Merging Flare CHMs into master RoboHelp project

[Monkey Girl]

We are slowly trying to convert our many legacy RoboHelp CHMs to Flare. Currently the master CHM is in RoboHelp (RH HTML X5) and through its TOC it merges with 5 RH-generated sub CHMs and 2 shiny new Flare-generated sub CHMs. A couple of issues:
1. The Flare CHMs are not represented in the Index and Search tabs at all. I followed the steps to register the DLL file and verified that the Index and Search work when running the CHM from Flare or as a standalone, just not when merged with the RH master.
2. When I click on the Flare topics in the RH master TOC, usually on the second topic I select I get a message: "The window name "main" passed to HH_GET_WIN_TYPE has not been specified." I click OK on this message several times and eventually the topic appears in a separate window.

Items to note:
* In the RH master project, there is a window named "main."

* In RoboHelp on the TOC tab, the RH-generated sub CHMs that are merged are shown with an HHC file of the same name as the CHM file. So my Imaging.chm merged file shows as Imaging.chm::/Imaging.hhc in RoboHelp's TOC tab.

* In RoboHelp on the TOC tab, the Flare-generated sub CHMs that are merged are both shown with an HHC file named _Temp. So my VitalSigns.chm merged file shows as VitalSigns.chm::/_Temp.hhc in RoboHelp's TOC tab.

* In Flare, the sub CHMs have Indexes set up as Binary.

* I know RH well and I barely know Flare. I am not used to digging into code and have never used any other HTML Help tools (HTML Help Workshop, etc.), so I'm hoping the fix is possible within the RH or Flare settings.

[wclass]

I can probably help with part (2):

When you convert from RH to Flare, a javascript file called "ehlpdhtm.js" may exist - this contains calls to RH "windows". It is usually the cause of that HH_GET_WIN_TYPE error you are getting. It's a file that contains routines for RH drop-downs etc, that you probably don't need anymore. The "main" references are to RH "windows" that should become Flare skins but if they get deleted/renamed you'll get the error.

When we converted we just removed the .js file and all references to it in the topics - you have to use Find/Replace in the source files to get rid of all traces, and the problem went away.

(If you search thr forums for HH_GET_WIN_TYPE you can view a few old threads that explained the problem in more details).

[Monkey Girl]

Actually, the two Flare sub CHMs were created from scratch in Flare. They were not converted from RH.

[rjhoughton]

I have a 23 page document that I refer to every time I convert a RoboHelp project to Flare. A good portion of that document is "find and remove/find and replace" stuff that needs to happen.

However, I am not still doing the master project in RoboHelp like it seems you are.

Some places to look:

- One of the first "pre-flight" items for conversion in our checklist is renaming the RoboHelp window, because Flare converts the RoboHelp window description to a skin file.

- We also remove the RoboHelp script referred to an earlier post (Ehlpdhtm.js).

- We also have merged TOCs/projects and have to correct the appearance of the TOC in Flare after conversion. The files come in like you've stated in your post (filename.chm#filename.hhc). We fix this in the TOC in Flare, in the Properties > General tab. In the Appearance section of the General tab, put the name of the help file (such as Vital Signs), and leave the link alone (in the Link section of the General tab).

Hope this helps! I can't imagine trying to troubleshoot this in RoboHelp, but I hope my flare advice helps in some fashion.

Rachel

[Madcap Guru]

Part of the problem is that robohelp creates the chm using different names for the internal files of the chm then flare does so mergeing will be difficult

You may want to open a support ticket they should be able to help