Compiler message says files were skipped

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Ed Hawco
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Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Ed Hawco »

What does it mean when the compiler message for HTML output says that 86 files were skipped? This is particularly odd because there are only 64 HTM pages in the project.

- None of the topic IDs start with an underscore
- Search seems to be working correctly
- Everything else seems to be working correctly

So why is it "skippping" files, and what does that even mean?

Here's the compiler message:
INDEX SUMMARY
Files indexed: 64
Files skipped: 86
Files filtered: 0
Files downloaded: 0
Unique words found: 2036
Variant words found: 375
Total words found: 19129
Avg. unique words per page: 31.81
Avg. words per page: 298
Start index time: 14:32:54 (2015/04/02)
Elapsed index time: 00:00:01
Errors: 0
e
d
============================================
Ed Hawco
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Tim Green
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Ed,

There are a lot of component files in WebHelp in addition to your topic files. However, 86 is quite a high number. My guess is that there is a lot of old cruft in your output folder (the search index is generated from the files in the output folder, not from the source files). Try selecting the Publish page option to delete all the files in the output folder. You should see the number go down.

Alternatively, have a look in the output folder and see if you see any additional files there.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Ivonne Alemany
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Ivonne Alemany »

Tim - I have the same issue as ED but I have 112 skipped files in the compiler, but everything seems to work just fine.

In your response to Ed, you said to look into the output folder. Is this the HTML folder within my project folder? My HTML folder has a bunch of different image files and htm files.
Question: What exactly does the delete all files delete? I'm a bit hesitant to check that box before the build. :shock:

Thanks
IA
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Tim Green
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Ivonne,

To locate the output folder look in the "Output file: " field in the Publish screen before you publish. That shows the full location of the folder. You also need to know the location of this folder when are copying your output to your web server, because you need to copy the contents of this folder to the folder where your WebHelp lives on your server.
Question: What exactly does the delete all files delete? I'm a bit hesitant to check that box before the build.
It deletes everything in the output folder. This folder should NOT be a folder where anything important ever lives, so make sure that is the case before deleting anything. It should be a "scratch" folder for temporary files. You only put your output there temporarily for quick testing before copying them to your server.

You should also regularly delete all the files in the web server folder when you update your help. If you don't do that old files will continue to show up in searches in Google and other search machines.
but I have 112 skipped files in the compiler, but everything seems to work just fine.
Run a project report with the report tool in the project tab and check your topic IDs. If you have any topics whose ID begins with an underscore character (_) -- for example _NewInformation then that could be the cause. Starting a topic ID with an underscore tells the search indexer to exclude the file from the search index, and then it will be included as a "skipped" file.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Ivonne Alemany
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Ivonne Alemany »

Thank you, Tim. Just to be sure, is the highlighted folder the output folder you are referring? see attachment
ivonne
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Tim Green »

Ivonne Alemany wrote:Thank you, Tim. Just to be sure, is the highlighted folder the output folder you are referring? see attachment
ivonne
It's impossible to say because *you* choose the output folder. You may have only done it once (Help & Manual remembers your choice) but you chose it in the Publish screen. You need to check it there in the Output file: field. You will see the path to the index.html file there, and that is the location.

However, it's not a good idea to put the output folder inside your project folder. It would be better to delete the HTML folder there and choose another location for it the next time you publish. You can choose the folder by clicking on the [...] browse button in the Output File: field in the Publish screen.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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waldemar.hersacher
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by waldemar.hersacher »

It's impossible to say because *you* choose the output folder.
This location is the default location when you publish and do not change the output location.
You also see that the PDF is located in the project folder and this will also be the case with CHM, EPUB and RTF will create a new folder because it has the rtf-file and the images there.

The folder HTML is the default folder for WebHelp output chosen by H&M.
Waldemar
Ivonne Alemany
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Ivonne Alemany »

Thank you Waldermar. I think I figured it. H&M overwrites the output in these folders when I publish to test using HM2go for HTML and for the PDF. But now I've created an OutPut folder elsewhere to publish in a website.
I'm getting there!
Thanks
IA
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waldemar.hersacher
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by waldemar.hersacher »

Be aware that HM2go can not handle Windows filenames. HM2Go is restricted to a small subset of characters in file names. One of my output locations contains German Umlauts and after publishing with "Display file when publishing is complete" will result in a wrong URL for the browser.

In Windows Explorer select a file and then press F2 (Rename) and then ?. You will see a popup which characters are not allowed. All other characters are allowed. And in the western world there are a lot of diacritical characters, the German Umlauts are just some of them.
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Tim Green
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by Tim Green »

waldemar.hersacher wrote:Be aware that HM2go can not handle Windows filenames. HM2Go is restricted to a small subset of characters in file names.
This actually applies to most web servers. Any files used on the web should always avoid any spaces, special characters, accented characters etc. in their names. In Help & Manual 6 an earlier this also means avoiding such things in your project names, because they derive some HTML file names from the project name (spaces are corrected automatically). Help & Manual 7 does not have this issue.
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Re: Compiler message says files were skipped

Unread post by waldemar.hersacher »

I wasn't clear enough what I mean.

There is a difference in the file system seen by the webserver and the client.
I publish to E:\Webserver_lokal\Züge which is the root folder for the website. This folder is seen by the webserver. From the point of the client this is \\localserver\ (127.0.0.1).
You are right in saying that all files and folders within that root folder must follow the rules for an valid internet file name.

If I would get a WebHelp manual from a company named "Müller & Söhne" I would create a folder "B:\Lieferantendokumente\Müller & Söhne" according to the rules we have in the company. If that manual would come together with HM2Go then it must be able to handle such a root folder or H&M should call it correctly.
Waldemar
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