Missing Map IDs in RoboHelp 7 HTML

Hi -
We produced Webhelp for various projects using RH 7.0. We
have a help file with 460 topics and we painstakingly make sure
that as we add topics, we add a map ID, so everything is in sync.
However, yesterday we found looked in the project and found that
one of our older topics has no map ID attached to it (If you go to
Topic Properties>Advanced, it says “No Map
ID…”). But, in the whchsdata.htm file, the topic does
have a map ID.
I have two questions: First, is there an easy way to pinpoint
which topic has a missing map ID, when you discover the number of
map IDs is out of sync with the number of topics? Also, why would a
map ID be missing in the project but be OK in the Webhelp as
described above?

Hi Mary.
You can see the topics with no mapid by running one of RH's
reports. The Mapid report lists the mapids and the topic they are
assigned to. The Topic Properties report can also be used with the
mapid option on to show topics with their mapid.
As far as why the topic with no mapid is in the webhelp, is
the file you are looking at the latest version? I'd ensure you have
the "Republish All" option set and try again.

Similar Messages

Has anyone seen changing map ids corrupting an HTML project?

I am working in RoboHelp8, and generating .chm help files to be attached to my company's software application. I built a map id file from numbers the programmer gave me. His calls have been able to use my generated files, but the "HH_HELP_CONTEXT called without a [MAP] section error message shows up when using context-sensitive help links.
What I've done so far:
I took a project from my backup server to replace the project that keeps giving me the map id error message (attached) when I hook it to the application.
1. I made some minor text changes to the file and generated, hooked it to the application, it ran ok.
2. I backed up the entire RH project.
3. I opened the project again in RH, and tried to make some necessary changes to the map ids. This seems to be the problem area, because after making the changes and regenerating, the error message reappears. Plus, when I reattach the generation from step 1, the one
without the map id changes, it fails too.
It appears to me that changing map ids within RoboHelp does something to corrupt my project. I have noticed that behavior is strange when I
attempt changing map ids. The destinations disappear unexpectedly, map ids say Unassign when there is no destination, etc. I have tried
deleting all 20 of them and mapping them again, with no different result.
Do you know anyone who has experienced this?
Better yet, do you know an expert in the San Francisco Bay area who I can consult with?
The application my organization is developing is supposed to be put on CD today, so this is a huge problem, impacting the whole team. Any
ideas you may have would be welcome. - Caroltypesetting

See if this thread helps.
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Missing Map IDs

I have developed JavaHelp in RoboHelp Office X3. I have
defined map ids in a separate file. The file is imported to my
project and everything looks cool in RoboHelp. When I generate my
JavaHelp, some of the map IDs are lost. Has anyone had this issue?
Does anyone have a fix or know of a resolution?

Hi Mary.
You can see the topics with no mapid by running one of RH's
reports. The Mapid report lists the mapids and the topic they are
assigned to. The Topic Properties report can also be used with the
mapid option on to show topics with their mapid.
As far as why the topic with no mapid is in the webhelp, is
the file you are looking at the latest version? I'd ensure you have
the "Republish All" option set and try again.

How Do RoboHelp 9 WebHelp Generated Files Handle Map IDs and Aliases?

The text below was written by our team's developer/architect. I am the help author who uses RoboHelp to write content and generate the help files, but I am clueless how it all gets generated and is deployed. Please help. We use RoboHelp 9. I use it in Windows XP and our app and help run on IE 7, 9, and Firefox (multiple versions).
"Our application uses the numeric identifiers associated with the Map ID. For example, to get to the <appname>_home_page.htm file, we use the number 1053. <appname> = pecs, in this example.
All of this is used in a call to a RoboHelp method defined in the RoboHelp_CSH.js file. The mehtod we are calling is the RH_ShowHelp() JavaScript method and the code to perform the call, when you click on Page Help, is this:
RH_ShowHelp(0, ''/pecsHelp/index.htm>pecsHelp',HH_HELP_CONTEXT,topic);
Topic is translated to the Map ID number for the page help. HH_HELP_CONTEXT is defined in the RoboHelp_CSH.js file. This method translates into a URL and from what I have seen, the URL that gets generated is this:
http://{server}[:port]/pecsHelp/index.htm/{server}[:port]/pecsHelp/index.htm#<id=1053>>pecsHelp
Server and port get replaced with the appropriate values. I have no clue how id=1053 is supposed to get translated to mean "pecs_home_page.htm". If you check the PECS_help.h file, you will see the following entry:
#define PECS_Home_Page1 1053
Then in the RoboHelp alias file (PECS 3.0.ali), the following line is in the file:
<alias name="PECS_Home_Page1" link="pecs_home_page.htm"> </alias>
But both of these files are used during the WebHelp generation process and I don't know how the WebHelp generated files handle the Map ID and aliases."

