Flare 4 and Missing TOC

[FrancaSullivan]

I built a help project in Flare 4 and no topics display in the TOC. I opened the TOC in Notepad and the topics are all in there. I build the same help project in 3.1 and all is well. I created a new project and no TOC, again the entries are in the fltoc file. The original help system is a RoboHelp system that I imported in MadCap Flare V 2 or so.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[lacastle]

What kind of output are you building?

[Andrew]

Have you tried this with the MadCap sample project?

Also, what target are you using (HTML Help, WebHelp, DotNet Help, PDF, etc.)?

I can generate HTML Help and WebHelp TOCs just fine from Flare 4.

[KevinDAmery]

Just to clarify, are you saying there's nothing in the Flare project TOC or in your output? If we're talking about your output, are you doing online or print?

The reason for all the questions is, if you're doing print output (Word, Framemaker, or direct to PDF) you have to add a topic with a TOC Proxy into your project TOC in order for it to be included in the output. Basically, the project TOC tells Flare what order your topics should be placed in, but the TOC Proxy actually allows it to be written as a human-readable TOC in your print output.

For online output, the TOC should appear as a list of links on the left side of the frame set.

[FrancaSullivan]

I am building WebHelp, and I used the MadCap Flare Application Help sample project to build the new help project. I used WebHelp as the output for that one too.

Thanks

[FrancaSullivan]

My ouput is for online. I've been conducting additional experiments this morning (EST) and still no luck. I noticed that I had MadCap Flare Viewer 3.1 installed on my system, but not 4. I opened the help system, a topic displayed in the right frame, there are no links in the TOC and Index, and Search is unavailable. This particular help system has a glossary item, which does display. As an experiment I opened Flare Viewer 4 and used File > Open to display the help system. The interesting thing is that the help system displays in Browser frame (right) and shows the TOC. I open the same help system in Internet Explorer, nothing. I thought it might be a Skin issue, but my experiment help systems use Default as the skin.

As I typed Internet Explorer, it occured to me to try Netscape and the TOC does display in Netscape, therefore, I am guessing this is a blocking popups or JS issue. I will check my security settings and report back.

Thanks
Fran

[lacastle]

Can you post screenshots?

[KevinDAmery]

Are you viewing the help from your local system or through the web? If you're viewing it locally using IE, you need to enable the Mark Of The Web (MOTW) setting to trick IE into allowing web content to run locally. This is because of a security "fix" Microsoft put in a few years back in IE (I say "fix" because rather than actually fixing the problem they just disabled the feature completely - which is a bit like "fixing" a squeaky car door by welding it shut....)

HOWEVER, just so you know, if your customers will be viewing your help over the web once you're done, you need to turn MOTW back off. (It needs to be on if the help is on a local drive, but it needs to be off if it is hosted on a web server.)

[FrancaSullivan]

Thank you all. It was security settings. So many lessons learned with this one.

I do work on a network drive. When I tried to display the help using the network drive, no TOC and no Index, but no errors or blocked content messages either. I never heard of MOTW, where would I find this option?

My help is installed with the software on the local drive. In Internet Options, in Advanced, in Security, I set Allow active content to run files on My Computer. I displayed the help and all displays, yeah. I cleared the setting and received an message telling me about blocked content. I address the message and all displays again.

Fran

[KevinDAmery]

I don't normally build to Webhelp, but I believe it is in the output target (sorry, I don't have Flare running at the moment to look).

If your customers will be accessing the help off of a local drive, then you will want to keep MOTW enabled--otherwise, your customers will have to go through the same steps and error messages as you did (which I'm assuming you don't want).

[lacastle]

MOTW is on the Target Editor on the Advanced Tab.

[FrancaSullivan]

Thank you again to all.

[CJoppru]

Issue with FlareV4 and viewing TOC

After generating a WebHelp target (a project on a local computer), and then attempting to view the output, no topics display in the Table of Contents in Internet Explorer version 6.0.


When viewing the same output on a computer on a network drive, the Table of Contents does display correctly and when viewing in the HelpViewer the Table of Contents displays correctly. Also when viewing the WebHelp output in FireFox and NetScape the Table of Contents displays correctly.

We have checked the permissions and security on the computer (followed security settings on post). This is a smaller project that is generated and merged into a larger project (it is not published until generated in the larger project and then the larger project is published).

We did not have this issue in Flare V3.1. We tried in Flare V4 to include the MOTW (read on forum to try) in the target when generating and still no topics display in the Table of Contents in the generated output.

[LTinker68]

You need MOTW enabled if you're viewing it on a local computer, but you can't have it enabled if it's stored on a web server. If you're just testing locally, then you just have to remember to turn of MOTW when you publish/copy to the server. If your help is copied to the user when your software is installed (if you do that) and you host the help on a web server, then you're probably going to want to create two WebHep targets -- one with MOTW enabled for local computers and one with MOTW disabled for the web server.

Firefox and Netscape will always be able to view the help regardless if MOTW is enabled or not -- it's just IE that needs the MOTW to get around their own security issues.

[CJoppru]

I am using FireFox to work around the security issue with IE. It is less work to view the output and make changes at this level vs generating the small project then generating and publishing the large project before I can view changes. If there is an issue that needs to be fixed then I have to regenerate the small project and regenerate and publish the large project to see the changes made.
I did try using the MOTW, but I was still unable to view the output of the smaller project. Thank you Lisa for your help.

[cinnponce]

We upgraded to Version 4 and we are having problems with the Search, the TOC contents, and the toolbar icons not appearing. We use IE6 and need the Help to open in IE6 for customers. I have tried the suggested solution from KB article (http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/default_CSH.htm#OUTA1007F) but we don't have the SkinSupport folder in the Content folder. We also do some .chm outputs so I tried the fix to re-register the ITCC.dll.

We never had this problem in version 3.1 and I have a critical release going out soon. I'm open to any suggestions and have submitted this issue to Madcap as well.