No Compile Errors in WebHelp

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lavienetzwerk
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No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by lavienetzwerk »

Hi,

we have a problem with the compilation of the WebHelps.
Incorrect links are not displayed as errors during compilation. In the output document the links are not present.
When we compile the project as CHM we get the error messages though.
Example: The link in "Example" in Topic index_content is treated as an external HTML Help link to Example.chm.

In the compile settings we use the setting "Allow dead links".

Is this a bug in the software or a user error?
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Tim Green
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by Tim Green »

lavienetzwerk wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 4:00 pm In the compile settings we use the setting "Allow dead links".
That means that Help+Manual is doing exactly what you tell it to do, at least as far as topic links are concerned: It allows dead topic links, and so it is not flagging them. 8) However, it is important to understand that this does not apply to links to external websites. Those are not checked for validity. Only topic links to topics within the current project are checked.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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lavienetzwerk
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by lavienetzwerk »

Hi Tim,

but the Help of Help+Manual describes the option as follows:

"Allow links to be dead:
This option does nothing. The links are not changed and the user will either get an error message or nothing at all will happen when they click on the links."

In our compilations, however, no links are displayed at all in the corresponding places.
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Tim Green
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by Tim Green »

As far as I understand you, the links are not to targets within the same project. No links to targets outside the current project can be checked.
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markusflow
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by markusflow »

Hello Tim,

we have the same issue here. We use Version 9.3.0 Build 6581.
"Allow links to be dead" is activated.

The links can be identified as "broken" in the "Edit Hyperlink" dialog. But the link is not displayed in read.
brokenlinks.png
No error in compiler.

Result:
output.png
It's the output I would expect for "Remove link", but is set to "Allow links to be dead".
compilersetting.png
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Tim Green
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Markus,
The links can be identified as "broken" in the "Edit Hyperlink" dialog. But the link is not displayed in read.
Here too, as far as I can see from your screenshots, the links are not within the current project. Help+Manual cannot check links to other projects, so the "allow links to be dead" function cannot be applied to them if that is the case. :?
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markusflow
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by markusflow »

Thanks for your reply.
We use highly modular hmxps. So links to other hmxps are not checked?
Is this also valid for CHM files or does the html help compiler check this links and adds them as external links to external CHM files?
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Tim Green
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by Tim Green »

markusflow wrote: Mon Oct 30, 2023 3:16 pm We use highly modular hmxps. So links to other hmxps are not checked?

That is correct. Links to other projects can't be checked.
Is this also valid for CHM files or does the html help compiler check this links and adds them as external links to external CHM files?
No, only links within the current project can be checked.
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markusflow
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by markusflow »

We set up a little test to demonstrate our confusion:

A Main.hmxp with two included sub.hmxps. From a chapter of the main.hmxp, working link to one included sub hmxp and one broken link to a sub hmxp.
02-11-2023_16-44-48.png
The Help & Manual editor do not mark the broken link in red. I got this, totaly fine.

When compiling a CHM file (with option "Allow links to be dead"), I get this result:
The broken link is added as expected.
02-11-2023_16-51-33.png
And the Compiler outputs an info message.

Code: Select all

The link "Link der nicht geht auf Sub 2" in topic Sub1 is assumed to point to HTML Help file Sub2.chm

The link "Link, der nicht geht, auf Sub 1" in topic Sub2 is assumed to point to HTML Help file Sub1.chm
Now we create a webhelp out of this project (with option "Allow links to be dead"):
The compiler log did not output anything and the broken link in the HTML file is removed.
I would expect the link to be still available (sure without a valid href-target). But the link is gone and we do not get a log/compiler message about it.
linkgone.png
So the webhelp and the chm compiler behave in two different ways. And the webhelp compiler do some sort of cleaning which would be good to log in the compiler output message.
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Tim Green
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Markus,

I didn't answer this yet because I'm waiting on some feedback on it from our developers, who are looking into it. We can definitely reproduce it. Note that although you don't get dead links highlighted for external projects in the editor, Help+Manual will find dead links when projects are merged on publishing in a modular project. On testing, there appear to be a couple of glitches happening here that you have discovered:
  • When you are using publish-time merging instead of runtime merging in CHM, the message displayed in the compiler log is still actually for runtime merging, referring to a link to a separate CHM file. This is just an incorrect message, however.
  • In CHM, "Allow link to be dead" and "Silently include linked topic" are both working, but "Remove link" isn't removing the link.
  • In WebHelp, "Remove link" and "Silently include linked topic" are both working, but "Allow link to be dead" is also removing the link rather than allowing it to be dead, as you have noticed.
We are looking into this. All this being said, however, these compiler settings for dead links are really just an emergency fallback to catch things that the author forgets to format properly. If you are using conditional output like this, it is really best to manage the links with conditional text tags, so that they are removed or replaced with proper alternatives automatically, depending on the build settings. See here for details:

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

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markusflow
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Re: No Compile Errors in WebHelp

Unread post by markusflow »

Thanks, Tim, for your reply and looking into it.
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