Merged Help on searching last published project

[CurtNJosh]

Using RoboHelp 2015, I have a merged project containing two child projects. The search results only reflect the last child project that was published. I have 3 other help systems that I maintain that all merged projects with the same set-up but this issue does not exist. Responsive HTML5

[Peter Grainge]

With responsive, always generate the parent and then all of the children.

Try that and let us know if it is then OK.

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

@petergrainge

[CurtNJosh]

We publish the parent project to the web server and then publish the child projects to their respective folders within the "mergedprojects" folder on the web server. We have used this method successfully with responsive design with 3 other merged projects that have 8 or more child projects and no issues over a significant period of time. The current project has 2 child projects. If I publish the parent, it will only search the parent, then when we publish a child it will only search that child.

I have checked all the publishing settings in relation to the other working projects and everything is the same.

[Peter Grainge]

I think you will agree something has to be different if you have it working in some all other merges, finding it is the issue.

You are using the term publishing so I would like to check to do mean publishing rather than generating. Is that the case?

Is this rogue merge something you can share with me? If it is, 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.

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

@petergrainge

[CurtNJosh]

I completely agree that something is different. When I refer to publishing I am referring to pushing the files to the web server via the publish action after completing the generating action.

I will send you the project files today.

thank you

[Peter Grainge]

Does the search work in the generated merge?

[CurtNJosh]

We don't generate the projects together. We generate the parent and publish it 1 time. Then we generate the children each separately and publish to the folders on the web server created by the parent project.

[Peter Grainge]

If I understand, you just generate each project to perhaps its own SSL folder so it never gets into the same structure as the published output, correct?

If so, I would create a folder outside any project and then generate (not publish) each project so that it ends up as being the same structure. Try that first and see if the search then works.

If it does, then its pinpointing either the structure of the published output or the host environment or something in the SSLs.

Try that and let me know if it works that way in the generated output. If it does but you still cannot pinpoint the publishing issue, I'll take a look at what you have sent me.

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

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

I'm not getting a result from the second child published. Late here now so will look more tomorrow.

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

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

It took a couple of hours of trying a whole host of things and turned out to be quite simple.

In each project I added a word unique to that project and the search only worked in two. I then tried different layouts (charcoal grey) and no change. From there I trashed different files but no change.

Not sure why but then I went for different words in different topics and then it started working. What I found though was that only one word out of the two was being returned. A word being found in one topic but not in another meant the search was being selective and that put me on to the answer.

You have selected Exclude Unreferenced Topics and with that deselected, the search works. Go to the Tools ribbon and click the text below the Topic Properties, not the icon itself. Select Unreferenced Topics and in Claims you will see 25 topics. I'm guessing it was our mutual bad luck to search on terms in those topics.

You will have a better knowledge of your topics but I think if you deselect those settings, you will find it works. What settings are in your other merges?

Let me know if that works for you.

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

@petergrainge

[CurtNJosh]

So I have it working now. I deleted everything on the SSL output folder for each of the projects and then republished all 3 projects and the search is fully functional. Not sure what was corrupt but the good news it is working.

Also your suggestions above related to unreferenced files was helpful in terms of identifying some clean-up that needs to be done.

Peter, thank you for all your help, the RoboHelp community certainly appreciates your expertise and service.

Thank you!

[Peter Grainge]

My guess is that those new layouts have the check boxes deselected. Please confirm as that will help others.

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

@petergrainge