Trying to find best format for Intranet

[CFedarko]

Good Afternoon,

I am using RoboHelp 7 for HTML to build our online help. It is built on a networked server (M:\CCBHelpDraft\CC&B_Online_Help.htm#Index.htm), to be utilized through a production server on the Intranet (http://bsprod/help/ccb/help/CC&B_Online_Help.htm#Index.htm).

I used the steps provided by the RH7 forum - and could build the javascript version - however, the search results when selected went to a "page not found error" and opened within the initial query window rather than a new window - which continue to display the toolbar and table of contents within the small window. It looked as if I had opened online help within online help.

I attempted to use the ASP version - as it said specifically for the Intranet - but, I can't get the search window to actually display the entry field, submit button, or obviously the results.

I am definitely not an "extreme" programmer - but, if pointed in the right direction, can pick it up easy enough. Based on the demo from the other forum, and the almost attempt I made - this would vastly improve online help - and if I can get it working correctly, would then require us purchasing a full version for all the topics - as well as for other online help projects. So hopefully whatever configurations and that are determined can be easily pulled into the full version.

I appreciate any help you can provide.

Thank you,

Christi

[Ray]

It is hard to comment without seeing the pages and links in question. Can you zip up the relevant files and e-mail them to us?

You are most likely using an incorrect base URL. See this FAQ:
Q. When I click on a link in the search results, I get a 404 "Page Not Found" or "Page Cannot Be Found" error

[CFedarko]

Ray,

I have sent an email with the files. I looked at the FAQ link - I am not sure if my issue is in the selected base URL's - or if they are just a problem, based on attempting to go from a file location to an intranet location.

Thanks!

Christi

[Ray]

It's possible that there could be a browser-side security issue when clicking on a link from an offline file location, to an Intranet location. Normally this would give you a warning and not a "page not found" error though.

But before looking at that, you need to fix the base URL. We had a look at your files, and your base URL is definitely wrong.

This is what you have specified as your base URL:
M:\ZoomSearch\ZoomSearch Published\Welcome.htm

This is neither a URL (it is a file path) nor a base one (i.e. a folder). It shouldn't be pointing to a specific filename. What you have specified is that all the files you have indexed will be located in a sub-folder named "Welcome.htm" under the "ZoomSearch Published" folder.

Refer to the Help file for examples of a base URL. See the Users Guide as suggested by the FAQ (chapters 2.1.6 in particular).

You might find that they will work if you just remove "Welcome.htm" from your base URL. But this means they will still be linking to the M drive, and not knowing how your Intranet works, this probably isn't what you want.

If you plan to move the search files between servers (that is, your local copy and your Intranet "published" copy), you would probably want relative paths for your search results.

Presuming your search files will be hosted in the same folder as the rest of your content, you would use a base URL of "./" (without the quotes).

If you are unfamiliar with relative paths, then please reference Appendix B in the Users Guide.

[MergeThis]

Christi:

The shared drive issue can also bite you in the %*^ when you're publishing output to a server or running a link checker against your output. You should be using an actual url, as Ray said. For example:

\\MyServer\DocFolder\OutputFolder\

Also, as Ray said, the Welcome.htm is not needed, simply because Zoom is not looking for a target topic (as the browser is), but is indexing the entire help system under the "imsgenerate" folder in the case above.


Good luck,
Leon

[CFedarko]

Ray and Leon,

Thank you both for your time and patience on this issue. Finally figured out the problem after reading through the documentation another 10 times...

Because both files are residing on a local server - I needed to have the base url as ../ rather than an actual directory name, and removing the target topic.

Christi