ghost xml from external alias

[pdenchfield]

Identifiers from alias files of external resources have strange behavior: the Contents pane is not updated (implying that the ghost topic is not in the TOC) and mini-toc proxies are not shown.

For example, if I go to the following URL I get pointed to a ghost file that was apparently developed during the build process. The mini-toc proxy is not shown, nor is the Contents pane updated.

mydomain.com/myhelp/Default.htm#cshid=nwadmin

I can find the mapped topic and its mini-toc proxy is shown (and Contents pane updated) as expected.

Strangely, this issue is present only for some identifiers from alias files of external resources. Two of the targets from the source flare project have this issue for identifiers but the third target from the source flare project works fine for its identifiers. And the identifiers in the destination flare project also work fine.

We determined that moving all the source files into the destination project resolves this issue (no more external resources), but wow that is going to be a lot of work. And it's maddening trying to identify the issue in the source project.

Does this issue sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks!
Pamela

[devjoe]

What it suggests is that the alias is linked to a bookmark in the TOC, or to a path which does not match the TOC in case.
Windows file systems (and as a result, help hosted on them) are not case sensitive, but TOC sync is case sensitive, and links with the wrong case will not find their TOC entries.
Likewise, if you have a link that goes to a bookmark within a topic, this will only sync to TOC if the same bookmark appears in the TOC.

[pdenchfield]

Thanks for your reply, devjoe. In the source project, the problematic aliases are all linked to topics (not bookmarks). The linked topics appear in the TOC. Case-sensitivity was assessed.... Please keep the ideas coming. Thanks again!

[NorthEast]

For example, if I go to the following URL I get pointed to a ghost file that was apparently developed during the build process. The mini-toc proxy is not shown, nor is the Contents pane updated.

mydomain.com/myhelp/Default.htm#cshid=nwadmin

I can find the mapped topic and its mini-toc proxy is shown (and Contents pane updated) as expected.

The mini-TOC is generated at build time, so an individual topic will either include the mini-TOC or not (all the time), regardless of how you navigate to the topic. It also has nothing to do with TOC sync.

So if you can see the topic in your output both with/without the mini-TOC, that suggests you have two versions of the topic in your output.

One appears to be connected to that alias ID but isn't in your TOC (hence no mini-TOC), and the other isn't connected to that alias ID but is in your TOC (hence it has a mini-TOC).

I'm not sure external resources has anything to do with it. External resources are simply files that are copied from an external location into your project, and Flare is only building from what's actually been copied into your project (not what is external).

[pdenchfield]

Hi Dave Lee,

Thanks for your response. We combined project files into one flare project so that we could avoid the external resource issues. The alias links now work as expected.

Still wish I understood how it happened, though... Not sure why this ghost file was created (not attached to toc or output, but alias link was confirmed to be the one attached to toc and output).

Best,
Pamela