Breakage in some navigation menu items when synchronizing

[lorynj]

Hi everyone

I have come across a situation where there are a few navigation menu entries whose links resolve in 404 errors when "Synchronize navigation elements with TOC entries" is switched on. Does anyone know what might be causing the "Synchronize navigation elements with TOC entries" option to be breaking just a few of these topics?

When I switch off "Synchronize navigation elements with TOC entries" the menu items work fine.

Switched off
http://www.franchisecloudsolutions.com/ ... saging.htm

Switched on
To see the breakage:
1. Go here: http://www.franchisecloudsolutions.com/ ... n%7C_____1
2. Click heading: "Rapid SMS Messaging" (which is this URL: http://www.franchisecloudsolutions.com/ ... g%7C_____0 )

Although the two examples are not exactly the same publication, I have toggled the option "Synchronize navigation elements with TOC entries" on both targets, and they do show the same breakage in both places when switched on.

The options set for both targets are as follows.

When switched off

Target output good.png

When switched on

Target output bad.png

[Psider]

I'm not sure if it helps, but maybe it will spark further ideas.

I went in to http://www.franchisecloudsolutions.com/ ... /docsuite/

Clicking on SMS Admin > Configuring SMS Management did not work
Clicking on SMS Admin > Automated Distribution of Job Offers worked.

I assume both those links are in the same project with the setting turned on?

In the case of SMS Management, deleting the end of the address starting with ? then pressing enter caused the correct page to display.

So to me that would indicate some problem other than the setting, I just don't know what. (Maybe one of the behind the scenes files didn't upload to the server correctly?)

[lorynj]

Psider's observations are on the money.

As Psider intuits, those two topics are in the same target and have the same setting turned on. The navigation link breaks on some topics but not others within the same TOC and target. Switching the setting on and off on subsequent generations causes those same topics to break (when the setting is on) and be not broken (when the setting is off)

Given that the clearing everything after the ? causes the page to display correctly, I've been inferring that the underlying HTML, CSS and image files are all present and okay. That is, that the breakage is completely related to what follows the ?

But maybe your suggestion has merit. I've just regenerated the SMS Admin target on my local computer with the synchronize setting switched on, and there is no breakage locally. This implies it could either be:
1. Due to a file not uploading (as Psider suggested), or
2. Due to the difference between case insensitivity (locally) and case sensitivity (on the production server).

I'm investigating to see whether there's any difference in the files on the server vs. locally.

[lorynj]

I can rule out the idea that a file didn't upload by:
1. Generating a local version of the target with synchronization switched on.
2. Generating a local version of the target with synchronization switched off.
3. Downloading the server directory to my local machine.
4. Pairwise diff of each pair of the three directories.

I established:
- no significant differences between the files
- no missing HTML, CSS, image, js or any other sort of file in the server's directory.

[ajturnersurrey]

See my comment about the renaming glitch I observed.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30625

This sounds similar.

[lorynj]

Hi ajturnersurrey

Thanks for that lead. I recall that I had made some minor changes to the two menu nodes that were broken. Here's the result of my investigation.

I switched on "Synchronize navigation elements with TOC entries" for the SMS Admin manual in order to explore your suggestion.

I explored whether there was any caching issue involved:
- Cleaning the target, and
- Deleting the uploaded files
before republishing.

This had no effect.

Following your suggestion, I changed the name of "Rapid SMS Messaging" to "Send Messages Fast", updated the Label within the TOC (i.e. it's a System.LinkedTitle variable, and I forced an update), and it resolved the problem on that node in the nav menu. Then I changed the name back to "Rapid SMS Messaging", and it promptly broke again. I began to wonder whether there was any "magic" in the name. For example, both the menu items that were broken had "SMS" in them. Is there any javascript function that builds these labels into a data structure that is going wrong?

I played around with a range of other names on the "Configuring SMS Management" node, but that didn't seem to fix the issue.

Then I modified the Label in the TOC. I got rid of the System.LinkedTitle variable and directly hardcoded "Rapid SMS Messaging" into the Label. Then I updated the H1 in the ~Contents file to match. Then published. And it was fixed.

I repeated the procedure for "Configuring SMS Management". Unlinked it, inserted the text into the Label. Then updated the H1 in the ~Contents file. Published, and it worked again.

Based on this, I'd guess that there is some caching of the TOC labels that is internal to the workings of Flare (not the published output) that is contributing to these occasional breakages. Previously, virtually all my files were System.LinkedTitle variables. By hard-coding a few of them, I eliminated the breakage. I'm not sure whether the order of entry (i.e. hard code the label, then update the corresponding h1) is relevant.

TOC.png