RoboHelp Server 8 - roboapi.asp & robo.dll redirect

We are currently using RoboHelp x5 and have upgraded to RoboHelp 8. We need all requests for roboapi.asp and robo.dll which were supported in X5 to redirect properly to work in RoboHelp Server 8.
I have read a few posts that recommend adding the RoboHelpFilter.dll however I have not been able to get this to work. Has anyone been able to get this to work?
We are using IIS6 and Tomcat.

After some badgering of a couple of the developers, I am almost at the verge of some small milestone. The string that calls the on line help is built using the content of a couple of variables. The main one is the servername. In the old RoboHelp 7 format, it is entered into the config file as http://<servername>:<port>/RoboAPI.asp?
I changed this to:
http//<servername>:<port>/test/server?
(I created a context in RobHelp Server 8 called "test").
The rest of the string is built from the content of a variable that pulls the context ID from a database table. The result is "context=<ID>", so it should work just fine, right?
Well, no, it doesn't.
A help viewer called browser.exe is used to view the help. When the above configuration is used, the help viewer opens with this single line of text:
The help page you are looking for can be found at here.
Clicking here takes you to the correct page, in the help viewer.
There MUST be some way of bypassing that crudely drafted message. There are other issues, but this ome MUST be resolved first.
Anyone?
Please?

Similar Messages

RobServer 8 and RoboAPI.asp

Like many in my position, I am a Technical Author that also administers the document servers for the company. In my case, the Australian Federal Police. I have been using RoboHelp and RoboEngine/Server for many years, so I am quite familiar with the setup. I am also quite close to the development team, who worked with me in the beginning to set up all the applications for the RoboHelp/RoboServer Context Sensitive Help (CSH) technology.
RoboHelp Server 6 and 7 created many problems for me. The constant errors, the weekly server re-boots, the monthly flushing of databases, the daily Windows Service restarts; I'm sure there are others familiar with this as well.
Then along comes RoboHelp Server 8. After a frustrating length of time receiving no help whatsoever from Adobe, I am told that RoboServer 8 will fix everything.
So I put in a case and was given the budget to proceed with the upgrade. Two RoboHelp Server licenses, a Tech Comms suite and three RoboHelp Office 8 licenses. Thousands of dollars and countless hours later, I am no better off because none of our applications can call the CSH from RoboServer 8. None of the documentation for RoboHelp 8 or RoboHelp Server 8 says this up front. In fact, the RoboHelp 8 documentation maintains the use of the RoboAPI.asp for viewing WebHelp Pro output, but, like I said, it just doesn't work and won't work.
In the back of the RoboHelp Server 8 book is the procedure for connecting Tomcat and IIS. If anyone has bothered to look, it is pure gobbledegook. None of the URLs take you to the file downloads and you need a university degree to understand the process anyway.
I now have the Madcap Madpack, plus Madcap Server, which I shall be trialing, but, in the meantime, I have these urgent questions:
Can RoboHelp Server 8 be connected to IIS so that I can use my RoboHelp 6 and 7 API calls that are part of our applications?
Does anyone have a set of instructions that a failry intelligent person can follow to do this?
Currently, our main application uses a configuration file to specify the root server. It looks something like this:
http://<server>:666/ and is placed in the variable strRootPath
The call in the code is defined in the variable strHelpPath and is in this form:
RoboAPI.asp?context=<context ID>
This has worked well for many years and many versions of RoboHelp from RoboEnterprise to RoboEngine to RoboServer 4.
Someone out there has got to have an answer for this. I can't imagine what would happen if I had to go back to the development team and inform them that we have to change the code. For the Web Apps, it would not be so bad, but will still take months of coordination and testing before it can be released. Our main application, however, is another story, and will require the approval of a new On Line Help project. If we have to do that, it won't be RoboHelp!

