Clicking dropdown "The value of... 'FMCDropDown' is null"

[Cecily]

I am using MadCap Flare 8.0.2 in Windows 7 to compile html help locally, and then again on a build server.

The output includes images and dropdows which work fine locally and on various machines and VMs where the software and help are installed, using IE7 and IE10 - except we've found one case where it doesn't (it has IE10, but it's fine on another IE10 machine).

There are three issues:

1. Font displays as Times New Roman rather than Verdana (not good, but cosmetic, rather than functional).
2. Pictures don’t display (but don’t actually generate an error).
3. Clicking any dropdown generates an error re scripts and doesn't display dropdown contents (but hyperlinks are OK). The error text includes:
   “The value of the property 'FMCDropDown' is null
   mk:@MSITStore:C:\PROGRA~1\ESRIUK\LOCATO~1\DASHBO~1\LOCATO~1.CHM::/Dashboard
   Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?”

FMCDropDown null.png

Any ideas how I can fix this? (I've looked here and elsewhere online, but nothing that's quite the same.)

[Msquared]

Can I clarify? Is it just the one machine where you see the three problems that you list?

If so, I'd be inclined to think the problem was something to do with that machine, rather than with what Flare has generated. Perhaps something in that installation of Windows is broken, or something in your help installation failed, so not all the files in the help are there. Or possibly something is locked down, preventing access to some of the files. Could someone have set some clever (and restrictive) security settings in Internet Explorer, or firewall settings perhaps?

Have you tried rebooting the affected machine, and reinstalling your help system on it?

If that doesn't help, next, I'd look at what was different between the problem machine and a similar machine running IE10 that was OK. For example, look at the list of installed programs, and see there are any suspicious differences, for example, different Windows patches, versions of .NET etc. Then make sure that the help files that are present are identical on both machines. Then look at the IE10 settings to see if there is anything different . . .

[Cecily]

Hi Marjorie

Yes, all three problems are on a single machine (a VM).

I agree that it's likely to be something specific to that machine, but the trouble is working out what it might be - and whether any customers might have a similar setup. The issue was actually reported by the project's tech lead, in pre-release smoke testing, just before I went off for the weekend, so although I looked into it a bit before leaving, I confess I have not yet done much yet, but was hoping for suggestion as to what to look for - which I will do on Monday morning.

[RamonS]

I wonder what the security settings for Internet Explorer are on that VM. The CHM viewer uses IE as rendering engine and with that inherits security settings. My suggestion would be to set the IE settings back to default and see if that makes a difference. This is more a guess than a definitive answer. You may want to clone the VM and then tweak things, that way you can compare settings before and after and far more easily find out which setting is the one to change. That will help even if it is not an IE security issue.

[Cecily]

Thanks.

Installing Windows updates and the consequent reboot seem to have fixed it, so I've added it to a troubleshooting section of our documentation, though I'm still a little nervous (I'm not even certain whether it was the updates, the reboot, or sheer chance that "fixed" it).

[RamonS]

It is standard procedure to reboot Windows three times if problems occur. That is nothing unusual and part of the cost of doing business with Microsoft.

[Cecily]

It is standard procedure to reboot Windows three times if problems occur. That is nothing unusual and part of the cost of doing business with Microsoft.

Anyway, some reassurance from Support:

"I have not encountered the error that you mentioned (the FMCDropDown is null) in the email, so I would say that this is not a common situation and I would not worry about this occurring in the future. I'm very glad that installing the recommended Windows updates solved the issue. If it helps for the future, Flare does need the machine to have all required Windows updates installed in order for everything to work perfectly."