SVN branch fails to build CHM & webhelp...

[Paul_N]

I'm using Flare 2018 r2 with the project stored in SVN. It builds CHM & WebHelp targets with no problems. Yet when I created a branch of the project in SVN (I've nearly finished working on the 2018 release and need to simultaneously start working on the 2019 release).

When I try to build the CHM or webhelp on the branch however I get a 'Build failed' message with the banner heading 'The file you are editing exists outside of the current project.' & 'Unable to find the specified file'.

Has anyone encountered this issue before and know a solution, or is there a 'gotcha' that I'm unaware of?

As a test I did get it to build the help formats I don't use i.e. HTML5 and PDF, so it's just the ones I actually want that fail!

[ChoccieMuffin]

I suspect you have some absolute links in there, rather than relative links so, for example, you may have hyperlinks or images that are in "C:\Documents\Flare_project\Content\Topic.htm" rather than "..\topic.htm" or similar.

I suggest you use Analyzer (if before 2018 release) or the Analysis toolbar (2018) and look for external links. Alternatively, look in your source code for "C:" or whatever your local drive is called.

Is it possible that you have some global project linking going on? If so, your import file in the new place might be pointing to the wrong location. So there are a couple of problems it could be.

I don't know if you are using SVN integrated with Flare or using SVN outside of Flare. If the former, I can't help because I use SVN outside of Flare, but in case it's the latter, here's what I would do (but bear in mind I haven't had the problem you describe, so I'm only working from my knowledge of Flare, not personal experience):

You've already created your branch in SVN, so that's fine, no need to change that.
Do a checkout of the Flare project to your local drive. You may have already done that.
Open the project in the new location, on the Project toolbar in the Content group click the arrow below Import and click Flare Project.
Point to the "old" project and overwrite anything it suggests you overwrite.
Open any import files and check they are pointing to the correct location for any imported projects - if you've created a different branch you might want to make copies of the required donor projects in your branch as well, in case they also have to change before your current release goes out, or you may prefer to point to the original location. That decision depends on how you're doing things. Personally, I'd copy all the donor projects into the branch as well, but I'm sure someone will come along with suitable justifications for both approaches.

That should clean up any links and bring in any files that should have been included in the new branch.

Check your branch project back into SVN.

Hope that gets you started.

[Paul_N]

...
Hope that gets you started.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.