Flare 11 build process

[devangee]

I'm trying to use Flare 11 and build my targets, but I don't know if it's just my computer, so before I contact support, I would like to know if anyone is having issues w/ the build.
In Flare 10 my targets would build in less than three minutes, but in Flare 11 w/ the new build process, a build doesn't seem to finish, and I lose patience before I let it finish. For example, I've let a single target build for about an hour before I stop it and go back to Flare 10. At least in Flare 10, I know it's actually being built.

Has anyone experience this.

Also, in the demo, Mike mentioned that you can go back to the "old" compile process, but I can't seem to find that option in Flare 11.

[sdcinvan]

I'm trying to use Flare 11 and build my targets, but I don't know if it's just my computer, so before I contact support, I would like to know if anyone is having issues w/ the build.
In Flare 10 my targets would build in less than three minutes, but in Flare 11 w/ the new build process, a build doesn't seem to finish, and I lose patience before I let it finish. For example, I've let a single target build for about an hour before I stop it and go back to Flare 10. At least in Flare 10, I know it's actually being built.

Has anyone experience this.

Also, in the demo, Mike mentioned that you can go back to the "old" compile process, but I can't seem to find that option in Flare 11.

The new CLI based build is most certainly slower but your originally three minute builds (in v10.x) shouldn't have extended much past 4-5 minutes. Yes, I would contact support for help... anything that long indicates a problem. Have you looked at your .mclog for clues?

[devans]

I have recently upgraded to Flare 11 and am also having problems with builds - to HTML5. I have a very large project and it definitely takes longer to build than in my old version of Flare, building to Webhelp. However, my problem now is that the build ends up shown in yellow with a Terminated status and a state of Cancelled. When I check the log, everything looks ok. I can open the output from File Explorer but not from within Flare. I have another issue with searching which I will post separately as I'm not certain if it's related.

[sdcinvan]

I am wondering if it would be useful to create dedicated thread which documents Flare v11 bugs. I am now up to 4 bugs and 2 potential bugs.

1) Search function and footnotes loop around (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20906&p=107972&hil ... es#p107972) Bug #88681
2) Repeated crashes on builds (not posted yet but currently in MadCap ticket stage)
3) PDF image loading and appearance problems (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20949)
Still working on this one - bug or not? UPDATE - It is a bug #100786 (loading problems) and bug #100415 (rendering problems).
4) Copy/paste topics in Content Explorer results in Flare crash (under certain conditions). Not posted and still working out the nature and repeatability of this issue.
5) Image Maps (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21003) Bug #92200

Other...
Not a bug but I am very disappointed that the inability to use a footnote number more than once on a page or chapter is still not fixed. RE: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19953&p=104340&hili ... es#p104340 OMG, even Microsoft Word has this ability.

[devangee]

Oddly - with the issues I had last week, I did submit a support ticket.
But before sending my project, I decided to give it one last go, and the issue was no longer an issue.
All of my targets (print and online based) compiled fine and within five minutes.

Not sure what was going on, but something was not working last week.

[DocuWil]

I have to say that I have no problems at my side.
This morning I build a Word document of 150 pages full with small tables and it only took about 20 seconds!

[dorcutt]

I'm not having any issues with speed, but I'm having an issue when I use a very large batch target. After about the first 20 targets, some targets just hang on "queued" forever and never start. Working with MadCap support to try to work it out.

[Patt]

I am experiencing 2 issues with version 11 and wanted to know if anyone else has seen these problems.
1. I cannot delete topics. We use TFS as source control but when I go to delete a topic, I get a message that the topic was not check out and was not deleted from the project. Only problem is - it is deleted from TFS but still shows in the project.
2. Some but not all of my graphics have had their Flare Print Format, Print Size changed so that they are now huge. Some of these are topics that have not been touched in a long time and they are working just fine in version 10.

And I have also experienced slowness with the build process.

[SusanL]

I think your first issue is a general TFS issue, and not related to the Flare version. This has happened to me, and once I made sure that everything was correctly checked into TFS, I unbound the project, deleted it from my computer, and then re-imported it from source control.

I think your second issue is related to your .props files. I quit using Capture, but did not get rid of the Props files. Worked fine in previous versions, but once I had moved up to Flare 11, old images were reappearing because of the props files. If you are still using Capture, you might want to check out the Flare Glitch thread (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20921&p=108184&hilit=props#p108184). I deleted my Props files and all my newer images appeared correctly, but if you have conditions or file tags in them, you may not want to do that.

Hope this helps.

Susan

[sdcinvan]

I have to say that I have no problems at my side.
This morning I build a Word document of 150 pages full with small tables and it only took about 20 seconds!

20 seconds?

I am going to guess that it was mostly text and for web output. LOL

The moment you add in GPL (Global Project Linking), images (vector and bitmap), conditionals, snippets, TOC/Cross references/table of figures and tables, and publishing to PDF... that 120 page job will take over 4 minutes to publish. I'm not complaining though. Even if v11 is approximately 25% slower (than v10) build time, it is teaching me patience and discipline to not want to publish so often.

