Search Tab Not Working

[KevinDAmery]

I know there were a few patches for 3.1 related to CHM output - maybe double check and make sure you downloaded the correct one?

I don't recall a case where the search wasn't fixed by either a patch or by the itcc.dll registration, so it would be odd if neither of those helped.

[Pete Lees]

Hi,

If you're still struggling with this, it would be good to see the contents of your MJ's Help Report, and of the project (.hhp) file for your help system. Can you attach them to a reply?

Pete

[adunlap]

Unfortunately, our company is new to the world of commercial software delivered with help, so they have invested in Flare. They have never had RoboHelp Workshop. Madcap does not indicate that this is a prerequisite for HTMLHelp output. Is it?

[RamonS]

No, no, it is not RoboHelp anything. I'm talking about the compiler from Microsoft, which is either on Windows systems by default or gets installed by MadCap (or both). And the HTML Help Workshop is a tool that can be downloaded from Microsoft here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... layLang=en
It is Microsoft's "help authoring tool" that can be used to configure various settings for the compilation of CHMs. Some of these settings are exposed within Flare, but by far not all. I'd just load the .hpj file in and compile without changing anything, then check if search works now in the new CHM that was created. If not, then it is a more fundamental problem that is either in the help project or not compile related, but a display problem on the current system.
Other than that...the only thing I could think of is that maybe all topics were set to be excluded from search? But since one has to explicitly set this option I doubt that you forgot about that. Still, one more thing to check. And since the CHM Viewer uses IE, you don't have any overly aggressive restrictions in place?

I'm grasping for straws here.

[LTinker68]

Other than that...the only thing I could think of is that maybe all topics were set to be excluded from search? But since one has to explicitly set this option I doubt that you forgot about that.

Actually, if you set one topic to not be searchable and then kept copying that topic over-and-over again as a sort of template for the topics, then that no-search option would be enabled in all of those topics.

[Richard Ferrell]

If you are still having problems Then I would open a support ticket using the following webfrom

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/contact.aspx

[alien]

I've tried the suggestions above, registered all dlls, and tried helpworkshop (that continues to tell me that my itircl dll is not registered), but the search does not work on other machines either. However, the search tabs of old robohelp projects work on my machine and others.

[LTinker68]

... that continues to tell me that my itircl dll is not registered...

I didn't review the whole thread, so I may have missed this, but... Were you able to successfully register the itircl.dll? Do you have permission to register DLLs on your machine? I believe you need admin rights for that.

Also, do you use roaming profiles? I'm not all that familiar with them, but I remember there being other posts in the forum where roaming profiles caused the issue and the user had to log in as an administrator, I think, and make the changes so that it would work for all users. (Stab in the dark there, but perhaps something to check.)

[KevinDAmery]

If itircl.dll isn't registered, it isn't going to work. So what I would probably do is try to figure out why it isn't registering successfully. Lisa's suggestions would be a good place to start. Also, if you've been registering the dll using the Windows start menu Run command, try it instead in a command window (which you can get by typing cmd in the run field in the start menu). The advantage of this is that the commands and the results stay on screen after you finish them, so if there are any errors in the registration process you'll be able to see what they are.

[RamonS]

Although, when Windope cannot register a DLL it will throw an error message the same way as it tells you when it worked. My guess is that even through the DOS box you will get the same GUI (error) message.

[Pete Lees]

Hi,

I've tried the suggestions above, registered all dlls, and tried helpworkshop (that continues to tell me that my itircl dll is not registered), but the search does not work on other machines either. However, the search tabs of old robohelp projects work on my machine and others.

The critical DLL as far as this issue is concerned is itcc.dll. Here are some instructions on how to register this DLL from the command line:

http://frogleg.mvps.org/helptechnologie ... ml#hhc6003

I'd also recommend that you download and run MJ's Help Diagnostics, and choose the option to "Refresh Registration of all HH 1.x DLLs".

http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs

Pete

[alien]

ok, running MJ's Help Diagnostics helped, the search tab now works on my machine and other machines. woohoo! That's the one thing I hadn't tried. Thank you everyone for your help!