After some badgering of a couple of the developers, I am almost at the verge of some small milestone. The string that calls the on line help is built using the content of a couple of variables. The main one is the servername. In the old RoboHelp 7 format, it is entered into the config file as http://<servername>:<port>/RoboAPI.asp?
I changed this to:
http//<servername>:<port>/test/server?
(I created a context in RobHelp Server 8 called "test").
The rest of the string is built from the content of a variable that pulls the context ID from a database table. The result is "context=<ID>", so it should work just fine, right?
Well, no, it doesn't.
A help viewer called browser.exe is used to view the help. When the above configuration is used, the help viewer opens with this single line of text:
The help page you are looking for can be found at here.
Clicking here takes you to the correct page, in the help viewer.
There MUST be some way of bypassing that crudely drafted message. There are other issues, but this ome MUST be resolved first.
Anyone?
Please?

Upgrading from RoboEngine 3.1 to RoboHelp Server 9

Old-time user, new ID. My company recently upgraded from RoboHelp 4 to RoboHelp 9. (Yes, we're slow about some things.) I was recently asked to upgrade our WebHelp Pro output, which had been posted to an old RoboEngine 3.1 server. Of course, the new RoboHelp 9 output does not play well with RE 3.1, and I got a "RoboHelp Engine server is not available" message when I attempted to upgrade the output. After doing a little research, I discovered that this lack of backward compatibility began with RoboHelp 7.
Fortunately, I made backups of my old WebHelp Pro output, and our users can still access the Help files. But I've been tasked with researching the upgrade path from our old version to the new one. So here's what I'd like to know:
Is buying RoboHelp Server 9 sufficient?
Is the process of publishing the Help files to the server reasonably similar?
The server that hosts RE 3.1 is a Windows 2000 machine. Will I be able to run RH Server 9 on it?
Will I need to provide new URLs for the Help links inside our Internet-based software after the upgrade, or will the old links, which use the format http://machine.org/roboapi.asp?project=ProjectName, still work?
Thanks in advance for your help. Nice to see that Rick, Colum, and Peter are still firing the big guns around here. I feel strangely reassured, as if everything will work out just fine
Chet

Welcome back Chet. I nearly typed the obligatory "Welcome to the RH forums" greeting when I saw your single post but that doesn't seem right here
The issue here is that the underlying RoboHelp and RoboHelp Server code was completely rewritten in Java. Personally I'm surprised you managed to get RH9 output running on RE 3.1 at all. It just goes to show what a error tolerant application it is.
You'd be far better off upgrading both the client and the server applications. I think you'll be surprised at just how easy RHServer is to install and use these days. No more fiddling with permissions. As for publishing, you still have a WebHelp Pro SSL in RH9. It does have some additional options and the UI of the RH Server application will have changed also. There is a lot of new functionality. You may find that the URL for the help is different though. There is an excellent guide that is worth reading called the RoboHelp Server Reviewers Guide. You can find it here and it will answer a lot of your questions.
One thing you may want to consider is migrating the data from RE3.1 to RHServer 9. The new app has a migration tool that can migrate from an earlier release. However I am not sure if it could cope with data from RE3.1. You could try, and it is doesn't get the data into the new database with SQL.
Colum

Where is the Roboapi.asp in RHS8?

We upgraded our workstations and server all to robohelp 8.
There is nothing in the documentation ANYWHERE about the
roboapi.asp being removed, but our server admin is saying it
doesn't exist in RHServer 8, and now our developers are going to
have to re-code all of the context-sensitive links if we can't find
it.
Here are my questions:
Why would Adobe remove something so integral to the way
people link to help files without mentioning it somewhere?
Is it really gone, or is there some trick to get it there?
Please help, we really need an answer to this before we start
the developers coding. Right now, context-sensitive help isn't
working. It's not a good scene!

