Published TOC will not collapse entries

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Chris Middleton
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 7:25 pm

Published TOC will not collapse entries

Unread post by Chris Middleton »

Publishing a Webhelp html, the TOC is completely expanded, showing all entries, and the entries will not collapse. This is true in Chrome and IE, but they DO work properly in Edge. I am opening them from hard disk, in file explorer, with either double-click or "open with...."

When I "Display file when publishing is complete" from H&M, everything works. (That is, when H&M loads the result of the build into the browser for me, it works.) H&M opens them in Chrome, my default.

H&M 7.3.5.4434. The project configuration is default; has not been touched. This happens with either no skin at all or various skins.
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Tim Green
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Re: Published TOC will not collapse entries

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Chris,
I am opening them from hard disk, in file explorer, with either double-click or "open with...."
And that is the problem. Modern browsers impose strict and often poorly-implemented security restrictions on scripted web pages when they are not opened from a web server. The main problem is with iFrames, which are needed in classic WebHelp layouts to make it possible to display all the components needed in a single page (TOC, Index, Search, topics). Without a web server most browsers incorrectly block communication between iFrames as if they were pages coming from another website, even if all the files are being loaded from the same folder on the same computer. You will find that only Firefox will handle this correctly.

If you are just testing locally and planning to put WebHelp on your web server you won't have any problems. Once it's on the server everything will work fine. This also applies for local intranets on your company network. If you want to test on multiple browsers after publishing from Help+Manual, you can do that by using the option to open automatically after publishing, and then copying the URL from the default browser to the other one. The mini web server used by Help+Manual to display the WebHelp will still be running, and using that URL will use it in the other browser as well.

If you want local help then you can either use Help+Manual's EWriter format, which allows you to put local WebHelp in a single file with its own embedded server for Windows computers, or the V3 skins in the Premium Pack add-on, which have special technology to get around the local browser problems for WebHelp without a web server.

Start here for information on EWriter:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/inde ... writer.htm

And here for information on the Premium Pack add-on:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/products_hm_pluspack.html
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Chris Middleton
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 7:25 pm

Re: Published TOC will not collapse entries

Unread post by Chris Middleton »

Great! Product will be served, so I'm all good.
Note that Edge also handles this. Tell in-house reviewers to use that, or Firefox according to Tim.
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