You need to assign the numbers you find in the pecs_help.h file to topics in your help. You do this in Context Sensitive Help > Map Files > All Map IDs. (From RH7, but I assume the location is similar in RH9.) This creates the entries in the .ali file.
Peter Grainge suggests a couple of sites to read for a greater understanding here:
http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/calling_webhelp/using_map_ids.htm
(Although the second site is based on RH X5, the basic concepts and procedures should be very similar. )
HTH,
Amber

Expanding test / Extra language map ids in RH7 for html

Hi, I am building a winhelp2000 project (Context Sensitive)
in RH7 for word. It is meant for an application built in Delphi. I
saw the expanding text option in RH7 for html but couldn't find
anything similar in RH for word. I want to use that feature in my
project.
If I create my project (as a .CHM project) using RH for html,
I am not able to create extra language map ids for Delphi (.PAS
files). Can anybody pls tell me if we have that facility in RH for
html.
If no, then is there any way of building the expanding text
part in RH for html and then importing and using it in RH for word
? I think we can use a .CHM project with Delphi.

Always best to keep unrelated questions as separate posts. I
can answer your dropdown question but not your map id question.
The dropdown option does not exist in RH for Word and I am
not aware of any workaround. The suggestion of using RH HTML will
not be practical. The method relies on javascript and because you
are working in RH for Word, you would have to add that in the
output. Your output is a CHM file so you cannot do that. Even if
you were using webhelp, you would have to add the javascript back
in every time you build the help. It is a non starter.

Map IDs Missing

I created Map IDs for my system and sent it off to the
developers. I haven't gone into that particulary file in a few
weeks and when I did today, all of my Map IDs were gone. Has anyone
heard of RH X5 stripping Map IDs?

Hi Mary.
You can see the topics with no mapid by running one of RH's
reports. The Mapid report lists the mapids and the topic they are
assigned to. The Topic Properties report can also be used with the
mapid option on to show topics with their mapid.
As far as why the topic with no mapid is in the webhelp, is
the file you are looking at the latest version? I'd ensure you have
the "Republish All" option set and try again.

Imported a .h map file, no Map IDs show

Background: RoboHelp 10 project, linked to a FrameMaker 11 book, HTML Help output. No errors or missing resources on update of Fm book.
After linking the project to a Fm book with TopicAlias markers selected for CSH, I imported a .h map file used by the developers and did a Force Update All. The imported map file shows up under the Map Files node in the Project Set-up pod. But when I double-click it, nothing displays in the Map IDs panel on the left side of the Edit Map IDs dialog box.
I thought 1) specifying TopicAlias markers for CSH during link setup, and 2) importing the developers' .h file would map the IDs to the topics.
Am I doing something wrong in the linking or .h import steps? I really don't want to have to manually edit the topic IDs in BSSCDefault.h--there are hundreds of them.

