RH 9 - Why does RH modify my ssl settings?

Question

I'm using RH 9.0.2.271.
The Background: We have a large help system (approx 2200 topics) that we have to generate into PDFs one per chapter. We also need to do this in various target languages as well once we get them back from our localization department. So, I created an SSL per chapter in our English project (38 in total), and each SSL is setup to output a single PDF:
The idea is use RH's batch generate, and have all 38 PDFs get generated. We then bundle them up into a zip and provide them to our customers. It works great in the English. We sent our English RH project off for localization and the translators translated the necessary files.
About SSL and printdoclayout.xml Files: I've looked into the SSL files in a text editor, and the SSL files for printed outputs do not specify themselves what gets sent to the .doc or .pdf. Instead, when you create the SSL, RH also creates a unique xml file with this name printdoclayout(n).xml, where n is a number that increments for each additional printable SSL you have and the SSL contains a reference to use that XML. The printdoclayout.xml actually contains the chapter structure that gets sent to the printable output:
Within the <tocstructure> element, it contains the hierarchy of what to export. (Note that even though it has <chapter> and <page> elements, those are misnomers since they're really just topics references with <chapter> for a book-style entry that contains a subtopics. The important thing is that in this example, the xml matches what I have in the Chapter Layout list of the Print Document Content dialog box shown above:
How We Work with Localized Files:  We send off the entire RH project to the translators. They give us back the necessary files (.htm, .hhk, .hhc and so on). This time we also asked them to translate the name attributes in each <chapter> and <page> element of each printdoclayout.xml file, because RH draws from those strings during the printable output generation, and we didn't want it to pull in the English strings from the original XML files. When we get the file's back from our localization department, we make a copy of the English RH project that was localized and we use that as a base. We then copy the files they send back to us into it, overwriting what's in the English. We then modify the RH project settings to match the target language. Then we generate the desired output.
The Problem: Now we're getting the localized projects backs, but when we try to generate the printable outputs from a localized RH project, RH no longer respects what I originally defined in the 38 SSLs/xmls. Instead of trying to output a single chapter per SSL, it's trying to output ALL chapters in each SSL. For example, notice what happens when I open up the same layout in the localized Chinese. (Notice the blue highlight in the left side of the Print Document Content dialog box, showing that ALL the chapters are now somehow selected.)
I don't understand why merely opening up the SSL causes it to select ALL the topics for the generation, especially when the underlying (localized) .xml file still shows the correct chapter output as shown here:
It seems like there's another setting or file or perhaps just a bug that's telling it to grab all chapters and topics. In fact, it looks like the entire SSL is pretty much wiped out. My section layout and the style settings need to be redone as well.
Anyway, the workaround I came up with, is we have to go back into each layout (38 of them) in each target language and select again the proper chapter per layout (as well as fix the section layout and style settings). It's a time-consuming and error-prone manual fix, especially since in some target languages, like Chinese where I don't read the characters and could easily get lost and choose the wrong chapter.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Message was edited by: Jared Hess. To resize some images and add additional info.

Answer 1

Peter, thanks for responding. We ran into this problem in other languages as well. I'm just using Chinese here since that's the one I'm currently working on. I don't think the partially localized items at the bottom would cause a problem. I think those were intentionally ignored by our translators.
Although, I wonder if modifying the underlying printdoclayout.xml file causes RH to want to reset the printable layout file (SSL). I haven't tested that theory yet.
I also wonder if is there a file somewhere that affects how the SSL is generated? So I started looking through the different file types in my project folder and looking at them in Notepad++. The .pss file does contain references to the SSLs. For example, there's this:
[Target:01_Getting Started]
SSLayoutType=7
ActionID For Generation=1013
ResultFileName=!SSL!\printable\01_Getting_Started\01_Getting_Started.doc
Remove Folder with prompt=1
CreateProjectTime=14:32, September 17, 2014
CreateProjectUser=Jared.hess
SupportMas_MPJ=1
ViewFileName=!SSL!\printable\01_Getting_Started\01_Getting_Started.doc
ResultStatus=0
BuildTimeHi=30397110
BuildTimeLow=-2083350864
But I don't see how this affects anything.