Hi shootathought,
RoboHelp Server 8 does document all the URLs that are available for accessing context sensitive help from RHS 8. Details are available at
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/RoboHelp/8.0/RoboHelpServer/WS9DE2BAEA-1C51-4a90-8252-039D7502 30C0.html under "Access Context-Sensitive Help" section.
Snippet from RHS 8 documentation:
Using context-sensitive Help, you can associate context IDs with topics. Using CSH API, you can retrieve topics associated with a given context ID from the server. You can use the CSH API of the server to call a context-sensitive Help topic from WebHelp Pro or FlashHelp Pro projects in RoboHelp HTML. You can access CSH for WebHelp Pro and FlashHelp Pro projects from the CSH tool and the browser window.
Using the CSH tool, specify a URL and Map Number as follows:
For WebHelp Pro, specify http://<server-name>/robohelp/server?project=<project name>&area=<area-name> in the Help URL and context ID in the map number.
For FlashHelp Pro, specify the Help URL as http://<server-name>/robohelp/server?project=<projectname>&type=flashhelp&area=<area-name> and context ID in the map number.
To access context-sensitive Help using the browser window:
Specify the URL as http://<server-name>/robohelp/server?project=<project name>&ctxid=<ctx id>&area=<area-name> for WebHelp Pro projects.
Specify the URL as http://<server-name>/robohelp/server?project=<project name>&ctxid=<ctx id>&type=flashhelp&area=<area-name> for FlashHelp Pro projects.
You can use CSH API to access Help using a topic name. Enter the URL http://<server-name>/<context-name>/server?project=<project name>&tpc=<relative topic path>&area=<area-name>[&type=flashhelp]
Regards
Tulika.

Can't Publish from Robohelp HTML 7 to Robohelp server 8

Please help. I have looked everywhere for answers. Here is my problem.
Environment
I have a windows XP machine with robohelp html 7 and the 7.0.3 patch installed. I am testing the trial version of robohelp server 8 for 30 days. The installation of the robohelp server 8 application when ok. I think. I am able to login as admin in the robohelp server web adminstrator application and also able to go the main page (http://mvrobohelp:8080/robohelp/). The congratulations! screen appears.
Problem
When I published the webhelp pro project from the workstation, it does its thing and end with the message that said "successfully published to "Bankway Headquarters". I go to the robohelp 8 server and login as admin and I do not see the project "Bankway Headquarters" in the projects screen under the general area. It looks like the robohelp server does not finish publishing the project.
Client PC messages
Finished applying Template in 6 sec(s)
Finished compiling WebHelp Pro in 378 sec(s)
Successfully published to "Bankway Headquarters".
Thanks for any help in advance

Hi Jose,
We have been using RH7 client to publish to RS8 server for about 2 months now. We have a master project/subproject setup and we too have been unable to get the Web Administration tool to allow us to see our projects by using the "View Project" button. They are listed under projects, but do not display correctly. Also, we are unable to see our complete master project with all of the embedded subprojects using the URL that Adobe supplies (e.g., http://<server>:<port>/robohelp/server). The Adobe response to this was that there was something wrong with our publishing mechanism (whatever that means!).
However, the good news is that we can view our projects just fine by using this path instead: http://<server>:<port>/robohelp/robo/server/general/projects/<master project>/<master project start page.htm>
Now, we are not using any of the context or area stuff so this works. We were also told that in bypassing the default method, we would be unable to get the usage statistics (e.g., frequently asked questions, etc). However, we have not experienced this. We are able to collect the metrics and access the reports using the Web Administration tool.
I'm not sure if this will satisfy your requirements, but for us, that was the only way to get to our project to view the complete master/subproject setup. Let me know if you figure out a different solution. I'd be very interested in doing this the "right way" if we can get it to work.
-Kristen

The Module DLL D:\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin\kerbauth.dll failed to load. The data is the error.

Hi,
I keep receiving an error message in the Event Logs for Exchange 2010:
The Module DLL D:\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin\kerbauth.dll failed to load. The data is the error.
Event ID: 2280 - IIS-W3SVC-WP
OWA is working.
In IIS- HTTP Redirect is Disabled On the Default Website.

Hi
   According to your error, the path is incorrect or dll file is corrupted.
   You can modify file “\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config”
    please check this sentence
   <add name=”kerbauth” image=”D:\Exchange,Server\V14\Bin\kerbauth.dll” />
   Can you find kerbauth.dll in this path?
   If you can find this dll, please copy same dll from other exchange system and replace of it.
If you can’t find it, please modify path.
Terence Yu
TechNet Community Support

RoboHelp Server Errors

Looking in my RoboHelp Server Errors, for all my projects I'm
getting the same error listed:
quote:
Unable to locate the URL '/robo/projects/(project
name)/MasterData.xml
Does anyone know what this MasterData.xml URL is? My online
help seems to be working okay. Just wondering what this is and if I
need to resolve this.
Thanks.

