"import" an old table?

[kevinmcl]

So, how SHOULD I be doing this?

Flare 10.2.2 on Windows 7.

A page with a big-ish table on it went missing from the docs, a few releases back, and somebody noticed.

Easy, sez I. I'll just go find it in the last project where it still existed, copy the file into my current project, open the topic, apply current table properties, and done!

Oh yeah. Gotta convert to XML when opening. Ok. Done.
Now, put the cursor in the table, right click, slide down to "Table Properties" and.........

"MadCap Flare V10 encountered a problem

System NullReferenceException occurred at 3/3/2015 4:19:41 PM
Object reference not set to an instance of an object
If you were in the middle of something, your changes might be lost"

How lovely.

I re-tried, from copying the old topic into the current-project Content folder, yadda-yadda. . . and the same result.

So, what SHOULD I be doing instead?


FWIW, the details of the Exception log look like this:

at B3.CssKit.CssSimpleSelectorItem.MatchesXmlName(String xmllongname, StringComparison cmp, Boolean useStrictNamespaceMatching)
at B3.CssKit.CssSimpleSelectorItem.MatchesXmlName(StringList valid, StringComparison cmp, Boolean useStrictNamespaceMatching)
at B3.CssKit.CssComputedStylesheet.CollectSelectors(StringList validTags, CssDisplayType displayType)
at B3.XmlTextKit.NodeStyleComboBox.<GetStyleItems>d__8.MoveNext()
at B3.XmlTextKit.NodeStyleComboBox.Add(BoxLayout layout, String tag)
at B3.XmlTextKit.NodeStyleComboBox.Load(BoxLayout layout, String tag)
at B3.XmlTextKit.InsertTableDialog.OnDialogInit(EventArgs e)
at B3.AppKit.Dialog.Run(IWin32Window refWindow)
at B3.AppKit.Dialog.Run(IWin32Window refWindow)
at B3.XmlTextKit.BoxView.OnTablePropertiesCommand(CommandContext cc)
at B3.XmlTextKit.BoxView.OnCommand(CommandContext cc)
at B3.AppKit.CommandRouter.Invoke(CommandContext cc)
at B3.AppKit.CommandRouter.TryInvoke(CommandContext cc)

I don't feel terribly informed.
But maybe the glitch (if it is one, and not "as designed") is obvious to somebody in the forum?

[Nita Beck]

How about opening that old topic in a text editor (I like Notepad+) and copying the code just for the table? Then in your Flare project, open the topic where you want to put the table, switch to the Text Editor, and carefully paste all that code between some bit's closing tag and the next bit's opening tag (such as between a </p> and a <p>). Then switch back to the XML Editor.

Now, things may still fail on you. For example, if that table had been styled with a table stylesheet that is not present in your project, you'll get a broken link error. What I'd do, were I you, is to reset the table's formatting back to a plain table and perhaps even the table cell contents back to "(none)" and then start applying styling anew.

At least I wouldn't have had to paste in -- or retype -- all the cell content.

HTH

p.s. You mention that in your first attempt, you had to convert to XML. Hmmm, that suggests malformed code. Or perhaps it would happen if you were trying to copy in an OUTPUT file not a SOURCE file. And even if you copied in a source file, be aware that you might end up with links pointing back to that other project and you'll need to re-establish the links within the current project.

[kevinmcl]

I'll do the text-editor thing. It'll be the most straightforward way to get to the next problem.


Badump-bump-tssshhh!


Anyway, just for info, the original file was source, and was probably created in very early Flare... if not in RH before I bought into Flare at version 1-dot-something, and then was probably not updated since Flare 2 or 3. Thus the conversion requirement.

Thanks for responding.

[Nita Beck]

Well actually that crossed my mind, that the file was from a project created with an old version of Flare.

Given that you've got the old project, you've got another option, then. You can always open that old project in Flare 10, which I would expect Flare to "upgrade" just fine. Then you probably could copy the file itself from one project to another. You're likely to still have some cleanup and/or some broken links to fix.

In the end, I think the updated-to-Flare-10 approach and the text-editor approach are about the same in terms of the amount of effort.