Hyperlink to mid-page bookmark goes to top of page

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PeteM
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 7:24 am

Hyperlink to mid-page bookmark goes to top of page

Post by PeteM »

I have an odd issue which I can't seem to find an answer for. Using HTML5 output, if I have a hyperlink pointing to a bookmark in the middle of a different topic, following that link will go to the top of the destination topic rather than to the bookmark. This only happens when the sidebar is visible (i.e. if I shrink the browser to hide the sidebar and get the 'burger' menu icon, the link goes to the bookmark as expected). The URL produced from the link is correct, and if you refresh the page after it has gone to the top of the topic it will then correctly go to the bookmark. Curiously, when the issue happens it looks like it DOES go to the correct bookmark location but then immediately jumps to the top of the page. This seems to affect all mid-topic links and I can reproduce in Chrome, IE and Edge so it doesn't look to be a browser-specific problem.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!
Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: Hyperlink to mid-page bookmark goes to top of page

Post by Nita Beck »

I feel your pain. I have reported the exact same issue to MadCap, and my client reported it, too. (Caveat: I never explored what happens if the window is narrow enough to get us the hamburger button and slide-out menu.) I call the effect a "flash scroll" back to the top. It happens so fast that you can barely see it. I also know exactly when this issue surfaced: Flare 2017 r3.

Please submit a bug report to MadCap so that this issue can get some attention.

Sorry that I couldn't offer you a solution.
Nita
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RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
PeteM
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 7:24 am

Re: Hyperlink to mid-page bookmark goes to top of page

Post by PeteM »

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about this last night and my guess is that after the page loads at the bookmark location, the focus then shifts to the sidebar TOC to highlight the relevant page, and that is what causes the page to jump to the top. When I get chance today I'll see if adding the bookmark location to the TOC makes any difference (pure speculation, but I'm wondering if it's in the TOC then that will be highlighted rather than the overall page).

EDIT - It does work! I should be able to use this as a workaround until the issue is (hopefully) fixed.

EDIT 2 - I spoke too soon. It works in my local build, but not when I deploy it to a server. Why that would make a difference to this I've no idea. Back to the drawing board.
Feebeegeebee
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:38 am
Location: UK

Re: Hyperlink to mid-page bookmark goes to top of page

Post by Feebeegeebee »

I've just encountered this bug too. I have a whole lot of options that can be configured and I wanted to link to bookmarks in another topic, so that users could see how each option gets saved in its own section in an output file from our software.
All bookmark links just go to the same place at the top of the destination file.
I tried the suggestion of adding links in the TOC to the bookmarks, but that makes no difference on my local machine or our server.
It must be, as suggested above, the focus of the sidebar shifting, as it fleetingly goes to the bookmark and then the top of the page. :cry: :( :cry: :( :cry: :(
Note: To test it, if you open the link in a new tab, the link goes to the correct bookmark in the destination file (as the Sidenav is not called).
I will also submit a bug report.
Feebeegeebee

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Bug report submitted
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Using Flare 2022 on Windows 11 (64-bit)
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