Why doesn't my TOC book show its one topic?

[candyrita331]

The Responsive HTML5 version that I committed via GIT and deployed to our app via Team City will not open a topic correctly from the Table of Contents. The book doesn't open the one topic that's inside it:

Clicking the Teams book should expand to show its single topic called "Teams" - as shown on my local machine:

This makes me suspect that a glitch occurred in the commit-deployment process, which is always possible, though this has never happened in 3 years' time. Am I on the right troubleshooting path? Appreciate any advice.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

My off-the-cuff response would be to suspect that not all files produced in the generation of the help made it to the website...

[candyrita331]

Definitely an option I'll check into further - thanks!

[meKarla]

When this has happened to me, it's usually because there is a conditional tag that is not specified correctly in the "Conditional Build Expression" area of the Content pane when I generate. For example, I might have made it "not print" for one project but then I want it to print for this one. in RH2017, the Basic/Advanced, Build/Exclude display is different, which caused me some problems at first.

Just a thought.

Karla

[candyrita331]

Interesting observation, I'm taking a look - thanks!

[candyrita331]

Hmmm. What's weird to me is that the topic is searchable, and in fact, appears properly when I do search for it. It just doesn't appear in the TOC under its book. The plot thickens ...

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I was going to suggest you check that the topic existed, but the fastest way is to just clear all the existing files on the web server & copy them all back up again to ensure that your local files = web server files.

[Peter Grainge]

Have you applied a tag to the topic in the TOC?

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Peter - Clearly not in this case because the local copy is working fine - something is bunged up on the web server's copy.

[candyrita331]

No - no tag applied! The topic is essentially unchanged from the last time I published it. I'm going to ask my developers to do a manual push of the files, or just that Teams.htm file, to see if this fixes it. (We typically run an automated deployment of the Help files during scheduled software deployments.) I'll keep you posted. Thanks everyone.

[candyrita331]

No luck with the manual push, although in its defense I did not recompile and recommit before the devs did that.

I even cleared cache but got same results.

I asked my former colleague who taught me everything I know about RoboHelp, and she said she'd never seen this in all of her years.

We decided I should re-create the topic and add it to the TOC to see if that forces it to work. I'll recompile and recommit before requesting another manual push.

[Peter Grainge]

Have you tried using a different browser?

Peter Grainge

www.grainge.org

@petergrainge

[candyrita331]

I tried Edge, FF, and IE with no luck.

I find it odd that it's the last book in the TOC that's not opening correctly - like it's tired or something. Do you think I should experiment with moving the book up above the Workflows book to test if it's a problem that's isolated to the last book in the TOC, or do you think re-creating the topic and recompiling/committing is a better next step?

[Amebr]

Are you using project merging (with parent and child projects)? I'm getting a little fairy bell maybe tinkling quietly on that idea, and I can concentrate on it if you are merging.

Or it could be a server caching issue. Clear the browser cache, close all your browser windows, wait 5 min and then try again. This is my standard advice to my customers when they see weird toc issues. (I *think* it's to do with some custom Adobe js/xml files caching on the server, but I haven't been able to get confirmation from either Adobe or IT.)

[candyrita331]

Thanks for your post. I've never used project merging!

I have cleared cache a few times, and even rebooted. I've asked colleagues to test same, and they get same results!

[Peter Grainge]

@candyrita Your last post reminded me of a problem years ago in a much older version of RoboHelp where a topic would not appear. I can't recall if it was different locally and on the server and it wasn't the last topic. However, moving it around was a fix so certainly experimenting with moving it or adding some topics afterwards is worth a try.

I notice you use an automated deployment. Can you set up publishing to an entirely different folder on a web server? It doesn't have to be publicly available, just a fresh publish from RoboHelp to a web server, cutting out the middleman.

---

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

@petergrainge

[candyrita331]

I added a second topic under the first one, so the book now has 2 topics. (I didn't move the topics in the TOC yet.) I recompiled/committed and the devs did a manual Run of the Help from TeamCity. (That probably doesn't amount to a fresh publish to another server, but I wanted to first see if adding a second topic forced the TOC to work properly): https://www.screencast.com/t/QyBFyLfs1Lxu

Once again, the book opens but shows neither topic. And yet as before, the book opens fine on my local, and when I search on the new topic from the app, it appears. So, the files are there on the server.

Next, I will try moving the book up in the TOC, but that's not really a LT solution since my TOC reflects the app's navigation. I'll also ask the devs to set up a new folder to republish to.

One final note: I haven't upgraded my version of RH 2015 since I got it (my bad), but I'm afraid to do that right now in case it creates all kinds of changes I must deal with -- and I have a Q2 Production deployment in 2 weeks and I'm the sole writer in my firm. Not sure I want to rock that boat at the moment ...

[Peter Grainge]

Your decond image shows you have all applied patches. the first one has failed apparently because you did not embed it in the post. The link works but the forum doesn't like links too much.

As it is working locally, logically something has to be wrong on the server and you are using a third party tool to deploy the help. I'm not knocking the tool but I would want to at least give the developers something and tell them to manually upload it, better still do it myself.

They don't have to leave it uploaded to wherever, just test it.

---

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

@petergrainge

[candyrita331]

Thanks Peter. I tend to completely agree with the server-as-issue. I will return to the devs and request more assistance.