Opening specific topics in merged Help file

Question

I have a modular Help file problem that I'm hoping someone
can help with.
We are developing a window for our software product that will
allow users looking for help on a specific task, to enter a string
into a text box. As the user string is typed into the box, the
software returns a list of possibilities, from which the user is
then expected to choose a task. When the task is chosen, a string
associated with that task is passed back to the software. In
theory, the software opens the Help file and the topic associated
with the task is simultaneously displayed.
The complicating factor is that the target topic is in a
merged CHM file under the master CHM. Ideally, when we pass a
string to locate a specific topic in this merged file, we would
want to open the master CHM and have (1) the topic located in the
TOC pane to the left and (2) the topic display in the Topic pane to
the right. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to make it work
quite right. The correct topic is located in the TOC pane, but the
right-hand pane displays a "this program cannot display the
webpage" message. What's funny is that if I simply click on the
topic in the TOC pane, the right pane will display the correct
topic. In other words, we are finding the topic in the TOC, but we
just aren't displaying it.
Obviously, we are not passing the correct string to the
software but I don’t seem to be able to hit upon the right
syntax. So, to summarize what I want to do is to have the Master
file open to a specific topic in the Merged file called, for
instance, "My_Topic.htm." Thus, I have tried…
Master.CHM::/My_Topic.htm
Master.CHM::/Merged.CHM/My_Topic.htm
…but neither has worked.
I should mention that we have not renamed any CHM files using
Win Explorer, and we have not specified a binary TOC. Also, both
CHM files are local.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi Mike,
Based on what I can work out (and I could be wrong) the
completed project, merged files and all, is in the !SSL!/HTML Help
output folder of the master project. When you compile the master
project takes the links, subsiduary merged files, etc, that it
knows about relative to the files in the Master Help files main
directory, (i.e. the baggage files that the project knows about
after you have imported the subsiduary files into the project) and
exports a compiled .chm master file into the !SSL!/HTML Help output
folder of the master project that contains details of the links and
subsiduary files.
What it doesn't do is export any subsiduary files from the
Master Help files subdirectory if there are any there in the first
place. This means you can get outdated subsiduary .chm files there.
This means RoboHelp puts in the correct links in your master
project (cos the right filres are in your baggage files) and writes
a master project .chm file to the output ditrectory. If however,
your subsiduary project .chm file is already in your output
directory then this will not be updated and your master .chm file
will contain links to topics that might not be in the version of
the subsiduary .chm file in the output directory - hence the
message saying 'can't display the web page'.
What I've (recently) learned to do is:
(1) Produce and generate master project and sub projects into
the default !SSL!/HTML Help sub directories for each project. When
I know each stand alone section of the project is working OK I:
(2) Import the subsiduary projects into the master so there
is a file of the correct name in the master. (In the bagge files
section).
[I re-import only if i've changed the structure of the
subsiduary projects such the master project references topics that
no longer exist or needs to reference newly created topics].
(3) Set up another single source layout in the subsiduary
projects that writes the latest version of the .chm file directly
into the required output directory of the the master project.
(Because Robohelp doesn't refresh the files in the output
drectory of the master project if they're already present this
means each time I recompile the subsiduary projects the lastest
version goes into the output directory of the master project - this
saves reimporting them into the master and deleting the contents of
the master's output directory).
(If I batch generate I can write an updated copy into the sub
project's default !SSL!/HTML Help at the same time - so if I want
to look at just the output of the sub project I can always do that
as well).
(4) Everytime I generate the master project it sends a
compiled master.chm file to the specified output directory, but
doesn't overwrite the subsiduary .chm files in that output
directory. However, as I've set up the subsiduary projects to write
their latest versions of their files to that directory every time I
compile it always has the latest versions of those files for when
you despatch the project.
This means everytime you recompile the master it knows the
right file names, links, etc, for the subsiduary projects and each
time you recompile the subsiduary projects the latest version goes
into the master projects output directory.
If you don't do this (or sometning like) your master and sub
projects will get out of sync and you'll end up with problems
referencing topics in the subsiduary projects.
(If you've already understood this, sorry for going over old
ground).