Weird and missinfg characters when topic accessed from Search results page.

[kutra]

I use ZoomSearch in our online documentation. The online documentation is built using Adobe RoboHelp 8 and ZoomSearch 5.1 has been successfully integrated.

I have a file "Passing_Prompt_Answers_Using_the_URL_API.htm" (real file name) which contains the strings "currentViewMedia" (1 instance) and "&currentViewMedia=2" (4 instances). If the file "Passing_Prompt_Answers_Using_the_URL_API.htm" is accessed from the Search results page, strings "currentViewMedia" is correctly displayed but "&currentViewMedia=2" is incorrectly displayed as "¤tViewMedia=2" (all 4 instances). This happens in IE7 (v7.0.5730.13CO) but not in Firefox 3.5.3. If I do a View Source, then "¤tViewMedia=2" is correctly shown as "&currentViewMedia=2" in the HTML code. Also, there are other strings that start with "&", but they are not affected at all.

Also, if the file "Passing_Prompt_Answers_Using_the_URL_API.htm" is accessed from the Table of Contents rather than from the Search results page, then this problem does not occur at all.

Please advise.

Thanks,
K

[David]

Are you using search word highlighting on the HTML pages?
The search word highlighting is done via Javascript. So it might be the action of the Javascript highlight script doing this. Which would explain why it looks OK in source code.

If you are using "&" symbols in your HTML text are you correctly encoding them as & in your HTML. I suspect not. The ampersand is a reserved character in HTML and should not be used in the content of your document.

My guess is that the browser is getting confused becuase you didn't encode the ampersand. And then treats these strings as HTML markup rather than the document content.

¤ is the HTML character entity for "Currency".
Which explains why your text "&currentViewMedia" gets turned into "¤tViewMedia".

[kutra]

Thanks for your reply. To answer your queries...

1. I am using search word highlighting. I have the JS code "<script type="text/javascript">highlight();</script>" between the </body> and </html> tags. BTW, highlighting works fine everywhere.

2. Ampersand is correctly encoded as &amp; in the HTML code. We are using this because we are explaining a URL structure in the document. This is the exact HTML code for the occurrence in the file:
<p style="background-color: #c0c0c0;"><span class="Code">&amp;currentViewMedia=2</span></p>

I am not sure if it is important for your troubleshooting, but this is happening in IE7 and IE8; not in Firefox.

Thanks,
K

[kutra]

Can you please help me?

Thanks,
K

[Ray]

We have confirmed that this is a problem with the old "highlight.js" script from V5.

However, "highlight.js" has been significantly changed and improved in V6. We tested this with the V6 script and confirmed that it no longer produces this behaviour. Update to the V6 script and let us know if you still have problems (make sure to clear the cache in your browser).

If you do still have problems, let us know what keywords/query you are searching for. We had presumed "currentViewMedia".

P.S. the "highlight.js" file in V6 is now located in a special "extras" folder which you can get to via the menus in Zoom: "Tools"->"Open 'Extras' folder".

[kutra]

Ray:

Thanks for your reply. How do I upgrade to V6 javascript? Is it a free upgrade or do have to pay?

The problem happens in V5 irrespective of the keyword I search on. &currentViewMedia always gets cut.

Regards,
K

[Ray]

It is a free upgrade if you purchased V5 within a certain duration (approx 6 months before V6's release) and a discounted price otherwise. You can find upgrade details here.

You can download and install the free edition of V6 and alongside V5 (not overwriting it) and just take the "highlight.js" script for this purpose, but it may get a little confusing if you're not careful with using the two versions. For example, a .zcfg configuration file from V5 can be loaded into V6, but if you save your changes in V6, then it can no longer be opened in V5.

[kutra]

Hi Ray:

Thanks for your confirmation.

So you are saying that I can just swap "highlight.js" from my Standard edition of ZoomSearch v5 with the one from the Free edition of ZoomSearch v6? If yes, then do I have to run the HTM files again through the indexer or can I just do the swap of "highlight.js" on my existing output?

Just making sure so I don't do anything that's not legal or unethical.

Regards,
K

[David]

We don't officially support using the V6 files with V5, but in theory you should just be able to swap them, as the interface is the same.

[kutra]

Thanks for all your help. I appreciate the prompt and speedy replies. I have decided to purchase ZoomSearch version 6 next quarter rather than introduce a possible backwards-compatibility risk with "highlight.js".

Regards,
K