Merged Help only shows first slave in Index and Search

[EdPhipps]

Hi!

This is similar to other reported problems with Search, but the posted fixes haven't worked - and it's subtly different.

Using Flare 8, I have a master project and 28 slave projects. WebHelp and Doc targets work just fine, but the CHM output only lists topics from the master and first slave project, on the Search and Index tabs. The TOC shows everything. And - oddly - when I tick the "Display merged navigation in HTML Help box" option (target.advanced tab) and launch the Help from any other CHM file, I get the full Index and Search for all the topics - I only have a problem if I launch the master chm.

It used to work just fine about 3 weeks ago - but I hesitate to revert 3 weeks' edits. The problem probably started around the time I applied the upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1.1 (12/06/2012). Coincidence? UPDATE: I've just restored the entire master branch and rebuilt the project - same problem. So it's not the configuration of the master that's the problem, it's either the slaves or my environment.

I've tried the suggestions I found for related problems within this forum:

1: Manually re-registered itcc.dll - and got the "successful" message, using the Windows 7/64 notes
2: Run the reregister bat file
3: Deleted the hh.dat file and flushed the IE caches

I've noticed that I've got two different versions of itcc.dll, in three places:

C:\Program Files (x86)\HTML Help Workshop:
08/11/2007 08:19 163,560 itcc.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V8\Flare.app\Resources\Bin
06/03/2012 17:57 154,352 itcc.dll
C:\Windows\SysWOW64
14/12/2008 15:46 154,352 itcc.dll

I've tried using the CHM on another (Vista 32 bit) system and it has the same issues. I've tried moving the slave projects around within the master. I've tried rebuilding over and over...

My environment is Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit. And I'm losing the will to live...

- Ed!

[EdPhipps]

I've given up trying to solve this for now. I'll compile with the "Display merged navigation in HTML Help" checkbox ticked and instruct users to launch the CHM from a file other than the master - since the index and search work just fine if I do that.

Down and out.

[Psider]

I've hit the same problem. In a set of merged chm files, with the parent compiled in 8.1 or 8.1.1, only the parent and first child display search results.

Unfortunately all our help calls go through the parent chm, so opening the child chms first is not an option for us. We will be downgrading Flare to 8.0.2 until a solution is provided. I've submitted a bug report to MadCap.

Amber

[EdPhipps]

Thanks Amber

Glad (but sad) to hear I'm not the only one affected.

I've noticed that the _temp.hhp file for each child project has a full list of all the other merged files (in the [MERGE FILES] section) but the _temp.hhp for the master project has a "list" of just the first child. A symptom, not the problem per se.

I'm going to try creating a new master (painful) to see if it's a transitional problem.

- Ed

[Psider]

I'll be interested to see how you go. My testing with creating a brand new, small test set of projects and upgrading wasn't promising, but I didn't try creating fresh projects in 8.1.1
Amber

[EdPhipps]

Hi Amber,

I created a new master project and added two existing slave projects to it. The CHM exhibited the same problem: the TOC includes all 3 projects, but the Index and Search only include the master and first slave. Rats.

Master and slave... surely parent and child would be more - erm - PC? Ah well.

I've also just bumped into the bug that means you can't use search filters in merged projects unless you use WebHelp 2.0 (which I can't)... how come the cool features are always the broken ones? Still, at least it's not RoboHelp...

-Ed

[Psider]

I submitted a bug report and have had a reply back about a workaround. A quick check indicates it works okay, however, as usual, our setup is unusual, so I think we're going to have to do a double-compile for our parent project. :S

Anyway, here are the details of the workaround:
Create a txt file and place it the same folder as the FLPRJ file (into the root project folder). Name this file "merge.txt". This file should list all of the merged chm files with the target chm listed at top.
Example of text in the "merge.txt":

Target_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm
Merged_FileName.chm

(Target=parent/master I believe.)

Please submit a bug report so that you get added to the existing item in their system. The more people on the list, the more likely it will get fixed quickly.

HTH,
Amber

[EdPhipps]

Hi Amber,

Thanks, that works just fine for me.

Reporting my bugs now. Didn't realise I could (as I didn't buy a support contract, tsk). That'll learn me.

-Ed

[Hilary Denham]

We've had the same problem here - I'm so relieved to find it wasn't just me doing something wrong!

We've tried the workaround (for which many thanks Amber) and it seemed to work fine at first, but when I later added some extra slave chms, their index entries didn't show up, even though they were listed in the txt file.

I've never submitted a bug report before - how do I go about adding my 'me too' to the list please?

Many thanks
Hilary

[EdPhipps]

Hi Hilary,

The Flare Help menu, near the bottom: "Report a bug"

No, I didn't see it at first, either.

I wonder if you need to delete all copies of the merge.txt file (del/s ...) - Flare seems to clone key files to odd places and it might be not too good at updating them.

Lucky for me I have a stable project structure - volatile content!

- Ed

[Hilary Denham]

Thanks Ed. I've submitted a bug report, so fingers crossed!

Your help is much appreciated!

Cheers
Hilary

[afredrick]

Thanks for the workaround! It solved my problems as well. I thought it was "just me". I was testing what would happen with a mixture of parent and child .chm files built with Flare 7.2, Flare 8.1.1 and RoboHelp and assumed that was the issue. The good news is that after applying the workaround it didn't matter how the .chm files were generated.

In addition to the Index and Search problems, another symptom is that after the first child file (listed in the TOC), most of the other child file topics would open in a separate window when launched from the TOC.

I submitted bugs for both issues, so hopefully these issues will be fixed soon.

Thanks!
Angie