WebHelp Opens to Search & Displays Odd String in Search Box

[gmariani]

Hello,
Been trying to figure this out on my own, but I think I need to ask the community at large for more insight.
I am preparing a WebHelp and a PDF version of an implementation guide for users to access through an online portal. When the PDF link is clicked, it opens and it's all ok, no problems. However, when the WebHelp version link is clicked, it opens to the Search pane and the Search box contains an odd string as well as a results list. See attached image.
I tried looking into the skin, the target, the stylesheet too, but it does not seem to be helping. Has anyone encountered this before?
I'm using Flare V12.0

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nita Beck]

Welcome to the forums!

Without meaning to take your post off topic or to ignore your question, I can't help but notice that you're producing WebHelp, which is an old format. Are your sure you don't want to produce HTML5 output (either Top Nav or tripane style)?

To get back to your question, for your WebHelp, in the skin on the Setup tab, do you have the Contents/TOC (can't recall exactly how it's worded, it's been so long since I've built WebHelp) turned off but the Search panel is turned on, so that the only panel that shows up upon launch is the Search panel? Again, apologies, as I'm probably not exactly answering your question.

[gmariani]

Hi! and thanks for the welcome

Ha ha. No worries, totally on-topic. Yeah I'm planning on bringing our help to this century
I inherited this format from a previous tech writing team, so for the time being I'm just getting it ready in time for an upcoming release.

The skin has the TOC (default) check box and the Search check box selected.

[Nita Beck]

I'm stumped, then. Perhaps the fact that it brings up the Search panel first has to do with how the WebHelp is being launched? I don't have a clue about why the wonky version string is prepopulating the search field.

Hey, can anyone else help out our new friend here?

(Also, FYI, all new forums users have to go through an "initiation" of a sort, having their first handful of posts moderated. This control was instituted a few years back after the forums suffered a nasty bot-driven spam attack over a weekend and we moderators had to scramble for many, many hours to knock down hundreds and hundreds of spam posts. Now, the MadCap admins make all new users go through moderation. The moral of my story is that you shouldn't post duplicate posts as you await moderation. That's why I disapproved the near-duplicate of this post. It won't be long now that you'll be able to post immediately.)

[Psider]

What is the link you are clicking on (I assume it's in the online portal you were talking about)? Maybe it has the search string coded in the link?
For example:
Base help link: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare8/Default.htm
Search help link: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare8/ ... h-variable


If you just meant you were using the View link/button in Flare, then ignore this post.

[gmariani]

I'm stumped, then. Perhaps the fact that it brings up the Search panel first has to do with how the WebHelp is being launched? I don't have a clue about why the wonky version string is prepopulating the search field.

Hey, can anyone else help out our new friend here?

(Also, FYI, all new forums users have to go through an "initiation" of a sort, having their first handful of posts moderated. This control was instituted a few years back after the forums suffered a nasty bot-driven spam attack over a weekend and we moderators had to scramble for many, many hours to knock down hundreds and hundreds of spam posts. Now, the MadCap admins make all new users go through moderation. The moral of my story is that you shouldn't post duplicate posts as you await moderation. That's why I disapproved the near-duplicate of this post. It won't be long now that you'll be able to post immediately.)

Thanks for the info. Not used to the delay in posting replies.

[gmariani]

What is the link you are clicking on (I assume it's in the online portal you were talking about)? Maybe it has the search string coded in the link?
For example:
Base help link: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare8/Default.htm
Search help link: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare8/ ... h-variable


If you just meant you were using the View link/button in Flare, then ignore this post.

I checked the link in the portal and you know what? It does contain that string right at the end of the URL!

[gmariani]

Update: Worked with the team responsible for our portal. We cleaned up the URL and removed that string at the end causing the problem and it works! Many thanks to all for your help!

[CindyBrockGA]

Hi All. I've been reading through this chain and I *think* this is the problem we're having, but I'm not entirely sure.

The help launches fine. When we click the Search tab, enter the search text, a list of results shows. However, depending on the search text, the topic in the right pane may/may not display.

Our developers looked at it and there is something happening in the URL. Here's what the end of the URL looks like when it is not working properly:

...tasklist/user-instructions/export-task.htm?SearchType=Stem&Highlight=task|task|task

Notice the 3 tasks at the end. If you remove the extra 2, it works fine.

How do you fix this without manual intervention?

~Cindy ;}