404 error in topics of HTML help

[Tansy]

Hi,
I am trying to publish an HTML help project and all the topics in the output except one are empty with 404 file not found error. What could be the problem? Thanks in advance.

[Tim Green]

Hi Tansy,

Make sure that your project does not contain any topic with the ID "index", and that your main output file is called "index.html". If you have a topic called index it will cause all kinds of strange errors.

[Tansy]

Make sure that your project does not contain any topic with the ID "index", and that your main output file is called "index.html". If you have a topic called index it will cause all kinds of strange errors.

Checked that, no topics named index, and the main output file is called "index.html".

[Tim Green]

OK, what is the ID of the affected topic? Also, are you sure that you are uploading all files and that you are not behind a proxy? If a proxy server is involved it can take quite a while to see the affected uploaded files.

[Tansy]

Hi Tim!
I found the source of the problem. The topic IDs were in Russian. I renamed them and the issue is fixed. Thank you!

Also I generated the project by importing a rtf file, and the project folder contains the following subfolders: _history, Baggage, HTML, Maps, Topics. When I generate a project from scratch, such folders are not created. What shall I do with them? Leave them as they are?

[Tim Green]

Hi Tim!
I found the source of the problem. The topic IDs were in Russian. I renamed them and the issue is fixed. Thank you!

Yes, topic IDs must only contain regular Latin ASCII characters. No special characters, no spaces etc. Help+Manual will normally prevent illegal characters when you are creating topics, but there are some situations where they may get through.

Also I generated the project by importing a rtf file, and the project folder contains the following subfolders: _history, Baggage, HTML, Maps, Topics. When I generate a project from scratch, such folders are not created. What shall I do with them? Leave them as they are?

When you don't get those subfolders it means you have chosen to create a single-file project with the extension .hmxz. Then all the standard folders (_history, Baggage, Maps, Topics) are inside the project file, which is really a zip archive. For ongoing work it is better to create the uncompressed .hmxp version, which is faster, more robust against damage and supports more features.

The HTML folder is created when you put WebHelp output there. Don't do this -- WebHelp output is always a temporary folder and it shouldn't be inside your project folder. Put it somewhere else.

[Tansy]

The HTML folder is created when you put WebHelp output there. Don't do this -- WebHelp output is always a temporary folder and it shouldn't be inside your project folder. Put it somewhere else.

Why is it bad to keep it in the project folder?

[Tim Green]

Why is it bad to keep it in the project folder?

Because it's temporary and not part of your project. Your project folder should only contain permanent data that is part of the project. Then you can also move it or send someone a copy without it being bloated with redundant data that doesn't belong there.

[Tansy]

Got that, thank you!