CSH IDs opening wrong topics

This forum is for all Flare issues related to the Microsoft HTML Help target.
This target produces "CHM" files in the output.
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bmcclintock
Propeller Head
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:48 pm

CSH IDs opening wrong topics

Post by bmcclintock »

Hi all,

I'm having an issue with two of my projects where the CS IDs assigned are not opening the correct topics. I tested every CSH API Call in one of the projects and there are over 130 entries that are opening the wrong topic. I double-checked the IDs assigned, and they are correct.

Does anyone have any idea of what may be happening and where to start troubleshooting?

Thanks,

Barb
Msquared
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Location: Southampton, UK

Re: CSH IDs opening wrong topics

Post by Msquared »

Sounds like something has got out of step between you and the application code that calls your topics. You will need to check the application code that is calling the CSH topics, and make sure that they are using the same ids, and that that those ids refer to the same values.

Quite what you need to do to check this will depend on how you have linked your CSH to the application.

If you are using a shared header file, then check that the version you have is the same as the version that the application is using. If not, there's your problem.

If you have some other agreed mechanism to link the application calls to your topics, then I'd have a word with your developers, and ask them to help work out what has gone wrong. It may well be something they have done, but even if not, they will probably be in a better position to debug it than you as they will be able to tell you what they think they are calling. Hopefully, the problem will be obvious when you know that. :-)
Marjorie

My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
bmcclintock
Propeller Head
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:48 pm

Re: CSH IDs opening wrong topics

Post by bmcclintock »

Still having an issue with context sensitive help. I have submitted a ticket, but while I'm waiting to hear back from technical support, thought I would throw this back out to the Mad Cappers to get some more feedback:

I have a project with 2 different versions: 2010 and 2013. Between the two projects, the topics are the same, but the CSIDs are not. I have an alias file and header file for each. When I compile, I’m getting a lot of topics that appear to be mismatched, though the CSID is correct in the header and alias file, . . .initially.

I am getting my CSIDs from the same source the developers are using.

For example, when I compile the 2010 version, I select the 2010 alias file and the 2010 header file as the identifier file. After compilation, I’ll test the CSH Calls and get quite a few mismatched topics. It appears that somehow, Flare is picking up the CSID entries from the 2013 header file as well, which may be causing the issue. I get duplicate entries with the CSIDs from both versions.

We are using Source Control: VSS and my target is a chm.

I'm wondering why the two separate versions are merging during compilation. I thought I should be able to run two separate versions as long as each had its own alias and header file. I am selecting the alias file in the Target window also.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
NorthEast
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Posts: 6359
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:33 am

Re: CSH IDs opening wrong topics

Post by NorthEast »

bmcclintock wrote:For example, when I compile the 2010 version, I select the 2010 alias file and the 2010 header file as the identifier file.
In the target settings, you can only select an alias file, but not a header file.

I would guess that your problem is that you have duplicate identifier names; i.e. the two header files contain some of the same identifier names.

If that's the case, they should appear with red warnings in the alias editor (when viewing all identifiers), and you should also get build warnings.

If you're using the identifier name in CSH calls, I don't think this would cause an issue since the alias file stores the identifier name (not value) which is assigned to the topic. However, if you're using the identifier value in CSH calls, then I would expect this to cause problems, as each header file could have a different value for the same identifier name - and you can't specify which header file is used for the target.
bmcclintock
Propeller Head
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:48 pm

Re: CSH IDs opening wrong topics

Post by bmcclintock »

Thank you for your reply.

Basically, the Identifiers in both versions are the same. There is a 2010 version and a 2013 version - both use the same project/topics, but the values (Map IDs) for the identifiers differ between projects so the header files contain different Map IDs for some/not all topics.

My understanding is, however, I should be OK as long as I select the 2010 alias in the Target tab and make sure it is pointing to the 2010 header, and then the same with the 2013 alias. Is this not correct?

Thanks,

Barb
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