I am generating a merged WebHelp system. I have 6 books in the TOC. The first is normal. The next 5 are subsystems which are compiled first and merged with the main Help. I am using Flare 7.1.
The problem is, after I generate the main Help, the See Also links in my subsystem Help topics repeat. Has anyone seen this before? It's driving me nuts.
Example: Let's say a See Also button is supposed to link to a concept called, "intro." And the intro concept is applied to two topics: "Welcome" and "What's New."
When I click on the See Also link, I should only see:
"Welcome"
"What's New"
Instead, I am seeing:
"Welcome"
"Welcome"
"What's New"
"What's New"
In most cases, only one of those links appears to work. In some cases, I'm getting 3 iterations of the same link and two of them work.
If I open the Subsystem Help on their own, the See Also links work just fine. This replication only happens when I open the main Help into which all the subsystems are merged.
Any ideas? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
See Also Links repeating in merged WebHelp
Re: See Also Links repeating in merged WebHelp
I am currently working with Madcap Support on this issue, but I think I know why the See Also link is repeating topics when viewed by the parent Help system...
For WebHelp targets, there is a new property on the Advanced tab called, "Exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from the target." This is a welcome addition in my opinion because we don't want users being able to find anything via search that is not included in the TOC.
However, by "excluding" all other topics, they are implicitly "including" all linked topics. Well, if a popular topic is linked to by multiple child help systems, each help system is including that same topic. It looks great when the See Also link is clicked in just the child help while I'm testing. But when the parent help is viewed, and a See Also link is clicked, it is finding all the instances of that same topic "included" by each child help system.
I found this to be true when reviewing the Search function today. The same topic is included 5 times in some instances!
Any thoughts on my hypothesis from the experts in this forum?
More importantly, if this is what is happening, how do I solve the problem?
For WebHelp targets, there is a new property on the Advanced tab called, "Exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from the target." This is a welcome addition in my opinion because we don't want users being able to find anything via search that is not included in the TOC.
However, by "excluding" all other topics, they are implicitly "including" all linked topics. Well, if a popular topic is linked to by multiple child help systems, each help system is including that same topic. It looks great when the See Also link is clicked in just the child help while I'm testing. But when the parent help is viewed, and a See Also link is clicked, it is finding all the instances of that same topic "included" by each child help system.
I found this to be true when reviewing the Search function today. The same topic is included 5 times in some instances!
Any thoughts on my hypothesis from the experts in this forum?
More importantly, if this is what is happening, how do I solve the problem?
Re: See Also Links repeating in merged WebHelp
Unfortunately, I discovered my theory was correct. Even though I am authoring from one project, I cannot include concepts in my See Also links to topics that do not appear in the same child TOC.
Doing so includes the topic in the child's output files. Then, when you view a See Also link through the parent, you will see not only the topics in all the child TOC's, but the topics included in the child's output files as well. This was leading to the duplicate topics I was seeing in the See Also links.
Also note that this problem extends to the Search tab in your projects, AND it is not necessarily tied to concepts and See Also links. If you have a merged project and you are seeing duplicate entries for the same topic when you perform a search, you probably have a child project including a topic not in its TOC. To solve that problem, you should be linking to topics in other child projects using external links...even if you are managing all the child TOCs and Targets from the same project as I am. The fix for that is in Flare's online help manual. See External Links.
Doing so includes the topic in the child's output files. Then, when you view a See Also link through the parent, you will see not only the topics in all the child TOC's, but the topics included in the child's output files as well. This was leading to the duplicate topics I was seeing in the See Also links.
Also note that this problem extends to the Search tab in your projects, AND it is not necessarily tied to concepts and See Also links. If you have a merged project and you are seeing duplicate entries for the same topic when you perform a search, you probably have a child project including a topic not in its TOC. To solve that problem, you should be linking to topics in other child projects using external links...even if you are managing all the child TOCs and Targets from the same project as I am. The fix for that is in Flare's online help manual. See External Links.