Linked target does not exist or could not be loaded.

[kwag_myers]

I'm getting this error when I try to link existing projects to a single project.

Scenario:
My boss pimped me out to another department that was way behind and needed help with their training documents. These consisted of several Word files with about 30% of the same content, or slight variations of the same. I converted everything to XML (which went very smoothly, thank you Madcappers) but just didn't have time to set the project up correctly, so many of the projects are still a single file with a cover and TOC (each with their respective PageLayout).

Everything is now out to proof, so I thought I'd see if I could easily generate some webhelp by linking the projects into one. In a new webhelp project, I added books and topics to the Master TOC and used the Properties icon in the TOC Editor to link each project. When I attempted to build, I got this error: "Internal error: Linked target does not exist or could not be loaded."

I played around with file names, etc., and even deleted all but one file from the TOC. But I'm still getting the error. I also tried changing the output type to Word and got this error: "Internal error: No content was generated. The Master TOC is either empty, does not contain links to valid topics, or all content has been conditionalized out."

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a better way?

[LTinker68]

Did you double-check that the target file is pointing to that TOC file? If it's set to "default", try selecting the TOC file by name and see if that works.

[kwag_myers]

Sorry, I left something out in my process that I think is important:

In the Properties of the webhelp TOC topic, I used "Select Flare Project and Target...(for runtime merging)". The Link directory points to the project file, *.flprj.

I'm not sure if that answers your question, though.

[rob hollinger]

Each of the "Child" project must have a target of similar type.
If you are building WebHelp in the parent project, all the child projects must have Webhelp targets also and each of these targets needs to have a unique name. When in the properties for these linked projects, be sure to select the Target also in that dialog.

When you link to other projects from run time merging, Flare will Build each of child targets first and then the Parent. At the end, Flare will copy all the children outputs into a folder called 'subsystems' in the parent output. Runtime merging is only supported in web and HTML Help outputs.

[kwag_myers]

Good news/bad news. Once I generated webhelp for one project and selected the target it worked. However, I added a second project (also generating webhelp and selecting the target), but got an error. My suspicion is, since each project has a Cover page and TOC, I'd have to change each file names of each project to something unique. Also, having the Cover and TOC in the webhelp isn't going to work. I'd have to edit each project's TOC.

So, I think I'm going to try something with just the topic files. Just not sure what yet.

[rob hollinger]

Whats in the TOC for each WebHelp project shouldn't matter.
In each Target (each Project) on the General tab - you have to give the output filename a unique name. By default, it will be "Default". Fill in this option for each and they should all build from the Parent project.

[kwag_myers]

Ah, that makes perfect sense. I was changing the topic file names.

What I ended up doing is to import the topic files from each project (since most of them consisted of only one file) and mapping each. The end result is more suited to my purpose. However, I can see my client wanting a Master Training Guide where this technique would be ideal. Once I get some downtime I'll spend more time on this.

For now, thanks for all the help.