Why can't Adobe fix this issue so I don't have to see these
errors for every topic published? It has been noted this error
doesn't affect the performance or anything, so surely they can do
something to correct this. Very disappointed with RoboHelp Server
as a whole. Terrible support and no one really seems to know the
answers to anything server related. Our IT dept complains
constantly on how poor RoboHelp 7 Server is. I'm wishing I never
purchased it. Nothing but headaches for the last 6 months.

Cannot publish to Robohelp Server 8

Hello All,
Well let me start by stating that I am a systems administrator but I have had no experience setting up Apache, Tomcat or Robohelp Server.
This bomb has been dropped in my lap cause I am typically the goto guy. The company has an intranet site with a help section that was created and currently resides on a windows 2000 server with RSC 2.3, and RoboEngine 4.1. I have been tasked with setting up new server which will be windows 2003 server 32 bit OS.
Ok. I have followed all the Robohelp Server 8 getting started instructions (page5-6) on how to setup Apache Web Server with the Tomcat servlet for Robohelp server 8. I feel darn near 100% that I have gotten all of that correct. In other words everything tests correctly. I.e., going to http://localhost shows me the proper index.htm. I can access the tomcat manager using default UN and PW.
So I installed Robohelp Server 8 on the F:\Adobe RoboHelp Server 8\robo\server partition. I did create more than one context but am just trying to publish to the default robohelp. I create 3 areas. I do see the context's listed in Tomcat Manager and they all show as started.
I have created a simple project with one help file in Robohelp HTML software. I can generate it and it looks fine. I then configure the the WebHelp Pro Single Source Layout to publish to Robohelp Test Server, server *****WUIT002 (my test server), robohelp adds /robohelp/server automatically. I use admin, admin as username and PW. I attempt to select an area but get the error 'Unable to get area list from server'. Ok. that is not a good sign. But I save and attempt to publish anywho...to no avail(of course). I receive the message "Warning: Failed to publish to "Robohelp Test Server". reason: Unable to connect to the RoboHelp server on *****wuit002. If RoboHelp Server is not being used, generate WebHelp instead. More information on RoboHelp Server is available in the help file.."
I have looked at permissions to the partition and Robohelp server directory. I have basically completely opened them up just to see if that was the issue and I am still having a problem. Help Please. There is so little info out there regarding this product.

Hello John,
Thank you for your help. Hopefully you can shed some insight into this for me.
Here is the log directory zipped up.
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 22:28:49 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Cannot publish to Robohelp Server 8
Oh, one more thing, uvwaves. Regarding your note about, " I attempt to select an area but get the error 'Unable to get area list from server'."
I realize this is disconcerting, but usually not a problem and may be ignore (as you did.) If left blank, the "general" area is assigned by default.
However, the other error, "Warning: Failed to publish to "Robohelp Test Server" is quite another matter and hopefully the logs will help me.
Thanks
john
John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
http://www.showmethedemo.com/
>

Unable to connect to Robohelp Server

Hi,
I receive the following publishing error message every time I try to publish:
Warning: Failed to publish to "Robo Prod Server", reason: Unable to connect to the RoboHelp server on (an :8080 port). If RoboHelp server is not being used, generate WebHelp instead.
I was able to successfully publish just two days ago and have not changed anything in the SSL so I am not sure why I am getting the error message. I am using RoboHelp HTML 9 and the RoboHelp Server 8. I am using WebHelp Pro as my primary layout (and I always have since we are using the Robo server). Is there anything that would cause this to randomly happen? Please Help! I need to publish asap.
Also, if I publish to WebHelp will this cause any problems if I am switching back and forth between WebHelp Pro and WebHelp?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Chrissy

