Problem with Indigo Layout TOC with Merged Projects

[cadbase]

If I try to use the new "Indigo" layout in RH 2017 with a project that has merged child projects, the TOC works in one direction only.

By this I mean I can use the TOC to navigate to topics in the child projects, but if I move to another page using a browse list, or by searching for another topic and selecting that from the search results, the TOC does not update properly to show the current page selection. If I switch the master project back to the older "Charcoal_Grey" layout, the TOC behaves as it should.

You can re-create this by creating two empty clean projects and linking these to a new master project. The TOC works in both directions on topics inside the project that you're in, but it does not work in the reverse direction for topics in a child project when viewed from the master project. Switching to "Charcoal_Grey" resolves the problem.

Although I can continue to use the "Charcoal_Grey" layout, I do like the new Indigo design and would prefer to adopt it throughout our systems, but without the TOC working in the reverse direction, it's easy to get lost in a large site.

Further to this, I discovered today that the breadcrumb hyperlinks don't appear to work properly in all cases - although this could be a separate problem. I'm testing this further as they sometimes work so I need to identify the circumstances around when they do and don't work.

[Peter Grainge]

Referring to "direction" is confusing me. I think what you are saying is simply that accessing topics via the TOC works OK and the topic syncs with the TOC but when you use the browse sequence or searching to access topics, then they fail to sync with the TOC. Correct?

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[Peter Grainge]

... also, does this only happen in the merged output or does it happen in the single outputs as well? I think you mean the merge only but want to be sure.

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[cadbase]

Yes that's correct. Navigating pages fails to sync the TOC but single output projects using Indigo work just fine.

[Peter Grainge]

Because the merge works with one layout, it seems logical that the problem is with the Indigo layout. Nonetheless its worth checking that all the projects have the same settings.

I will set up a test but it might not be today as I am about to have an eye test which leaves me with blurred vision for quite a while afterwards.

If anyone else has a merge set up to test with, perhaps they could step in.

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[cadbase]

Thanks Peter. I hope your eye gets better.

To make sure the problem wasn't related to my installation or projects, I switched to a new PC with a clean install of RH 2017 and  created a new clean project as follows:

Create a new blank project named "Parent" and another project named "Child".

In the project "Child", add a new book named "Child" and in there create a two topics named "Child_Topic_1" and  "Child_Topic_2". In Output, set the layout to "Indigo" and the output folder and start page to the mergedProjects path of the parent project (e.g. "C:\RoboHelp\Parent\!SSL!\Responsive_HTML5\mergedProjects\Child"). Save and Generate the project "Child".

Open the Parent project and add a book named "Parent" and in there add two topics named "Parent_Topic_1" and  "Parent_Topic_2" and add a new merged project by browsing to the child project file "Child.xpj." In Output, set the layout to "Indigo" and Save and Generate and then View the project.

In the Web application, expand the TOC and select a topic in the child project first (e.g. "Child_Topic_2") and you'll see the page loads as expected. Expand the TOC and select a topic in the parent project (e.g. "Parent_Topic_1") and you'll see that page also loads as expected (and the TOC shows the arrow "<" against the selection).

Now use the Search tool to find "Child_Topic_1" and you'll see the page loads correctly as the others, but the TOC stays the same and it fails to update.

Switch the parent project layout from "Indigo" to "Charcoal_Grey" and repeat the test and you'll find the TOC is synchronized to show the page you have currently in the main frame based on the search selection (A browse list makes testing this easier with the "Charcoal_Grey" layout because the search results obscure the TOC. You can simply step through the pages).

If you repeat the above using one project without children, the TOC synchronizes properly using both  the "Charcoal_Grey"  and "Indigo" layouts.

To me this looks like a bug in the "Indigo" HTML5 responsive layout - but it's one that makes it impossible to adopt that layout on a complex site that has many topics in a few projects because the TOC doesn't aid the user in site navigation as it should do.

The Indigo layout is the main reason I forked out the A$650 upgrade fee - but I feel let down if I can't use it. Apart from "Indigo", there isn't a lot of difference between the 2015 version I had before and 2017 upgrade I installed last week.

[Peter Grainge]

I don't think it is relevant but I note you have content in your parent project. The method on my site used by many people avoids that because of link issues.

As you have already set up a test perhaps you could share that with me to save setting another one up and in case it is something about your way of working. See the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

What part of Australia are you in? Had three months in ANZ last year.

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[cadbase]

I don't normally have content in the parent projects; I only put some in the test project - but I'll create another test project with two children and nothing in the parent and send that up as suggested. I have tested that before and got the same problem with Indigo layout.

I guess one option would be to combine my projects into one, but it sounds like a bit of an effort to re-work the TOC and Indexes. The benefit would be better cross-linking between topics. They'e only separate now because of history; they got created in the past at different times.

I'm in Darwin in the top end of the NT.

[cadbase]

Following up up 3 months later...

I've since merged our many multiple projects into one large project and although it was a hell of a lot of work to do, the site is now easier to manage, is more consistent, and the Indigo layout works the way it should. My employer is pleased with the result and really likes the Indigo layout - but there does appear to be a bug when using that layout merged projects that's wasn't present in the older Charcoal layout.

I noticed that RH 2017 Update 1 was released recently. I re-tested merged projects using the simple test set I sent to Peter in February but I can confirm that this particular bug is still present. I was not able to find any documentation on what went into Update 1 other than some "bug fixes".

[Peter Grainge]

I did find some issues with Cadbase's set up but nonetheless, there were still some issues with this layout and merged help. These have been reported to Adobe.

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[Peter Grainge]

See Item 2 in Snippets for details.

[Correction of link first posted]

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