Umm, if you’re using the markers from your FM files to set the mapping, why are you getting something from the developers? In your workflow I would expect you to be sending them your .h file, not the other way round ;>)

Using Map Files / Map IDs

Heya,
RH9, merged webhelp
I'm trying to set up Map IDs for a quasi-context sensitive help feature, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I've read through the RH9 help which links to the Grainge website and a couple more links, but I'm still not sure what to do.
First, the background:
We auto-generate a set of release notes for new features and fixes. This is done using a script that pulls the relevant information out of Dovetail (basically where all our support and development cases are stored). So basically our release list shows the case number, the area of the software, and a brief summary of the fix/feature. The release notes are script-generated as an .html file that we can link to in help.
The issue is that they want me to alter the release notes so that the case number serves as a hyperlink to the relevant topic in help. So, for example, if we had a new feature for widget making, case number 12345, the release notes entry for this would have a hyperlink that would take the user to the 'Widget Making' help topic.
My thinking is that I can use the case numbers as Map IDs, ie assign Map ID '12345' to the 'Widget Making' topic, and then create a generic link in the release notes that can 'insert' the relevant case number when the user goes to find that associated help topic.
Potential Issue:
We use a merged help system, but we do not need to merge map files. Our help system consists of one mostly-empty parent project (title page, about page, etc.), a project that contains the majority of our topics, a project that contains database information for technical users, and a few other odd projects. All of the linked topics are going to be in the same main child help project. Because of this, the map file/IDs are going to be a single set in a single project, but not the parent project.
Does this only affect the pathway for the basic link (e.g. "webhelp/mergedProjects/child1.htm" instead of "webhelp/start.htm"?), or are there other considerations? For example, the merged help map ID topics I've seen talk about using number ranges to denote the different projects, but since we've only the one, do we really need to do that? To me, it seems like we should be able to use a relatively straight-forward single-project type link, with the only difference being that the the link goes to a child project folder and not the main webhelp folder.
So far in testing, the link doesn't work, so I'm wondering if either the URL is not as straight-forward as I hoped, or I'm missing something else due to the nature of how our webhelp is set up. Because it's a child, do we still need to 'merge' map files even if we don't need one for the parent? (ie we create an empty parent map file, merge it with the child, and link to the parent?)
Thanks for any tips/advice!

Hi,
When you use CSH in a merged project, the master project will automatically check all child projects when the context sensitive id cannot be found in the master project. Peter’s method includes merging the map files but I don’t think that is necessary. We have several merged projects that work perfectly without merging the map files. But Peter is the authority on merged help
It is important to first get the terminology straight. In WebHelp there are Map ID’s and Map numbers. The Map ID (or topic id) is an alphanumeric string that can be anything from one character to a hundred or more characters. Then there are the Map numbers. Map numbers are a number between 1 and 4.294.967.295.
The terminology is important because what RoboHelp calls a Map ID may be referred to as a map number. Reading the article on Peter’s site I get the impression that what is called a Map ID on Peter’s site is actually the Map number in RoboHelp. (Please correct me if I’m wrong Peter.) The Map ID in RoboHelp is the Topic ID on Peter’s site. See step 8 of the article, it describes how to create a test page using the default RoboHelp JavaScript API. But that test page actually uses the map numbers as the default JS API does not support topic id’s, only map numbers.
Your map file tells the following:
‘12345’ is the Map ID or topic ID.
‘1’ is the Map number. The Map ID referred to on Peter’s site if I’m not mistaken.
Calling the Map number 12345 will not work if you use the default method because you are looking for the wrong number. Try the following:
Say that your master project is placed on http://localhost/newproject.htm. Open a new browser window and add the following URL in the browser where you replace the url with the url your project is placed:
http://localhost/newproject.htm#<str=12345
Does this get the desired result? Also try the test page but use ‘1’ instead of ‘12345’. Does this also get the correct page?
You (or your developers) may also be interested in my WebHelp CSH dissection: http://www.wvanweelden.eu/robohelp/webhelp/csh Note that this article is aimed at developers and does not provide any direct answers, but it will help you understand the different settings in RoboHelp.
Hope this doesn’t confuse you and I hope my assumptions about your intended action are correct.
Greet,
Willam

Map ID not appearing in "Edit Map IDs" dialog box

I have RH HTML 8. I am adding new topics and assigning map IDs to those topics via the Edit Map IDs dialog box.
All of my map IDs appear in the BSSCdefault.h file as well as the project's .hm file. I even manually added the topic string to the project's ali file. However, it is not appearing in the Edit Map IDs dialog box. If it's not appear there, where does this dialog box get the map strings and map IDs from?
No FARP685 string:

