Search question

[pouliotmax]

Hi,

i have a topic that is name DO61_02_01_01.htm (all my topics ressemble that). In the bottom of each topic, i call the filename variable. If i search for DO61_02_01_01.htm, i get no result in webhelp output... anybody knows why?

[LTinker68]

When you say that's the topic's name, do you mean that's its filename and you told Flare to use the filename for the topic name? Or do you mean Flare is set to use the first heading in the topic as the topic name and the first heading is DO61_02_01_01.htm?

Did you include the .htm in the search parameters, or did you just search on DO61_02_01_01? If you included the .htm, try it without it.

[pouliotmax]

IT's the filename that appears in the bottom of the topic via the filename variable. What i mean to tell is that DO61_02_01_01.htm is visible in the topic so it should be found via the webelp search even if it's a variable


Tried without the .htm and it did not work

In the code it looks like this

Code: Select all

<p class="Codification"><span class="SystemSourceFile">DO61_02_01_01.htm</span>
                    </p>

[LTinker68]

I wonder if the underscore isn't permitted as a search variable? If you search for "DO61 AND 02 AND 01", then does it work?

BTW, I assume you can search for other terms and it's just terms of this format that you can't find?

[kevinmcl]

My WebHelp for our products has literally thousands of instances of functions and calls and parameters, with names like CA_SetExtendedTPV, CK_ULONG ulTpv, EXT_TPV_FORCE_RSA_BLINDING; etc.

I have received complaints that it is not possible to search items with underscores.
As you can imagine, that works really well for our toolkit-using customers.

I have not been able to provide a reliable workaround.
Yes, I can tell programmers to step outside their browser and use grep, but that's rather a slap in the face.

This thread was from 2008. I'm using Flare 7 in November of 2011.


Is the Flare search facility in WebHelp a Madcap creation, or is it a "standard" thing invoked from browsers? Or what?
I'm trying to get a handle on which group of programmers doesn't understand that people would want to search for stuff with underscores (be it filenames, C-language functions, or other).

- kevin

[crdmerge]

I'm using Flare 7.2, and underscores work OK in similar types of searches (system parameters, etc.). (On a side note, periods do not, so the ".htm" wouldn't work.)

I suspect the variables might be in play, here.


Good luck,
Leon

[kevinmcl]

Any particular "variables"? Or do you mean just the vagaries of the universe?

Which browsers (and versions) are you using that a search containing underscore works for you? On what platform (OS and version)?

I'm using most-current Chrome, and IE 9 on Windows 7. My boss is using earlier IE and Firefox on Windows XP. We don't know what the complaining customers were using... a variety of browsers on a variety of platforms, including a couple of flavors of Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

- k

[NorthEast]

My WebHelp for our products has literally thousands of instances of functions and calls and parameters, with names like CA_SetExtendedTPV, CK_ULONG ulTpv, EXT_TPV_FORCE_RSA_BLINDING; etc.

I have received complaints that it is not possible to search items with underscores.
As you can imagine, that works really well for our toolkit-using customers.

I did a quick test with two of your examples, and I could search for them in WebHelp without any problems.

Can you reproduce the issue yourself?

Is there anything else that might be affecting the search? For example, I just added your examples as plain text in a topic, but do yours have extra formatting/spans?

[crdmerge]

The variables I'm referring to are yours, as you stated in your initial post: "i call the filename variable." I believe that's your universe!

IE 8, Windows XP


Good luck,
Leon

[NorthEast]

The variables I'm referring to are yours, as you stated in your initial post: "i call the filename variable." I believe that's your universe! :D

The initial post in this thread was by someone else; they're different issues.

[i-tietz]

I just inserted the filename into the masterpage, built a webhelp and tried to find a topic called neu_in_30.htm.
Search strings: neu_in_30.htm, neu_in_30
Result in both cases: nothing

Search string: neu in 30
Result: tons of topics because probably it's no AND inserted by MadCap but an OR. But the wanted topic is one of them. I clicked on it, the topic opened.
BUT THEN:
I looked at the properties of the file, specifically the path: neu_in_30.htm?SearchType=Stem&Highlight=neu|Neu||ins||30
Can somebody explain that to me, please? Why is the word "ins" supposed to be highlighted, but not "in" as it is the word I was looking for?

Next strange behaviour: Another topic is called start.htm. Neither with start.htm nor with start I could find that topic ... as you see it doesn't need underscores for text not to be found.

Oh and: I got identical search results with IE 8 and FF 7 under Win 7 - just the highlighting is handled differently: The IE doesn't highlight parts of words, Firefox does.

This looks to me as if the search in webhelp produced by Flare is pretty buggy ... finally I found the reason why people keep saying that their users use the Google search ...

Edit:
-----
The topic neu_in_30.htm was not found on the third try because those words were in the inserted variable. I just tried with more "cryptic" filenames and I cannot find them either - not even if I leave out the underscores.

IDEA for WORKAROUND:
Don't insert the filename via Flare variable - use javascript!
That way you get rid of the class and the span that Flare inserts automatically. Probably they make their search ignore strings in those circumstances.