Corrupt .chm file from one computer, okay from another

[Gary Niemen]

We have set up a computer to do automatic HTML Help builds of our project every night - all has worked fine for quite a while.
Now, as of about one week ago, the build works fine but the .chm file produced is far smaller than it should be - 169KB instead of 10MB - and when we try to open the file, we get that catch-all message "Cannot open the file: mk@MSITStore: etc".
We have tried a manual build on the same computer - and we get the same problem.
We have tried a manual build on another computer and we do not get the problem - all is fine.
We are running the latest Flare 4.1.
Any ideas what might be going on?
Should we just re-install Flare on the offending computer or...?

[SteveS]

This error can be caused by a program installation or the un-installation of a program that for whatever reason un-registers the hhctrl.ocx file. To fix this error, you will need to re-register the hhctrl.ocx file with Windows. Click on your Start menu and select Run. In the Open portion of the dialogue box that appears, type regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\hhctrl.ocx. Click OK and the error should be fixed.

HTH

[Gary Niemen]

Intreresting - we will try this and get back.

[Gary Niemen]

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have worked.

Does anybody else have any ideas?

[MC Hammer]

Hello Gary
I have had similar issues and for me too, the unregistering and re-registering of the active X control did not work.
I would recommend you uninstall Flare on the PC with the issue, then MANUALLY delete anything left in the install directory (not everything gets uninstalled) and re-install Flare (with any suitable patches if required). It did the trick for me.
Hope this helps.

[Gary Niemen]

We have now re-installed Flare 4.1 and patches on the offending machine.
The manual build worked.
We will see tomorrow morning if the automatic build works as well.

[MC Hammer]

Fingers crossed...

[Gary Niemen]

Yippee, the reinstall worked.
On we go.

[MC Hammer]

[Gary Niemen]

So, the situation is now like this:
- After the re-install of Flare 4.1, the first autobuild worked fine
- Manual build works fine
- Autobuild does not work again - or rather the build works but it produces a help file of 1KB (as opposed to what is should be, 10MB or so)
Can anybody help us work out what is going on?

[SteveS]

Are you using the clean project command before building?

[Gary Niemen]

I can see how to clean the project from a menu command. I am cleaning now.
However, should we clean before each nightly autobuild?
If so, is there a command line command for that?

[KevinDAmery]

What Clean Project does is delete the contents of the Output folder. You should be able to use a standard DOS command to do the same thing (i.e. change the current path to the Output folder then run del *.*)

[Gary Niemen]

Ok, we'll try. But why does cleaning up potentially solve this problem?
When a build starts, it looks like the first thing that happens is that it clears up.

[LTinker68]

It's a way to trick IE and HTML Help into thinking that they're being directed to a new output, even though the file name and path to the file haven't changed. It's especially helpful if you've made changes to the skin. Not so much an issue with content.

[Gary Niemen]

Well we did a manual clean-up from the GUI and then we did a manual build, which worked.
The autobuild ran last night and that worked too.
So, we shall see tonight if the second autobuild works.
If not we will add a clean-up line in the autobuild script and see if that helps.
We have been advised to just use a standard DOS command to do the clean-up. I wonder, will that be sufficient to trick IE and HTML Help.
Also, I discovered that if you do a clean-up from the GUI and then do a publish from the GUI - before publishing, Flare asks you whether you want to re-generate the help. A window appears and you need to say No before the publish starts. I wonder, how this will work when everything is running from the autobuild script.
Well, we shall see.

[LTinker68]

Also, I discovered that if you do a clean-up from the GUI and then do a publish from the GUI - before publishing, Flare asks you whether you want to re-generate the help. A window appears and you need to say No before the publish starts. I wonder, how this will work when everything is running from the autobuild script.

I've never used the batch build option, but does it include an option to run the publish command, or are you doing that manually after you build the output? If you're doing it through the batch script then can you just run the publish command, not the build and publish command (if there's such an option). You'd still need to delete the folder (clean-up) before running the publish command.

[Gary Niemen]

Well, our autobuild is working again.
What seemed to fix it was the GUI-based Clean Project command.
I am not sure why.