Menu in TopNav Master Page issue

[Ineffable]

I am having an issue where my output fails whenever I add the Menu Proxy to my TopNav master page. The error in the compiler is "Build failed: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

The Menu Proxy is linked to an existing TOC, as well as an existing Skin File. I have narrowed it down to where the output fails only if I click "Context sensitive", "Include parent", "Include siblings" or "Include children." With all of those unchecked, I can only select '1' in the "Levels to Show (Depth)" dropdown. Any number greater than 1 makes the Build fail.

Could the error be, with the parent/siblings/children selectors checked, that it's trying to include a topic that is not present in the TOC selected in the Linked TOC or Browse Sequence dropdown? I wouldn't think this to be the case, as the new TopNav paradigm doesn't require that every topic be included in the Top Navigation bar; most topics should are accessible by search.

Has anyone else experienced this error?

[Ineffable]

bumping this so it can be read again!

[jjw]

This may be no help, but I've had problems with the context sensitive menu in the topnav output that I traced to bad links in the toc - the links pointed to the correct topics and worked fine in Flare (and in the top level menu), but they didn't render correctly in the side menu. It might be worth having a look to see if you have any of these issues in your toc.

Good links give a path starting from just above the Content folder (like "/Content/Topics/Stuff/stuff.htm") but the bad links were paths from somewhere deeper (like "../../../Content/Topics/Stuff/stuff.htm"). I still don't know how I created these bad links - maybe when I copied toc entries? Or when I moved copies and the paths didn't update properly?

J

[Ineffable]

This may be no help, but I've had problems with the context sensitive menu in the topnav output that I traced to bad links in the toc - the links pointed to the correct topics and worked fine in Flare (and in the top level menu), but they didn't render correctly in the side menu. It might be worth having a look to see if you have any of these issues in your toc.

Good links give a path starting from just above the Content folder (like "/Content/Topics/Stuff/stuff.htm") but the bad links were paths from somewhere deeper (like "../../../Content/Topics/Stuff/stuff.htm"). I still don't know how I created these bad links - maybe when I copied toc entries? Or when I moved copies and the paths didn't update properly?

J

Hi J, thanks for the response.

I am suspecting the TOC as well.

How did you 'trace' the issue to bad links? The only evidence I get is from the Build Log, which is very vague in its descriptions. Because we all know exactly what "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means, right?

[jjw]

I didn't have the same symptoms as you (which is why I wasn't sure it would be helpful). I had a toc that worked fine in both Flare and as a top menu, but in the context sensitive side menu some of the links didn't resolve correctly. The output built successfully though. I looked at the toc in a text editor and found that I had a mixture of links - some with a path from the Content folder and some with longer paths. I removed the extra path fragments from the bad links and it all worked again.

[Ineffable]

I didn't have the same symptoms as you (which is why I wasn't sure it would be helpful). I had a toc that worked fine in both Flare and as a top menu, but in the context sensitive side menu some of the links didn't resolve correctly. The output built successfully though. I looked at the toc in a text editor and found that I had a mixture of links - some with a path from the Content folder and some with longer paths. I removed the extra path fragments from the bad links and it all worked again.

I removed the 'Context sensitive' switch and selected 2 levels of depth. It now works for reasons I can't really explain.

The other thing that is now happening is that the Mini-TOC doesn't respect its 'float: right' property; it's about two screens in length and is in the main flow of the topic page! Time to get to work on yet another issue...

[cruitbuck]

I received the same error today and off and on since version 4.0.

Here is the current issue and solution.

The build stopped as soon as a topic output was generated and the OBJ Ref message posted.

So I worked backward on solving the Errors listed in Warnings.

I found this in my CSS file


html.topic
{
mc-master-page: url('../MasterPages/masterpage.flmsp');
}

There was neither a MasterPages directory nor a masterpage.flmsp. This was an older CSS file I reused from another project. My current project is "new." I created the directory and made a new flmsp file. Issues solved.

BobB
TW/Programmer
ShadowMedia, Inc.