[DocuWil]

A view pictures.
It is a test protocol, but as I said full of small tables.

[kmorrison]

My builds do take longer in Flare 11, but that doesn't usually matter since I can do other things while I wait for them to finish.

What drove me nuts for a while was that I kept getting an error message every time I tried to compile HTML5 help: ID: 10086 (Description: Build failed: input string was not in a correct format.) Eventually support figured out that there's a bug that causes the build to fail when the search bar height in the tri-pane skin is specified in relative units, like ems. Changing it to pixels allowed the build to complete. Curiouser and curiouser.

[Lenn]

When I try to publish my project in Flare 11 I get the following error:

ID: 10086; Description: Build failed, an error occured while parsing EntityName, Line 5, position 80.

How can I fix this?

Thx
Lenn

[sdcinvan]

When I try to publish my project in Flare 11 I get the following error:

ID: 10086; Description: Build failed, an error occured while parsing EntityName, Line 5, position 80.

How can I fix this?

Thx
Lenn

[There is little more frustrating than typing out a nice response and then losing the entire response before hitting Submit..... Okay, let me try again...]

Hello Lenn (welcome to the MadCap forum!),

First, this error looks like a MS .Net code error which in itself is meaningless to end-users. It most likely represents an unexpected condition encountered by Flare. That is, possibly a corrupt project file or more likely a missing reference (something in your project that links to something that has gone null).

Here is how I would start investigating:
1) Go to your project backups and find the last known good project that doesn't fail on build.
You do daily backups, correct? I hope so!
2) With your last known good backup, bring in the new content (in manageable chunks), test build until your build fails again.

If you are not backing up... start now!

Then, try test builds by:
- Removing project topics
- Editing your .css (or replacing with a simple default .css)

and other trial/error tests.

Even though Flare can be frustrating on occasion, it is extremely robust and impossible* to muck up an entire project. Everything is text/XML based so everything is repairable!

* Impossible... meaning it won't be Flair's fault if a project becomes unrecoverable.

BTW, I suggest you post your question as a new thread in order to receive more traction.

[devangee]

I found my issue, and it's not TFS related, since I don't use the source-control integration.
I have to write documentation for a product that is an add-in MS Dynamics GP. So when GP is running my build process doesn' t work. But when I exit GP, the builds work fine.

I can edit no problem and do a preview, but something funky happens when I run a target build and have GP running. Not sure what, but I don't need GP running when I make the builds, so I just exit from GP, which is fine.

[BrianBAtCeres]

I'm also getting the 10086 error when I build HTML 5 in a parent project with more than one child project.

10086, Build failed: persephone_HTML5: Linked Projects Compiler: C:\Users\*******\Documents\My Projects\Persephone Web Install Guide\Persephone Web Install Guide.flprj: Linked target does not exist or could not be loaded , persephone_HTML5, Compiler, C:\Users\*******\Documents\My Projects\Persephone Help\Project\Targets\persephone_HTML5.fltar,

I just contacted Support. If they have an answer I will follow-up and post it here.

Brian

[BrianBAtCeres]

I'm also getting the 10086 error when I build HTML 5 in a parent project with more than one child project.

<Homer Simpson>
Woo hoo!
</Homer Simpson>

After a bit of experimenting I figured out what the problem was. I went into all of the target files and on the General tab I changed the Output File field from "(default)" to a unique name in every project. Now it works great.

Brian

[devangee]

Okay - everytime I install the upgrade my performance of building anything totally tanks - and takes FOREVER!
When I think things are good, there's an upgrade and stupid as I am, I install it.
So now I'm at square 1 again where my builds are taking wwwwwaaaaayyyy longer than they should.
What took about 5 minutes is now taking over 30 minutes - not cool.

Any way to resolve this???

I deleted the analyzer and output folders.
I don't have any source control integration connected since I'm too worried that things will screw up.
And so now I'm stuck wondering why me?!

[phebert]

I am having a similar problem when I build PDF targets using v11. In instances where I've made a change and want to build and re-publish a PDF target, I was able to with v10 and the new build over-wrote what was already published. Each PDF target has it's own unique output file name and that stays the same when I have to re-publish. What I am seeing now, on occasion, the new file does not have a new date and time stamp or the revised content even though I get the build and publish successful messages. The published file resides on a network drive which I have read/write access to, so should I, as a habit, delete any existing PDF when I need to re-publish and keep the output file name the same?

[sdcinvan]

Okay - everytime I install the upgrade my performance of building anything totally tanks - and takes FOREVER!
When I think things are good, there's an upgrade and stupid as I am, I install it.
So now I'm at square 1 again where my builds are taking wwwwwaaaaayyyy longer than they should.
What took about 5 minutes is now taking over 30 minutes - not cool.

Any way to resolve this???

I deleted the analyzer and output folders.
I don't have any source control integration connected since I'm too worried that things will screw up.
And so now I'm stuck wondering why me?!

Hello,

Have you taken this issue to MadCap support? I ask, primarily b/c there are too many possible variables to determine the problem from a basic description.

