Building - Object Reference Not Set To Instance of an Object

[rototerrier]

Getting object reference error when building after upgrading to 4.2 this morning. Anyone else experience this, or are we the lucky ones?

[rototerrier]

Also, I doubt anyone is going to be able to help me, sooo, is there a place I can re-download and install 4.1 so we can get back to normal?

[LTinker68]

Did you delete the Output folder before building?

[ralfgrisard]

I'm getting this error too, just since I upgraded to 4.2. Tried deleting the Output folder - didn't make any difference.

[Richard Ferrell]

You may want to see if you have any broken links in your project, Click on Tools, and Project Analysis and them Broken Links, If you are still having problems then I would open a support ticket by using the following link.

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/contact.aspx

[ralfgrisard]

Checked for broken links - none. Deleted Flare 4.2, reinstalled 4.1.19 and problem was resolved. I'll submit a support ticket.

[Hobbes]

I'm having the same problem after the update. I'm going to try the fixes mentioned here and then I'll open a ticket as well if that doesn't work. Has anyone resolved this on their project?

[Hobbes]

I checked the build messages and noticed that I got the error right as it was processing a specific topic. I removed that topic from the build and tried again and everything worked fine.

The topic in question has a very large table that was imported from a RoboHelp X5 project--not sure if that has anything to do with it or not.

[LTinker68]

Open the topic in the Internal Text Editor and see if there's anything odd in the page code near or in the table.

[Boone]

We're experiencing the same problem. Two people on my project have FLARE. I'm still running V4.1 and my partner is running V4.2. She gets an Object Reference Not Set error on a file during compile and I do not get the error. So is there a way to drop back to V4.1?

[micsta]

I upgraded to 4.2 this morning and experienced the same error. I was able to narrow it down to one file. This was easy considering the log file shows the last file to be compiled which caused the problem. After spending most of the day on this I was able to figure it out.

Apparently Flare doesn't like it when you have two consecutive hyperlinks which link to the same destination. I combined the links into one and problem solved!

For example:
<li><a href="../GlossaryCodesValues/CountryCode.htm" title="Open Facility Country Code definition" target="_popup" alt="Open Facility Country Code definition" class="Popup"><abbr title="Facility">Fac</abbr></a><a href="../GlossaryCodesValues/CountryCode.htm" title="Open Facility Country Code definition" target="_popup" alt="Open Facility Country Code definition" class="Popup"> Country</a> (Facility Country)</li>

was combined into:
<li><a href="../GlossaryCodesValues/CountryCode.htm" title="Open Facility Country Code definition" target="_popup" alt="Open Facility Country Code definition" class="Popup"><abbr title="Facility">Fac</abbr> Country</a> (Facility Country)</li>

Hope this helps others!
-Michael

ps. It is much easier to fix the code in Dreamweaver

[ralfgrisard]

FYI: I finally found the problem in my files. Each of the two topics that was causing an error had an unnecessary link that was not showing in the normal Flare editor. Below I show the "before" and "after" versions of each of the two problem lines:

1st topic:
Before: <p><MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/FunctionBarBaseButtons.flsnp" />  <img src="Resources/Images/function bar divider.png" />  <MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/ApplicationFunctionButtons.flsnp" /><a href="exit button.htm" target="_popup" class="Popup"> </a></p>
After: <p><MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/FunctionBarBaseButtons.flsnp" />  <img src="Resources/Images/function bar divider.png" />  <MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/ApplicationFunctionButtons.flsnp" /></p>
(Problem solved by deleting <a href="exit button.htm" target="_popup" class="Popup"> </a>)

2nd topic:
Before: <p><MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/SubsystemBarButtons.flsnp" /><a href="psi button.htm" target="_popup" class="Popup"> </a></p>
After: <p><MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/SubsystemBarButtons.flsnp" /></p>
(Problem solved by deleting <a href="psi button.htm" target="_popup" class="Popup"> </a>)

Everything seems to be working OK now. Apparently, Flare 4.2 is less tolerant of some things than earlier Flare versions were.

[LTinker68]

I'm surprised those hyperlinks gave you problems. Technically, those hyperlinks are valid, although not exactly desirable, since there was nothing to click on but an empty space.

[KevinDAmery]

Finally needed to make Word output and I'm running into this one too. There are going to be lots of broken links because not all of the topics are included in the Word output (it isn't intended to be a full reproduction of the Help system - I'm actually only putting two topics into one document to provide instructions on a new feature to an important client, so if any of the links work at all I'll be stunned) - but really, why the $#%$ should it matter if there are broken links? Build what you can and don't bug me...

My guess is that Flare 4.2 doesn't support Word 2003 anymore. (Can't imagine why you'd want to support Word 2003 anymore, given the overwhelming love for Word 2007 out there... sorry, was that sarcasm too blatant?)

Anyway, since I don't really have time to build a special link-free version of my topics or muck around with backing out to the older versions of Flare that actually worked, I'm building to PDF then copying the content I need into Word. (And oh what fun we're having today....) Gotta love turning what should be a 5 minute job into a couple of hours of work... and employee reviews are coming soon too.....

[Nita Beck]

I just started getting this error in the last half hour after doing a bunch of work with my style sheets (I've got 2).

Here's the rub:

My PDF target won't compile. At the point where it fails, it has already processed all the topics (so I can't pinpoint which one it finds to be the offending file), and the last message before aborting is simply "Paginating...".

My WebHelp target compiles fine. And this target includes *exactly* the same topics are in the PDF target... no diff whatsoever.

For "giggles," I created a Word target, and I'm using Word 2003. Well, it compiles just fine. (Please don't suggest I just output to Word... I don't wanna go there for my production-level work!)

Any thoughts?

Nita

p.s. Analyzer finds no broken links in the project...

[Richard Ferrell]

If you go back to an older version of the stylesheet does it work? You may want to open up a ticket with Madcap Support

[Nita Beck]

Richard, my troubleshooting efforts have at least pinpointed the offending file. It's not a stylesheet (at least I don't think so), but it's one particular topic file. My guess now is that I've got some offending code someplace rather than it's a bug. But, ya never know!

If I discover a solution, I'll post back, of course.

Nita