Hi Chrisy.
can we try and target any content that has changed since you last published your RH9 output to RHS8. Are there any file names with special characters. Has there been any content that has been added differently? Are you in fact able to generate any other output type successfully (e.g. WebHelp). As long as you generate / publish your WebHelp output to a different location from your WebHelp Pro output you won't damage anything.
The RoboColum(n)
@robocolumn
Colum McAndrew

RoboHelp Server 8 Displays Blank Page When Going through the Engine

Here is my issue.
I have 6 projects between 2 areas on our RoboHelp Server 8. I have
never had any problems publishing to the server, our IT department had no problems setting up the server including
installing Tomcat. We've changed the port so it would run on the default http port 80. Everything was running smoothly until this morning. When we go to the link that is used to run through the engine (i.e. http://server name:port/robohelp/server?prj=project name&area=areaname), instead of the redirecting page that we normally get, we get a blank white page that shows done in the status bar. Our IT department has tried to restart the server, did not fix the problem, they tried to restart the services (i.e. Tomcat and the RoboEngine), did not fix the problem. I have tried to connect to the server through the RoboHelp development interface and I get an Connection to Server Failed error. I have checked the publishing interface for Webhelp Pro ,which is what we use and all the setting are correct. When I try and refresh the area I get the Unable to get area list from server. We can get to the projects as if what we are using Webhelp. We would use regular Webhelp but that does us no good because then there is no reporting features because it is not running through the engine.
When I go though the Web Admin Interface and try to look at the project section we get an Server is refreshing project data, try again later. This is the same error we have received all day. I'm now stuck and don't know what to do or try. Between my IT dept and myself we tried everything we can think of.
Just another tidbit so it can be ruled out. I have applied the patch to my copy of RoboHelp 8.0.2 patch. And since I'm the only developer right now, that should not be the issue.
I have not tried to delete the project form the server, because
a. I can't see them in the projects pane so I can't delete them and
b. I cannot connect to the server to re-publish them.
Any advise in the matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Ian

Hi Ian,
Just zip them up and send them to me in a private message.
Tulika.

Can I use RoboSource without buying RoboHelp Server?

I work for a University that has just purchased a new
database system (Advance for the Web) from SunGard Higher Ed. The
system came with on-line documentation written in RoboHelp that we
can edit to suit the needs of our institution. We could have edited
the individual HTML topics (about 1,300 of them total) without
RoboHelp, but instead we opted to purchase RoboHelp 7 in order to
have the entire pre-existing help project. I am the sole editor of
this project.
I would like to be able to use the RoboSource application in
order to track changes that I make to the pre-existing help topics,
but when I tried to add version control to my project, it prompted
me to create a connection to a database. Our database lives on a
remote server that is password protected. I tried to make the
connection, but I received the following error message: "No
connection could be made because the target machine actively
refused it." The RoboSource on-line documentation describes how to
create a database, but I don't need a new database because ours
already exists... I just can't connect to it via the RoboSource
application. That's my first problem.
The second problem: Even if there is a way to circumvent the
"remote server database issue" and create a "Help" database on my
local machine, I can't figure out how I would DO that. The
RoboSource on-line documentation says the following: "Unlike in
previous versions, creating a database for RoboSource Control 3.1
is not done within the RoboSource Control Explorer, but within a
stand-alone application - the RoboSource Server Configuration
Utility.” Does this mean that I need the RoboHelp Server, or
is there a RoboSource Server, too? Do I HAVE to have one (or both)
of these products in order to use version control?
Please help me. I'm not a technical person, but the people
who I work with who ARE technical people don't understand what I
need to do, either.