Since v11, I too have noticed a definite degradation in publishing time. For my 120 page user guide (includes many tables and images), the publishing time is still reasonably acceptable (going from ~ 1m40sec to 2m45sec for PDF output, HTML output just slightly longer).

While investigating this, I found two likely culprits that may be causing the slower build times:
1) Global Project Linking is slower. Auto Sync Import takes longer to complete. Why does it need to run EVERY SINGLE TIME? Flare should be smart enough to only sync what has changed and not sync when no files have changed since the last build. 8 out of 10 times, the Auto Sync Import even gets [temporarily] stuck for a few seconds...

Auto Sync Import.png

2) The new v11 feature that supports PDF image inserts! Flare has all sorts of difficulties with PDF images. For instance, a topic with three PDF images will require over 40 seconds to open in the editor. In the meantime, Flare is stuck until has opened the topic!
During a build, I have noticed that the build spends a lot of time on topics that contain PDF images. I submitted tickets about this many months ago. Bug tickets #100786 and 100415.

[phebert]

I got an email since you responded to the thread and prompted me to break out my problem a little clearer.

V11 on windows 8
PDF target with a static output file name
publish initially with no problems
change text in topics
build the target again, received build successful
re-publish using the same output file name
published file resides on a network drive
receive a message publishing was successful
reviewing the actual PDF file, the date/time stamp has not changed and the content has not changed.

This does not happen every time, only intermittently.

I was able to do this successfully and repeatedly with v10 so I'm unsure if I should update my process with v11.

[sdcinvan]

I got an email since you responded to the thread and prompted me to break out my problem a little clearer.

V11 on windows 8
PDF target with a static output file name
publish initially with no problems
change text in topics
build the target again, received build successful
re-publish using the same output file name
published file resides on a network drive
receive a message publishing was successful
reviewing the actual PDF file, the date/time stamp has not changed and the content has not changed.

This does not happen every time, only intermittently.

I was able to do this successfully and repeatedly with v10 so I'm unsure if I should update my process with v11.

Sorry if this seems too obvious but are you absolutely certain that your Target - General > Output folder is the same, each time?

I would check for another copy of the build being saved somewhere else b/c it is unlikely that a reported successful build, actually failed to write the new copy. Download a search tool called EVERYTHING and search on the file you are expecting. I bet another copy will appear somewhere else.

----
Here is a great excuse to try this really awesome tool for instantaneous global file look-ups (yes, it works over mapped network folders too). Check out the FREE: EVERYTHING Search Engine from VOIDTOOLS: http://www.voidtools.com/
In brief, the reason why this tool is both unique and better than any other Windows file search alternative, is that after it indexes all your files (a one time but still very quick run - under 5 minutes for about 3 million files), it stays in the background and always updates its database LIVE. Searching for a file provides instant/real-time results!
---

[phebert]

Yes I'm certain. The only thing that has changed is content within the topic.

[devangee]

I think my issue is different b/c it seems to happen when I upgrade, and then it seems to be temporary.
I don't mind my builds taking a few more seconds, but when I upgrade the screen-based builds do not complete. The PDFs take longer, but at least they finish.

I'm using a floating license, which I forgot to mention, so I don't know if upgrading Flare temporarily degrades performance for X number of days while things are registering w/ the new floating license?
I did contact support, and they have nothing useful to tell me.

I got a RAM upgrade from 8 GB to 16 GB, which helped, but nothing from support helped b/c the issue for some reason disappeared when I got in contact with them.

So I don't know what to do next time there is an upgrade. I can post pone installing it, but then when I do decide to install it, I'll have performance issues for X number of dates, and then will revert back to the previous version for a temporary time.

[KCinColorado]

My HTML5 target builds went from about 1-2 minutes (with Flare 10) to 5-6 minutes (with Flare 11). Same project, no major changes, just topic edits here and there.

MadCap Support zipped my project and built it in 1/2 the time. These are the suggestions they gave me for reducing build times. I'm still working through them but thought they might be useful to someone else:

1) Clean the project. (Close Flare. In Windows Explorer, go to your Flare project and delete the Analyzer, Output, and User folders. (If you want to retain any of our built outputs or info in the User folder, move these outside your project rather than delete them.)

2) To determine if the issue is related to source control, zip the project and remove binding from zipped file then try building that.

3) Try running Flare as Administrator (Shift+Right Click, Run as Admin).

4) Delete the CatapultMdiEditor folder. (In Explorer, go to C:\Users\[Your Username]\Appdata\Roaming\Madcapsoftware\Flare 2. The folder should be within the Flare directory.) Note that this deletes your layouts so if you may want to save them elsewhere.

And lastly, if none of the above work:

5) Repair the .NET Framework on your machine. (Windows Control Panel, Programs and Features, search for Microsoft .NET Framework Client Profile, right-click the item > Uninstall/Change > Repair. Repairing the .NET Framework "Client Profile" will also repair "Extended". If the .NET Framework "Multi Targeting pack" is installed, perform a repair of this as well.) You will need to restart your machine after this.

I am only up to step 4 because the first three had no effect on my build time. Hopefully some of these hints from MadCap will help someone else though.