HTML Compiler Stops Working

[bishop-elfring]

Using Flare 4 on a 32-bit Vista machine and the HTML compiler stops working in the middle of the compile process. Webhelp compiles just fine.
Our instincts say this is a Vista issue, but our systems folks want us to rule out an applciation issue first. Anyone run into this issue befre:


The problem details are as follows:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: hhc.exe
Application Version: 4.74.8702.0
Application Timestamp: 3847c860
Fault Module Name: HHA.dll
Fault Module Version: 4.74.8702.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 3847c4dd
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0001e6f0
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.6
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0752
Additional Information 2: 8dcbabe3950146b46373e04b8526f4d1
Additional Information 3: b36f
Additional Information 4: 33357f917a1c9182f80b7c35727de216

[Andrew]

I can compile HTML Help on 32-bit Vista just fine. No errors.

Standard stuff: do you have the latest version of .Net? Have you tried reinstalling Flare? Have you tried a different system? Have you tried compiling the sample project as HTML Help to see if it can compile?

[Richard Ferrell]

Does it happen with all projects or just this project?

Does it list the last topic it was working on the time it stop working? If you remove that topic does it compile?

[Kleb]

Try rearranging your TOC. Odd as it sounds, that's what fixed it for me.

I had something like

Book
+--- Topic1
+--- Topic2
Topic3
Topic4
Topic5
Book
+--- ...etc

If I removed Topic4 from the TOC, it would build without crashing. Or if I just moved some of the topics above Topic4 somewhere else, no crash. Go figure.

I looked in the fltoc file for xml errors and in the .htm topics for problems, and I removed some suspicious characters (control codes ), but it still would crash.

[wijnand]

Generally the problem with HtmlHelp stems from a few things:

1. You are using Filenames that are too long
2, you have links that have long names (see 1)
3. Bad HTML coding inside a topic.
4. The Index is too large (over 200 KB)

Take a look if you ahve a long file name does flare fire warnings?

Otjherwise you need to check your HTML code on the last topic that was being compied.

In your Temp Folder in your Output folder there is a Temporary/Build name/ folder that contains the HHP file, try to open that directly and compile it. It tends to give you details on what it was doing before it crashes.

[KBaine]

How long is too long for file names and link paths?

I just ran into this problem (I'm on Windows XP with Flare V4.1) when trying to compile HTML Help.

I have not tried to compile web help.

Thank you,

Kathleen

[LTinker68]

I believe the limit is 255 or 256 characters, or something like that.

[KBaine]

Thanks, Lisa,
I will check the length of file names and pathnames and see if that helps. I already tried rebooting my PC and deleting the Output folder so it would generate a new one. Same problem. I also can't compile the WebHelp becaues I get an "Internal Error: the process canoot access the file .....\SkinSupport\MadCap.css because it is being used by another process."

Kathleen

[KevinDAmery]

Thanks, Lisa,
I will check the length of file names and pathnames and see if that helps. I already tried rebooting my PC and deleting the Output folder so it would generate a new one. Same problem. I also can't compile the WebHelp becaues I get an "Internal Error: the process canoot access the file .....\SkinSupport\MadCap.css because it is being used by another process."

Kathleen

You don't have your output target pointed to the same folder where your source files are, do you? If so, change it, because if it's set up that way you will be trying to over-write your source files every time you do a build (which can get you into nasty trouble).

If that isn't it, try cleaning your project before you do a build - could be there is some process still using some of the files from a previous build, which will prevent them from being over-written by the new build.

[KBaine]

I don't think I have that problem of trying to build to the same folder. The folders are set up as follows:

Project Name folder
Content folder
Output folder
MyHTML Help
MyWebHelp
Project folder

The path to put the compiled Help files is to the Output folder.

Is this correct? I usually use the defaults that Flare generates when compiling a project.

[KevinDAmery]

That should be fine - I just wanted to flag it because if you did have the output going into the Content folder you could get some really serious problems, and the fact that the madcap.css file is in use by another process made it seem possible that might have been happening. But the folder structure you describe shouldn't be a problem.