@ Gravenstein
Thanks for your response.
>>...We are using three clients and one server. We have
installed the server component together with the client component
on a local PC. That's why I don't know whether the server component
needs a licence key or not. But it should not have to.
I haven't described it correct. We are using 3 clients to
work with. One of these clients has also the server installed. So
the database is not on a server machine but on a local PC. Now we
want to get the database away from the local PC to a server
machine. That's why I wonder if the installation of RSC Server on a
server asks for a licence key?!?
>>...This server doesn't need the robohelp environment
to edit topics, it only needs the server component. This should be
possible to install without asking for a licence key.
>> That is correct. At least that's the way it works
with RH6.
What do you mean with "that's the way it works with RH6"? How
about RH7? Does it work similar? I hope so, because we want to
upgrade and to move the database from the local PC to our server
machine after the upgrade.
By the way, does it function to copy the old database from
the local (server) PC to the server machine and after changing the
clients settings to work with the new server they could use the old
database in the new folder of the server machine again? Or do we
have to write the projects from every client to the new server
machine manually to work with the version control after changing
the server? I'm asking this because I don't know what is stored in
the database. If the folder name of the database is stored in the
database, it doesn't work any longer if it is moved to another
folder!?

RoboHelp Server 8/Active Directory

Hi again,
After moving my install of RoboHelp Server from our Windows Server 2008 R2 server to an older Windows Server 2003 Web Edition box, I was able to get RoboHelp Server talking to SQL Server 2008 through ODBC. Now on to the next problem. I've been trying to configure LDAP authentication against Active Directory, which I can see from a post from NSC_Gillis last August, it looks like there's a problem here.
My setup now consists of:
RoboHelp Server 8 installed on Windows Server 2003 Web Edition with Tomcat 6.0.26 and JRE 1.6.20.
The relevant config section from my <context_name>_server.properties file:
#To use LDAP authentication , uncomment the following...
authtype = ldap
ldapURL = ldap://<subdomain>.<domain>.com:389
usersearchbase = DC=<subdomain>,DC=<domain>,DC=com
rolesearchbase = DC=<subdomain>,DC=<domain>,DC=com
useridkey = uid
rolename = cn
rolesearch = member
DefAdminUid = <UidOfAdmin>
DefAdminPwd =
This yields one of ththe following two results when attempting to subsequently log in to the Web Administrator interface:
Error in LDAP authentication.
javax.naming.AuthenticationException: [LDAP: error code 49 - 80090308: LdapErr: DSID-0C0903A9, comment: AcceptSecurityContext error, data 52e, v1db0
Error in LDAP authentication.
javax.naming.AuthenticationException: [LDAP: error code 49 - 80090308: LdapErr: DSID-0C0903AA, comment: AcceptSecurityContext error, data 325, v1772
Both of these errors indicate that when RoboHelp Server is attempting ldap_bind(), that it is doing so with bad credentials. When it comes to Active Directory, these credentials have to be in the form of a valid User Principal Name (UPN) and a password, which given the configuration data above, we're never able to provide one. And since I've been able to configure Tomcat itself to use a JNDI Realm for authentication successfully against the same said Active Directory, I have to assume RoboHelp Server is attempting to do an anonoymous ldap_bind() which just won't work with Active Directory.
If someone can provide some guidance at this point, I'd be grateful.
I admit, for a product that is released only for use on the Windows platform, to include LDAP functionality, but then break it so it won't work with Active Directory, or at least to provide little to no guidance/documentation on how to get it to work, seems patience testing at the least.
If we cannot get this resolved, we will be forced to review our future use of the RoboHelp/RoboHelp Server products as a whole.
Thanks,
Scott

Hi Scott,
RoboHelp Server doesn't do an anoymouse LDAP bind. It uses the ldap user id and password provided in the properties file. Please note that for RoboHelp Server configured with LDAP, "DefAdminUid" property in robohelp_server.properties should be set to a valid LDAP user principal and "DefAdminPwd" property should be set to LDAP password of that user principal.
Regards
Tulika.

How complicated is it to implement Robohelp Server for multiple authors?

I am presently the lone techical writer in my company and I use Robohelp HTML V8 to generate WebHelp for our software. The RH software has been upgraded from an original V5 Robohelp full license, to a V7 upgrade and then a V8 upgrade.
I am investigating the use of Robohelp Server to open the possibility of adding another author, and would like to know how complicated it is. Do we still need to buy two seat licenses for Robohelp V9 as well as Robohelp Server V9, or are they included with the Server license? Also, are there any concerns for upgrading V8 project to V9?
If this information is already covered somewhere in the forums, please feel free to point me in that direction. I have not been able to find it myself. Thanks in advance!