Peter,
I think your discussion of this problem could explain the situation and propose a workaround more simply than it does.
Based on your article, I assumed that Robo displays only the built in Word list styles such as List and List Continue (since those were the only styles showing up in the style mapping dialog and since your example shows matching a Robo style named List Mapping to a Word built in style named List). I assumed I would have to match my Bullet style to a style named List in Word, and match the indented bullet style to List 2, and so on. The actual situation is that Robo, for some godforsaken reason that only idiots would understand, will not show a Word style if any numbering (bullets or numbers) is applied to it. That is, one does not have to avoid a class of styles called “List styles”, one only has to avoid applying numbering to the styles until later.
Thus the workaround is to create the word styles (with names that match the Robo styles!) that contain every attribute you need EXCEPT the numbering. That is, I can link Bullet to Bullet and Number to Number and Indented Number to Indented Number, and so on and on, as long as I have all the Word styles in the template with their numbering set to None.
Then after I generate the document, I can modify the styles to add the appropriate numbering, and voila!
Currently scrolling the doc & modifying styles. Might be a glimpse of daylight.
John
From: Peter Grainge [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 8:47 AM
To: John Dawson
Subject: Word styles not appearing in Print Document Appearance dialog
Re: Word styles not appearing in Print Document Appearance dialog
created by Peter Grainge<http://forums.adobe.com/people/Peter+Grainge> in RoboHelp - View the full discussion<http://forums.adobe.com/message/3969382#3969382

Why are Map IDs landing in Project Map File, not All Maps, and with a .h extension

I am using the Tech Comm Ste 2, Adobe Robohelp 8.0.2.2 in Windows XP. I assign map IDs manually instead of using automap. I open the Edit Map IDs window. In the right column, under "Topic," I select the topic I want to map. I then click the icon below to open the Context-sensitive Properties for Help Topic window. I select the topic title, without the .htm, and copy it. Then, from the left column, I click the Map File dropdown list and select the HH file to which I want to map the help topic. I then click the icon at the bottom to open the Create/Edit Map ID window. In the first field, I paste the topic ID, and in the second field I enter the map ID I want to assign. Then I click OK.
Usually this places the topic in the correct HH file, highlighted in yellow until I select the topic from the list and then click Assign. For some reason, RH is not adding my topic to the HH file; instead it is adding it to the Project Map file. When I click OK, I get a blank window and the Assign button is disabled. My topic shows up in the Project Map File. The topic displays with the HH files and a .h extension has been added to it.
I can't delete these topics from the Project Map file. I can't assign them map IDs. And this seems to happen randomly. SOMETIMES I can map my topics, but I never know when I can do it and when one of them is going to land in the Project Map file.
Can anyone help?

Personally I've never had or heard of this issue. The fact that this appears to be random suggests that the MapFile dropdown may not be displaying the correct map file when you add or assign the mapid. Also check to ensure your project's source files are not located on a network drive as this can cause issues. If this continues perhaps you could give us an image of what you are seeing.
The RoboColum(n)
@robocolumn
Colum McAndrew

Automatic merging of map files in RoboHelp?

[Hope this isn't a double post; my first attempt ended in
network error and forum doesn't seem to have that post]
My group is charged with developing a help system using
RoboHelp 7. Output type will be WebHelp. The interface between
context-sensitive Help system and the target application will be a
single project's output and a single map file. The plan for help
development is to divide the work up into multiple layers of
projects. The final output will be the result of multiple project
merges from the bottom layer up.
RH7 enables this methodology with the WebHelp merge
module...except that it doesn't automatically merge sub projects'
map ID files (individual BSSCDefaults.h) into the master project's
map ID file BSSCDefaults.h. I can use a different name for the sub
projects' map files and import them into the master project, but
this still does not result in the master's map file being modified.
The map IDs remain dispersed across the multiple map files within
the master project.
Is there a way to get an automatic concatenation of map ID
files?

Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping that the answer would
be other than that it's a manual procedure outside of RH7, but
that's the conclusion given my previous [admittedly brief]
searching within this site and thinking more about the RH paradigm
(as explained in the Grainge article as well as the other Adobe
articles).
For now, I'm going to have the team use the following process
while we're shaking out our development methodology:
- each author follows the established naming convention for
Topic IDs and use his/her assigned map number range when creating
map IDs which should guarantee that the IDs are unique across all
projects
- each author will export his/her projects' map file (for
java applications) to a subfolder within their project
- rename the resultant BSSCDefaults.properties file to a
globally unique filename
- copy that project-unique properties file to the specified
folder
- one person/admin will concatenate the individual properties
files into a single file to be used by the application developers
Comments?
ayf

RoboHelp HTML does not generate .chm file

We have a large help system for F1 help with about 2,000 help
topics in about 50 different Word .doc files. We had used RoboHelp
for Word previously, but with the goal of generating a single .chm
help file, we tried using RoboHelp HTML to change the Word .doc
files to .htm files. RoboHelp HTML does this conversion and creates
2,000 .htm files.
When we try to generate the .chm file for the help system,
RoboHelp for HTML does not respond and does not create the .chm
file. Is RoboHelp HTML not capable of handling such a big help
system? Are there any workarounds to generate the .chm file
successfully?

Peter, thanks for your input. Here's where we are. We opened
RoboHelp HTML and converted the Word docs into .html files. Then we
were able to generate the .chm file (it worked this time) using
RoboHelp HTML. We have about 50 .gif images, and no external links.
The actual number of HTML files with help topics is close to
4,000 for this F1 field help in our application. Ideally, we would
love to have a master project with sub-projects, but it doesn't
appear as a practical alternative. The .hh file (for F1 field help)
is generated from the application by the developer and given to us.
In order to have a master project and slave projects, we
would have to manually split that automatically-generated.hh file
into individual .hh files, true? That means we would have to
correlate which .html help topic file corresponds with which map id
number, then chalk out how we want to divide the .html help topics
into individual projects that correspond to their .hh files?
This help system I inherited is 10 years old, and the
resource time we would spend (if we chose to modularize this help
system) would be gigantic in scope. If there is a simpler and
efficient way to modularize our F1 help system, I would love to
hear about it!

RoboHelp 8 for Word not installed with RoboHelp HTML?

My workplace just upgraded from RoboHelp Office 5x to RoboHelp 8. Come to find out, *all* that was installed was RoboHelp 8 HTML. The RoboHelp 8 for Word part of the application was not installed.
The department responsible for software installations says that they don't have the RoboHelp 8 Word program--that it didn't come with the RoboHelp download. They are insisting that it's not available, and will probably have to be purchased separately.
Has anyone else installed a volume license from a download?
If so, were the HTML and Word portions of the program both available?
Did both parts of the application install (HTML and Word)?
If one installer was used, was the the RoboHelp 8 for Word portion missing? (I.e., is this a bug?) Or did you get the whole thing?
If more than one installer was used, were the components downloaded in separate installation files? (Could someone have missed an installation file, in other words?)
FYI, please, I don't need all the advantages and reasons why I should use HTML Help or WebHelp instead. I work for a government agency, and need to just generate WinHelp to replace an existing Help file, not make everyone change a whole bunch of stuff to use WebHelp or a CHM file. I need WinHelp output from Word. And, one more thing: I do not have administrator access on my PC either.
Feedback, experiences, and suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance for your help!
Di

The licence you bought was for RoboHelp Office which includes both the RoboHelp for Word and RoboHelp HTML applications. Each of these three has it's own installation file so I suspect that they have installed just the RoboHelp HTML application. They should have the details for the RoboHelp for Word application, or better still the RoboHelp Office application which gives you the options of what to install according to your needs.
The RoboColum(n)
@robocolumn
Colum McAndrew

Converting RoboHelp for Word to RoboHelp HTML (v8)

