Why patch every topic when only 4 in TOC?

[NickShears]

I have a project in RH 2019 (new UI )  with hundreds of topics. NP.

Output is usually for a TOC which includes most of the topics. NP

But I now have a new TOC with only four topics in it. When I generate the relevant preset, I can see from the progress dialog that RH is "patching" every topic. 

It's not a problem, but why would the generation have anything to do with the hundreds of irrelevant topics?

[smonga1996]

Hi NickShears,

Do your 4 topics happen to have links to the topics you are seeing being patched but are absent in the TOC? 

[NickShears]

Thanks for asking. No, the four topics are completely self-contained. The only links are to each other and to a couple of external sites.
The preset is Responsive HTML5, but includes only a TOC, no glossary or index, so no "hidden" references there.

[Peter Grainge]

Browse sequence?

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

I thought the same as you and took this up with Adobe. After setting things up following their guidance, it would appear everything is correct. Here's how you can check.

1. Open the RoboHelp Reimagined project.
2. Create a TOC and just include the Browse Sequence topic. It has no links.
3. In the preset remove the browse sequence.
4. Deselect Include Index
5. Deselect Glossary.
6. Remove the browse sequence. Although we want that topic, we don't want the project's browse sequence.
7. Set the Default Topic to Browse Sequence.
8. Generate the output.

While the dialog in bottom right corner is running I had set that to be recorded as a video. The only topic was the browse sequence topic. The were some other things that the build has to do but only the one topic.

Let us know what you see.

[NickShears]

Thanks, Peter. I followed your instructions using the RoboHelp Reimagined project, which did indeed result in only that one topic being patched.

But that only worked in that project.

In my own project, I already had no browse sequences, so I took these steps:

1. Added a browse sequence with all four topics used in the four-topic TOC.
2. Edited the preset to use that browse sequence. It was already set to mo index and no glossary.
3. Generated the preset.
4. Results: Once again, all topics in the project showed as being patched during the generation. (That's about 400.)
5. Deleted the browse sequence, confirming that yes, I really wanted to do that.
6. Muttered to self about how it was still displayed in the "list" of browse sequences, albeit by itself.
7. Restarted RH.
8. Pleased to see RH agreed that the browse sequence did indeed not exist.
9. Opened the preset which quite correctly had no browse sequence for me to select.
10. Muttered to self about the inconsistent UI:
    
    1. Browse Sequence: "Select" means none.
    2. Glossary: "None" means none.
11. Generated the preset.
12. Results: Yet again, as in step 4, all topics in the project are shown as being patched during the generation.

I'm content to accept that there is something "different" about my project that makes it behave in this way.

I expect it's the result of the project beginning life not in RH2019, but in RH9 or earlier. (RH9 was current when I inherited the project, perhaps ten or more years ago.) The project's grown and evolved continually over the years.

Since the apparent patching of every topic doesn't affect the output in any visible way, I'll accept that it's a mystery.

But thanks for investigating, Peter.

[Peter Grainge]

If you can share the project I would be interested to poke around to see if a reason can be found.

If you can, then 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.

[deniseh47762385]

Hey Peter! I know this is an old post and I can open a new post if needed. We're having a similar issue with "Patching topics" - why is this happening? The WebHelp output appears to look okay and the topics are in there. One of the pathcing topics that's listed first is very short, has 2 links to other topics in same TOC, the html doesn't look odd. This project I'm working with is pretty small (subset of a much large RH9 project we had and imported into RH2020 Trial recently). The other separate project has LOTS of topics and this patching is taking some time to generate the output. I've worked with you in the past with several RH9 issues and you've always been very helpful. Since I'm a newbie to RH2020, use simple instructions. LOL. TIA!

[NickShears]

Thanks Peter, I'll upload a copy for your generous perusal, but it may not be until Monday.

I've been working on this project all day (Australian Friday) to make a few changes and mainly to generate a new build, but that output now insists on including every topic in the proejct, despite there being only four in the TOC. And using Search (in the Responsive HTML output) includes content from any of those topics. This makes the output worse than useless.

So my "not a problem" of seeing all the topics being patched has turned into a different but major problem.

I just had another go, using a condition expression applied only to the four pages. It made not difference: every topic was still generated.

I can't just delete all the irrelevant pages from the outpout because I assume the search would still include their content (buried away in xml files), and I can't find a way of specifying "no search" in the preset, the way I can "no glossary" and "no index".

I hope this is just a "dumb user" issue. But I don't understand how it can be so problematic now, after generating just as I expected three weeks ago. (I just checked in the Subversion source control repository and the live site. Both fine.) Same project, same preset, same skin, same four topics, same TOC — wildly different result.
What a depressing end to the day.

[Peter Grainge]

I'll look forward to getting the link. Beats crossword puzzles. 🙂

Look on the bright side. If it's Adobe, we can report it. If it's you we must be able to find what it is. Either way it can be fixed.

I would have said find a nice beach and relax but then I remembered it's winter there. Maybe a bar that refuses to sell Fosters? 🙂

[NickShears]

Thanks, Peter. Yes, it's winter, but it's usually warmer than an English summer. 24 C today. And fortunately it's rare to find Fosters here.

I'm rather hoping it is user error, but am increasingly thinking it's not.

[Peter Grainge]

Wacky. I've just got an email for one of your posts and it's not in the thread but the one you can't see does appear to be there.

Let me have your project as soon as you can in the hope I can spot something that is eluding you.

[NickShears]

Thanks again, Peter. I've sent the project via WeTransfer.

Sorry it's a 27MB zip – ironic.  😞

[Amebr]

Fun Fosters fact. Had a friend at uni who got tired of friends not bringing anything to parties. So he took to stocking the bath with Fosters (and squirrelled away the good stuff in an esky in his room). The spongers quickly took the hint or stopped turning up. 😛

[NickShears]

I've marked Peter's answer as the correct one, since links in at least one of the topice were accidentally to links in other topics in the project.

We resolved that in an email conversation – thanks, Peter.

And thanks, smonga1996, since you'd pointed me in same direction. I hadn't realised that one of the links that was supposed to be to one of the four in the TOC actually pointed to a different version of the same topic.

[Amebr]

If any topics in the toc include links to topics not in the toc, all the "not toc" topics will be dragged in. Additionally, I believe if the "not toc" topics have links to further topics, then those topics will also be dragged in. That would be the first thing to check. 

If you have a browse sequence specified, then that might also pull in all the topics in the browse sequence.

On a side note, there is no "webhelp" output in RH any more. The name of your preset doesn't tell you what output type you're generating. You instead have to look at the little icon next to the name to tell. If you upgraded the project from Classic, you're probably generating a Responsive HTML output (you can turn off the "responsive" bit using a setting in the preset). Responsive HTML is indicated by a shield with a 5 inside it.