WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

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Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

I am of course under a time constraint and should be uploading this help file to our server today...

Large H+M project developed in HM7
HM8 Floating license 8.0.1 build 5462
WebHelp output via customized version of skin, WebHelp_SlateGray.hmskin
Customized skin has worked for more than a year and has not been modified
Windows 10 64-bit, up to date
Dell workstation w/12 GB ram.

Something has gone amiss. Publish to WebHelp results in a folder full of everything (I think), graphics, HTMLs, and JS files -- everything except an "index.html."

Result: only html code appears in browser, not a WebHelp web site. Right clicking a topic HTML in Windows Explorer results in display of a browser page of that topic but without "wrappers" such as TOC left column, header, variables such as version number, and so on.

A few days ago, I got an error message something like "Index in use by another user" or some such, with no options other than "OK." Because nobody else was using HM at the time (I checked), I clicked "OK" and kept going. While I should have written down the entire error message, I did not.

Tried in HM7
Just as one experiment:
Saved the project in HM8 and closed HM8.
Opened project in HM7 and published as WebHelp

Same result, no "index.html" and no coherent web site.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

I do mean large project, or at least large-ish:

Topics: 538 topics (538 regular topics, 0 topics with window type "Popup", 0 topics are referenced as snippets)
Keywords: 461 keywords
0 A-keywords
Links and Hotspots: 750 topic or Internet links
0 Winhelp macros
Word count: 84544 words, 13244 paragraphs, 448312/525916 characters/with spaces
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Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Dave,

Have you changed to using .php file extensions?

In which case the file is index.php , not index.html , and it won't display locally (except in Microsoft Edge), you will just see the source code.

It will work fine if uploaded to the server (assuming it's a Linux server with PHP installed).

cheers,

Martin.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Thanks, Martin.

Alas, no, no changes to PHP. Servers are Msoft Azure -- doesn't seem likely to be Linux, but nobody's awake for me to question.
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Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

What does HM8 say on the Compiler Messages tab after publishing? Any error messages will be listed there.

Martin.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

I have 5 !-triangles, but they are all "referenced but not included in this build" -- and the topics are ones that I deliberately set to Build "none."

After that, there's an index report with "Successfully created all required files" just before the FIles to distribute subhead w/files location.
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Martin Wynne
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Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Dave Gehman wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 3:01 pmAfter that, there's an index report with "Successfully created all required files"
Hi Dave,

In that case, I would upload it to the server. :)

There are lots of reasons why it may not display properly locally on your system. It will be fine on the server.

cheers,

Martin.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Martin Wynne wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 3:05 pm
Dave Gehman wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 3:01 pmAfter that, there's an index report with "Successfully created all required files"
It will be fine on the server.
Er - even though all previous builds did create an index.html and there is none in this build?

I'll have to devise a quick-switch capability on the server. I can't take the help file offline and I don't have the means to create a playpen URL. So, I'll have to swap out the currently-functional WebHelp files, swap in the test case files, then swap back to the earlier working files if the test case fails...

Luckily, I have the permissions to create a new folder on the server for temp storage of the working copy, and the server is all solid state storage, so swapping is quick.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Nope - with the newly created build in place:

"404 - File or directory not found.
The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable."

EDIT: swapped the original files back and the help file works (with the files from an older build).
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Note that the URL in Chome's address bar is:
[redacted]/en/index.html?introduction-to-the-documentation.html

There is no "index.html" in the new build.

EDIT:
Went to the HM project folder on my computer

subfolder MAPS:
table_of_contents.xml, 3/8/2020 (114 kb)
table_of_contents_1.xml 4/19/2019 (1 kb)

Not sure that looks kosher.
Tim Frost
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Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Does not the 'successfully created' message refer only to the creation of the full-text index? And not to the main help build, which you said showed five errors? My suggestion would be to fix the visible errors by removing the bad references to excluded topics. This should allow your help publish operation to complete error-free. In my topics folder, index.html is one of the final files created, judging by file timestamps. And whenever I have a missing reference, I get a report of a failed build (returning a non-zero errorlevel in Finalbuilder). These always need to be fixed, but I have not checked here if they also suppress generation of index.html. My guess is that they do.
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

OK, I'll sequester the references to the unselected topics. Don't want to delete them as the unselected topics will be going live in the future.

Meanwhile, perhaps another clue:
I put the faltering project into PPToolbox 3.46 and got 1 Invalid Search Path error.

Back in HM8, I removed the topic with the error (it was a topic in an experiment playpen; the topic had broken links to graphics).

Pressed CTRL+S to save and got this:
Image

I've left HM8 open at that error box.. totally gun-shy now

EDIT
Rats, I can't get to the compiler messages to edit the offending topics.

Can I click on "OK" on the above error message?
Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

The error message in my last post is not yet solved.


However, the missing index.html issue is
SOLVED!

I got around not being able to edit the current file. I opened HM8 and navigated to a backup version of our help file, one that I made earlier today.

There, I got rid of the offending topic and sequestered the offending links using Insert Conditional Text (I have a 'dirty' build that I use for sequestering in-process material and make sure that build is not selected during publishing).

It is not often that my face is wet with a mixture of tears of self-castigation and tears of joy...

Here are the details... symptoms perhaps of a missing frontal lobe...

1. I did not place a trailing "\" when entering what I meant to be a new folder in Publish Index page (path+filename)
2. Until today, I didn't notice the "+ filename" part
3. In fact, until today, I didn't know I had to include that backslash. I must have automatically placed it there during all my past publishes.
4. HM7 and HM8 didn't know what to do -- the name of the new folder wasn't parse-able w/o the "\" and the file name was not "index.html" - so it didn't put up any alerts
5. The HMs did as bid: saved my WebHelp build with no "index.html" because that was what both HMs thought I wanted.

Me: Image
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Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Dave Gehman wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 4:34 pmCan I click on "OK" on the above error message?
Hi Dave,

There isn't anything else to click!

Have you perhaps changed the name for the index file in the Publish dialog:

hm8_index_file.png

I feel sure that if HM8 had failed to create the specified index file it would have said so.

It doesn't have to be "index", it can be anything you like. Some folks prefer "home" or "help".

But obviously any external links need to match -- the browser won't be able to assume "index" as it does when no file is specified in a folder.

edit: Posts crossed. Glad you found it. :)

cheers,

Martin.
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Dave Gehman
Posts: 575
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: WebHelp suddenly is created w/o index.html

Unread post by Dave Gehman »

Martin Wynne wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:14 pm
Have you perhaps changed the name for the index file in the Publish dialog
Quite the opposite. I set it up to create NO name for the index file.
edit: Posts crossed. Glad you found it. :)
As am I.

I have reached the age where I'm old enough to gain from past experience (in this case, from dear days of DOS past), but apparently have also reached the age when you can't remember them.
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