filter icon (empty) is even displayed in the output of a single project, i.e. not large, not merged, nothing the like. Everything still worked fine on October 5th; no filter icon displayed in the merged project. Since then I haven't changed my output settings or anything; just a few minor spelling corrections and index shortenings.

The icon is displayed in Google Chrome, Firefox, and IE 11.

Does anyone know if there has been a RH update recently that might have caused this? I haven't been aware of any. Am I missing something else? Doing something wrong? Does anyone know how I can hide the filter icon again?

My version is RH 12.0.4.454, run on Windows 7

Any ideas are welcome!

Thanks and best regards

Karin

[Captiv8r]

Yep, looks like yet another issue caused by the recent update. Let me try and ping Adobe to see if they are ready to release another patch.

Cheers... Rick

[Gefasoft]

Thank you, Rick!

[andrew wake]

Do Adobe have a date for when they planto release a patch to fix all the bugs introduced in the 12.0.4 patch?

Thanks.

Andy

[Captiv8r]

Hi Andy

Unfortunately, all I heard was "soon". What that means is up for debate.

Cheers... Rick

[KFarrelly]

Thank you for posting this. I experienced similar issues this week. For me, I had previously set up a Responsive Help output in August to only show table of contents and search, and all was ok then. Did a compile of help this week and unwanted features/icons show up in output even thought I set them to False (Filters, Index and one other icon that I'm not familiar with). I also recently upgraded my RH 2015 to the latest 12.0.4. I searched Adobe's log of bugs reported by users and saw 5 instances of the issue being reported. Good to know it's on their radar.

[Alexandra Duffy]

I have experienced the same issue and filed a bug about it. Bug#4196739 - Regression in latest RH update - Filter icon and tab always shows although set to fals...

I am desperate to find a solution for now, until Adobe releases a patch. Does anyone know where I can make manual edits (to the .css? .slp? an .xml file?) in either the Project folder or the Output folder, so that the Filter tab is hidden? I've been comparing files before and after the 12.0.4 update but it's not easy to figure this out.

Thanks for any information.

Alexandra

[Alexandra Duffy]

I have found that if I edit topic.slp outside of RoboHelp and then generate the HTML5 output, I can remove the Filter icon everywhere except in mobile (phone) view.

Editing the topic.slp in the same way from within RoboHelp messes up my TOC (go figure). Editing the file outside of RH seems to work.

The edit I made is to comment out the filter info:

<!--<a class="filter" data-if="KEY_FEATURE.filter" data-class="active: @KEY_ACTIVE_TAB == 'filter'; filter-applied: @.l.tag_expression.length"  data-click="$mc.toggleActiveTab('filter')" data-attr="title:@KEY_LNG.Filter; href: '#'">&#160;</a>-->

I still need to get the filter functionality off of the mobile view.

I am not recommending this workflow to anyone, but I am posting it in case it helps someone else. And, if anyone knows what to change to get rid of the tab in mobile view, I'd love to hear it.

Alexandra

[Alexandra Duffy]

OK with fresh eyes today I made more edits to topic.slp, outside of RH.

under Extra mobile header with special functions, I commented out:

<!--<a class="filter" data-attr="href: '#'; title:@KEY_LNG.Filter" data-if="KEY_FEATURE.filter" data-class="filter-applied: @.l.tag_expression.length"  data-click="$mc.toggleActiveTab('filter')">&#160;</a>-->

Then under <!-- Filter --> I commented out the entire <div> </div> section.

This practically fixed it but still, I oddly had just the top of the Filter icon showing up in phone view. Clicking on it returned to the TOC (although the tooltip says "Filter"). So to fix that, I simply made the filter icon white. Most of our customers do not view our help on their phones, fortunately.

Then I noticed that although I have AND search set to false, that is another setting that is being ignored in the 12.0.4 update. The checkbox for "Display results with all search words" was showing up in my search tab. We do not want AND search, because it doesn't work. If it's selected, no results are ever returned although there should be results. So back to topic.slp.

under Search results, I commented out:

<!--<label class="wSearchAndLabelResults" data-if="KEY_FEATURE.andsearch" for="andsearch" data-class="active: @KEY_AND_SEARCH == '1'">

        <?rh-lng-string lngname="EnableAndSearch" class="wSearchAND" lngvalue="Show results that include all search words" ?>

    </label>-->

under Extra search field for desktop, I commented out:

<!--<div class="searchAND" data-class="layout-visible: @mousein_searchbox || @focusin_searchbox || @focusin_andoption" data-if="KEY_FEATURE.andsearch">

        <input id="andsearch" type="checkbox" value="1" class="wSearchAND" data-checked="KEY_AND_SEARCH" data-focus="@focusin_andoption(true)" data-blur="@focusin_andoption(false)" />

        <label for="andsearch"><?rh-lng-string lngname="EnableAndSearch" class="wSearchAND" lngvalue="Show results that include all search words" ?></label>-->

After making these edits to topic.slp (also including my edits from yesterday's post), I regenerated my HTML5 output.

At last, my help appears correctly, and seems to be functioning correctly. I want to use this RH 12.0.4 update, because it promises to fix the problems with Google search indexing.

I have another help project without a Glossary or Filter. So I'll be figuring out what to comment out in topic.slp to hide the Glossary icon. I assume it will be similar.

I do not necessarily recommend making these changes because I am not sure if I did the right thing, and make no promises that they'll work for you. I just hope this post helps you if you're encountering the same problem. Hopefully Adobe will fix the problems with the 12.0.4 update soon and release another patch.

Alexandra

[andrew wake · Accepted solution]

Alexandra, Adobe released an update this afternoon. It has fixed the problem in my help. Hopefully it will do the same for yours.

Andy.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Andy - did you get the newest patch via the Help > Updates method? Some people were having an issue with getting any new update via that way and the 2015.0.4 release is off the list in the direct updates site for the moment.

[andrew wake]

Yes File > Help > Updates installed the patch without any issues.

[KFarrelly]

Now the 4.1 update also is listed on Adobe's official Resolved Issues page: Issues resolved in Adobe RoboHelp (2015 release). There are three items listed as being resolved by the update.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

The 4.1 update seems to result in 12.0.4.460 as your new release level (in case you wanted to check)

[Alexandra Duffy]

Thank you for the information, Andy! I am releasing my help next Tuesday and don't know which is more risky - using my hacks to topic.slp or going with the new RH version.

Alexandra

[Alexandra Duffy]

The 4.1 update has fixed the problem for me. It also fixed the issue our users were having with Safari 10. I tested both issues this morning and will use the update to create my help for release tomorrow.

Thank you, Adobe engineers!!!

Alexandra