Hi Sheryl
Indeed what you likely want is some form of source control. And certainly, splitting the project up and making different folks "captain of their own ship", is one way to roll.
But it sounds like you may have either misunderstood or had the RoboSource control misconfigured. With any source control system, the way it usually works is by storing all the content on the server in the source control database. But for each client connecting to the database, you establish what is called a "Working Folder". And that is usually on each local PC. When you check files out, they are copied to the working folder. So you work locally, but the application handles copying them back and forth to and from the server as you work. That way, you shouldn't be seeing performance issues.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
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Is RoboHelp Server the solution for us?

Hi all,
I'm trying to figure out whether RH Server is the solution for us. I've seen a few similar posts in the forums, but none that really answer my specific questions. I'm hoping for feedback from someone with experience in RH Server, who is perhaps in a similar situation to us.
We are a software development company, creating desktop software for PCs. We have three main applications, and approximately 20,000 users. I am the company's (only) Tech Writer.
Currently I provide documentation (user guides) to our clients in the form of the good ol' CHM file. I develop these in RH8. Each of our applications is bundled with an installed CHM file which users access by pressing F1. I'm sure you're all familiar with this process. Our users run our software on their own systems, completely independent of us - there's no connection to us whatsoever. However, they all have Internet access, as it's a requirement for them to be able to use certain functionality within our applications. Hold that thought.
I also write Knowledge Base Articles in MS Word, as PDFs, which users access via our web site. Internal to our organisation, I provide KBAs and other such material for our Technical Support staff. These aren't available/accessible to the public. I write these in Word because they need to be sent around to a team of reviewers from time-to-time, and whilstI'm the only person with RH installed, everyone has Word.
What I'm hoping to achieve with RH Server is this:
Do away with the old CHM files that our users have. They're just awful. I'm hoping that in future, when our users press F1 from within our applications, they will be taken to a corresponding page on a web site or AIR page similar to what the Adobe Help looks like when we access it from RoboHelp. Forgive my ignorance if I've used incorrect terminology. That way they'll always be reading the latest Help content, live, online, instead of what I wrote last time we sent a product update out. I imagine our programmers will have to edit the functionality behind the action of our users pressing F1 in our applications. Has anyone done this? Are there any issues we should be aware of? What happens if our users don't currently have Internet access, for example - is it possible to call a local version of the Help instead, if this is detected? Has anyone done this with a similar number of users to us? We could well have 100s of users trying to access the system simultaneously.
Gather feedback from users. From what I understand, we'll be able to use RH Server to see which Help topic/content is being viewed, and also receive feedback from users. Can anyone give me feedback on their experiences with this? Any tips/hints/issues I need to be aware of? Is it possible for us to determine which users accessed which content? Remember, the idea is that users should be able to access this content by pressing F1 - I don't want them to have to sign in every time they need to access our Help system - it should be seamless to them. So, I'm wondering how it would be possible to track user usage without making them sign in. This is important to us because some of our content is region-specific, and it would be handy to know if users from those regions are actually accessing the Help content that relates to them.
Host our internal documentation on the same server as our public documentation. Is it possible to host all of our internal, private documentation on the same RH Server, making it available to our Tech Support team (and other internal teams) only? I imagine we could do this by password-protecting it, but I want to ensure that the public don't even know it exists. ...and our Tech Support people would not be impressed with having to sign in every time they wanted to access their Knowledge Base. Any tips here regarding locking down / restricting access to content?
A quick note about collaboration:
Currently, although the Help menus are developed in RH, the KBAs and other PDF documents are written in MS Word. I send them around to a team of reviewers who add their comments/edits and send them back to me. From what I understand, this is something I can do with RH10 - export PDFs and send them around for review, combining the results later, at which time I give them a final review before publishing. Have I understood this correctly? Does RH Server play a part in this process? Can I use RH Server's feedback capabilities as a mechanism for my review team to make edits/comments? I guess I'm trying to get an understanding of how sophisticated the RH Server feedback system is. If I can use RH Server to have the team read/review documents, it'll save me having to manage a bunch of Word documents that I email them. It'll also minimise the chance that a redundant document gets distributed by mistake - something that can occur because people use their locally-saved documents I emailed them earlier, instead of the finals.
Thank you.

