RoboHelp files do not display the proper Default Topic when opened

[Scott Detroit]

Hello everyone. I support an application that usses RoboHelp for it's online help files. We used to have logic built in to our application that was topic sensitive: the RH file that would open when a user clicked on the link to bring them up would correspond to the page the user happened to be on in our UI. That logic was removed from our app some time ago, and the RH files should open on a "Welcome" page by default. However, they are not. They are opening by default on another page within the Table of Contents. When I went in to Webhelp > Content Categories > Content<Default>, there was an old file name in there that nothing to do with the page that was displaying, so I updated it to the current Welcome page file, then saved and generated the files. We then promoted the files to one of our test environments, but it didn't work. The files still open up on the same page as before. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Peter Grainge]

Did it work if you viewed the help locally?

• If it did, then it's a browser caching issue or the files didn't get uploaded properly.
• If it didn't then there's still something wrong in the SSL.

Try those and then post back. Let us know which version of RoboHelp you are using when you reply.

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

[Scott Detroit]

Thanks for the reply. We are using RoboHelp 2017. My dev hasn't gotten back to me yet re: your fix actions, but I did find something, and wondered if it would make a difference: in WebHelp > Content<Default>, there is a section called "Map Files" that has a selection in it checked. Now, we have another RH project within the same app that handles another set of online help files: those files open with the correct default topic, and that project does NOT have anything in its Map Files setting checked.

[Peter Grainge]

Map files will only have that effect if you are calling topics using map ids. Could that actually be the issue? 

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

[Scott Detroit]

That did the trick! At some point we must have been calling topics using map IDs in that project. I unchecked that box, regenerated the files, and deployed them. It works perfectly now.

[Peter Grainge]

That means the app is still using map ids. Your developers also need to make some changes. 

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