Navigate Buttons Not Working in HTML5 output

[TorontoFlare]

I can't figure out why the navigate previous and forward buttons don't work when I build out my HTML5 output. Is there some condition that needs to be in place before they work?

[kwag_myers]

I don't normally use HTML5, but I'm wondering what browser you're using? I know some HTML5 functionality is not supported by all browsers.

[TorontoFlare]

I use all browsers, primarily Chrome though. Oddly enough, it works sometimes. I am wondering if there is something I am not doing to set it up properly but I can't think of what it would be.

[kwag_myers]

According to Flare Help, the only settings are appearance. I don't see where you can set behavior, so I'd say something is blocking the java script. When you click on the button, does the page refresh, or do nothing?

[TorontoFlare]

The page often does nothing. I can't figure out why it works sometimes and not others...I would say it is about 80-90% not working and 10% working

[kwag_myers]

Someone has another thread going in the Web-based Outputs section: Previous topic / Next topic toolbar buttons

[doc_guy]

Can you point us to a public example that we can look at? What version of Flare are you using? Does the topic you are looking at (when you try to click the next/previous button) exist in your TOC structure? Absent a browse sequence, Flare uses the TOC structure to figure out where to go with the preivous/next button. Does the topic exist multiple times in your TOC? That could also cause you trouble, especially in older versions of Flare.

[TorontoFlare]

Can you point us to a public example that we can look at? What version of Flare are you using? Does the topic you are looking at (when you try to click the next/previous button) exist in your TOC structure? Absent a browse sequence, Flare uses the TOC structure to figure out where to go with the preivous/next button. Does the topic exist multiple times in your TOC? That could also cause you trouble, especially in older versions of Flare.

I don't have a public example of it at the moment, and I am using Flare 10. Right now my TOC is very barebones and so there isn't much if any duplication in the TOC. Do you have to define "browse sequences" or does this just refer to what the user has been browsing?

[doc_guy]

Browse sequences are kind of like alternative TOCs. You have your main TOC structure, but you can have a browse sequence that displays these topics in a specific order. This is particularly helpful for broad topics that require steps in multiple places in the system, like for example, a Year End Close. You likely can't do that in a single page in the help system, so you want to string together a bunch of screens in different places to help you complete the task.

You set up browse sequences in the Advanced section of the Project Organizer.

Obviously you haven't set up browse sequences, since you didn't know about them.

I have noticed a bug, as I've been trying to help you that the buttons don't work when you are on the "home" topic - the one that you land on when you start the help system, or even if you click the logo to get back to the start topic.

Once you've clicked a topic in the TOC, you can click back and forward, but until you click in the TOC, nothing happens.

Try clicking an item in the TOC first, and then try the buttons.

To me, this sounds like a bug. But maybe there is some reason MadCap designed it this way. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is that if the startup topic isn't actually in the TOC, then it wouldn't know where to go. But in my view, if the startup topic IS in the TOC, the next and previous buttons ought to work.

Join me in filing this as a bug report.