I have a RoboHelp for Word (started at v6, converted to v7, and now at v8) project that I want to convert to a RoboHelp HTML v8 project.
The RoboHelp for Word V8 looks good, works great and builds good looking WebHelp and MS Html Help finished outputs! But, I can't seem to figure out how to embed Captivate App Demos (SWF) into the project. Another post in these forums indicated that this is easy with RoboHelp HTML; and after some testing, indeed it is! Great.
Now - the question is, how do I get my existing (looks good, feels great) RoboHelp for Word V8 project imported into RoboHelp HTML V8?
I made a copy of my RHWord project directory (so as not to screw anything up) and then opened RHHTML and chose to import an existing HPJ project. When asked whether to keep the project file XPJ or go to HHP, I chose HHP.
During the conversion, I get lots of "images not valid; invalid chars" on GIF files that RHWord has no problem with. It will not display nor publish these GIF files. Actually, it does display some of the GIFs in the RHHTML dev env, but then doesn't publish them!
Also, during the conversion, it asks if you want a single CSS for each file or one CSS based on one of the WORD docs from the RHWord project. The default was the former, so I chose it. After the conversion, many of the topics have CSS data that appears at the top (e.g. long list of font names) that end up getting published also. So why did this happen?
Also, after the conversion, many of the topics have non-displayable characters that do not show up in the RHWord version; source or published version.
So - my question is, how do I correctly go from a RHWord project that seems to edit and publish just fine to a RHHTML project cleanly?
I have tried to be as detailed as possible on each of these issues, but if more is required, let me know.
Thanks much for your assistance,
Jeff
Message was edited by: jonestech

The original post included a complaint:
"After the conversion, many of the topics have CSS data that appears at the top (e.g. long list of font names) that end up getting published also"
I didn't spot an answer to this part of the problem. I may have missed it
I see this also in importig a RH8 WinHelp project for conversion to WebHelp. It's no big deal to just delete the font list in projects that have just a single original Word doc, but I have a number of projects that each contain hundreds of Word docs, and the font list is inserted tt the top of each converted htm file.
So I am motivated to find a solution...
Any ideas RH troops???

RoboHelp HTML v7

Hi,
Could anyone explain the exact significance of selecting the
options Check for deleted files/Republish All while generating a
help file. The help to RoboHelp just mentions that Republish All
should not be used while merging projects.
Thank you
anu

Hi there
I'll be happy to fill in the missing detail for the options
you mentioned.
These pertain to the process of Publishing your WebHelp. And
that process is vastly different than Generating. But so so many
users confuse the two.
You have a RoboHelp HTML project consisting of Source files.
Perhaps they are in the following location:
C:\Projects\MyProject
You Generate WebHelp and that process modifies each of the
Source files. They end up in the Output location. Assuming the path
I listed earlier, that location would be:
C:\Projects\MyProject|!SSL!\WebHelp
Now the Publish process comes into play. The Publish process
copies the files from the WebHelp output folder to another
location. Perhaps a server. So here is what those options do.
Normally, the first time you publish, each file is copied
from the Output Folder to the Server. As each file is copied, it is
logged in a file that tracks dates, times, file name, etc. The
first time you publish, ALL files are copied.
Subsequent publishes then only copy across the files it
senses have been changed. So as it is copying, each file is
compared to the list. Is it newer? No. Don't copy. So the first
publish process may copy perhaps 1500 files. But the second time
you publish, maybe only 20 files are actually copied, as those are
the only ones that changed.
Republish all says to ignore the list and just copy ALL the
files again. You may wish to choose this if perhaps your IT folks
advised you a server crashed and suggested checking all your links
to ensure they are all working after they restored from a backup.
Fuhgeddaboudit! Don't waste time checking links. Just republish all
and you will know you are good to go.
Check for Deleted files doesn't do what you may think it
does. You might see that and think that if you deleted a folder of
files from your project, RoboHelp will also clean those files off
the server. Nope The key thing to remember with this is that The
publishing process will never ever delete files off the server. If
you need files removed, you will need to do that manually.
So what does it do? It slows the publishing process down. If
that option is enabled, not only does the process check to see if
the files are newer and need to be copied, it also checks the
server to ensure the files still exist! If one has gone missing, it
will be copied over. Even if it's not newer.
Hopefully that helps... Rick

Missing Map IDs in RoboHelp 7 HTML

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