Hi, symmetricalMan
Let's see if I can tackle some of these "inline". There are a lot of moving parts to your system (you're a busy guy!)
I only have time for a few of these. Perhaps Colum McAndrew and others will chime it with their experiences.
>>they will be taken to a corresponding page on a web site or AIR page similar to what the Adobe Help looks like when we access it from RoboHelp.
It would be WebHelp Pro in the scenario you mention (not AIR Help).
By "taken to a corresponding page" you are referring to Context Sensitive Help which RoboHelp Server does support (including your F1 scenario).
>>What happens if our users don't currently have Internet access, for example - is it possible to call a local version of the Help instead, if this is detected?
Hmm. You could either package a plain WebHelp (not Pro) output and distribute for access on a share drive. The detection thing would be up to your developers. Come to think of it, AIR Help does have a potential alternative here which might be worth looking into. Obviously, there would be two systems to maintain. I'm not up to date on it, but you'll find info here in the online help: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/robohtml/WS81F63111-6ACF-4a02-B2B2-461FEBFA8093.html
>>.we'll be able to use RH Server to see which Help topic/content is being viewed, and also receive feedback from users.
Actually, the "feedback" is anonymous (no names are collected.) You can however, create "Areas" and analyze the traffic on topics according to sub-sets of your users.
The feedback is not direct from the users. In other words, RoboHelp Server (at least for now) does not support Commenting (as AIR Help does). So Feedback Reports are derived from the end-users "surfing" your site and collecting their search terms verbatim to get an idea of what they are searching for in order to improve your content.
>>So, I'm wondering how it would be possible to track user usage without making them sign in.
RH Server Sites do not have to be "Protected" by authentication. It is your choice. You can have some sites (called Areas) that are authenticated and some sites that are not authenticated, all on the same RH Server. RoboHelp Server uses a database and can authenticate users (by setting up protected "Areas".) However, my networking knowledge is limited and you would have to ask someone else about "persistent logins" etc.
>>content is region-specific, and it would be handy to know if users from those regions are actually accessing the Help content that relates to them.
Yes, you can do this. This is where RoboHelp Server can be used to create "Areas" for different content to be delivered to different audiences.
>>Is it possible to host all of our internal, private documentation on the same RH Server,
Yes you can. However the Tech Support sign in scenario question would have to be answered by someone else. It's hard to know from where I sit.
>>RH10 - export PDFs and send them around for review, combining the results later, at which time I give them a final review before publishing
Yes, this workflow would seem to work for you. However, RoboHelp Server plays no role in this review one way or the other. There are many alternatives for sharing the PDF which is described in the documentation.
See #6 on this page:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/robohtml/WS1b49059a33f77726-2db1c75912bc47baaf8-7ffb. html
You should also download the Adobe RoboHelp Server Reviewer's Guide which also has videos embedded.
http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/robohelp/9/AdobeRoboHelpServer9_ReviewersGui de.pdf
Hope this helps
John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com
Twitter: @hypertexas

Robohelp Server Reports - No Data with Webhelp Pro Output

We recently installed Robohelp Server and while the admin client recognizes our published project, the searched term reports return 'no data found'. Is there additional configuration that needs to take place?
Thanks!

Hi, snorshd and welcome to the forums.
Be sure you read this Blog post announcing a new "Update" patch to RoboHelp Server 9.
https://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/03/robohelp-server-update-9-0-1-is-here.html
This article also links to the update documentation found here:
http://helpx.adobe.com/robohelp/kb/robohelp-server-update-901.html
Also, make sure your admin follows all the steps in the install/config online help topics:starting here;
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/RoboHelp/9.0/RoboEngine/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d11c0aaa9fd7-8 000.html
See if that helps.
Thanks
John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado
www.showmethedemo.com

RoboHelp Server 8 - roboapi.asp & robo.dll redirect

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