[helen]

Okay, so is there any clever way of stopping this happening other than being methodical and checking the search is working before you release? I've just been burnt by it (in Flare v4.0) and it was indeed RegisterItcc.bat that fixed things.

[SusanL]

I ran into this problem too while putting together a small test help file from imported Word documents. I tried everything recommended on this thread, but it still didn't work until I deleted the HTMLHelp target and then created a new HTMLHelp target. It works fine now.

[KT_Mtjoy]

Hi there,
I am having the same problem where the search tab in HTML Help outputs a "No search topics found" dialog. The link to the article posted in this thread is no longer available, can someone suggest actions I might take to fix my search option? I re-registered the itircl.dll on my machine but this did not help.
Thanks so much,
Katie

[Pete Lees]

Hi, Katie,

I am having the same problem where the search tab in HTML Help outputs a "No search topics found" dialog. The link to the article posted in this thread is no longer available, can someone suggest actions I might take to fix my search option? I re-registered the itircl.dll on my machine but this did not help.

See my posting above.

Pete

[KT_Mtjoy]

Whoops, sorry about that I missed your post,
Thanks so much
Katie

[Ole Steen Rathmann]

Hi all, on Flare 5.0.0. I had the same problem with the "Search Tab" not working - "No search topics found" was the only response. as adviced by Pete and others, the cure was:

a) make sure the StartUp Topic (in the Target) is specified; and
b) download an register the itcc.dll from
http://frogleg.mvps.org/helptechnologie ... htips.html.

Thanks !

[Madcap Guru]

you may want to check out this KB article

http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/Fl ... L_Help.htm

[Alda]

I am working on Vista and have managed to solve the problem, but the No Topics Found message is still displaying for a split second before the topics are displayed. Can I get rid of the message in any way?

[Pete Lees]

Hi, Alda,

I am working on Vista and have managed to solve the problem, but the No Topics Found message is still displaying for a split second before the topics are displayed. Can I get rid of the message in any way?

Are you sure that it's saying "No Topics Found", or is it just displaying the standard "Click cancel to stop the search" message?

searching.gif

This message is always displayed, even if only for a split second, when the search function is working properly.

Pete

[Alda]

It is the Click cancel message. It was displaying for such a short time, that I was not able to read it. Thank you for the reply.

[thecase]

(apologies if this is a duplicate post in this thread)

Wanted to add that the DLL will become unregistered (and break the Search tab) if you have multiple versions of Flare installed and remove an older version. I'm not sure which version caused the issue, but here is what I did to cause this problem:

1. Install and run Flare v3.1
2. Install and run Flare v4.x on top of it
3. Install and run Flare v5.x on top of that.
4. During a recent drive cleanup I removed v3.1 and v4.x and it unregistered my DLL. Setback.

I ran the RegisterItcc.bat file in C:\Program Files\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V5\Flare.app\Resources\Bin and it fixed it.

best,
-case-

[forfear]

(apologies if this is a duplicate post in this thread)


I ran the RegisterItcc.bat file in C:\Program Files\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V5\Flare.app\Resources\Bin and it fixed it.

doing this works all the time....
its happened frequently enough, when i change workstations that i try to remember to test the search functions after building the target to make sure that search is working or I will try to run RegisterItcc.bat straightaway. its a real pain when you've spent hours building the necessary targets on a different workstation, and discovered all the html help search is kaput : )


all the same, glad you found

[Bernie123]

As I am using Windows 7 I thought the following may be worth repeating.

This is a very frustrating bug to solve without this software forum

Note for Windows 7 64-bit Users: The following steps must be taken to register the DLL on Windows 7 64-bit.

1.In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\system32.
2.Right-click on the file cmd.exe and select the option to run it as an administrator. The command prompt window opens.
3.At the command prompt, type the following and press Enter:
4.cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V6\Flare.app\Resources\bin"
5.Type RegisterItcc.bat and press Enter.
6.Close the command prompt window.

Regards

Bernie