Compiled Help Javascript Error

[Rodney Foth]

Hello,

I have a software licensee that encounters the following error when he tries to run our compiled help file. The file is installed on his local hard drive under C:\Users\Public. The error occurs regardless of where the file is run and what H&M version was used to build the file. This is the first and only occurrence of the error, and we have several thousand licensees using the help file. The licensee is running Windows 7 64-bit on a standalone laptop not connected to a company network. The error also occurs with his antivirus software and firewall disabled. I welcome all replies. A screenshot is inline Please and thanks a bunch.

REMhelperror.jpg

.

--Rod

[Tim Green]

Hi Rodney,

There can be a couple of possible causes for this, including a damaged or corrupted skin, missing baggage files and so on. If it's one of those things you're going to need to mail me a demo project and a copy of the skin you are using at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) so that we can check it for you.

However, the most likely cause is an "orphaned" toggle link somewhere on the page that is causing errors in the output. An orphaned toggle link is one that does not have a matching table to toggle, and when the script on the page tries to initialize it, it then fails. You need to locate these orphaned toggles and delete them to eliminate the problem.

Before doing this, however, please also make sure you are using the current version of the program, which you can check with Help > About. The current version of HM6 is 6.5.5 Build 3019. You can download the latest installer here (just install on top of your current version to update):

http://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html

The current version of Help & Manual 6 checks for orphaned toggles when you publish your project and displays information about them in the compiler log displayed after you publish. This will show you the text of the caption of the orphaned toggle link that should allow you to locate it on the page. Then just right-click on it and select "Convert to plain text" to fix the problem.

If you can't find the orphaned toggles they may not have captions at all, which makes it more difficult. It means that you accidentally managed to delete the caption of the toggle link without deleting the link (a single space character probably remained when this happened). This may have happened a while ago, because it is much more difficult to do this in the current version of HM.

To search for the orphaned toggles without captions you need to look directly in the XML editor. See the attached ORPHANED_TOGGLES_XML.PNG file for reference. Select the XML Source tag and locate the toggle starting place by pressing CTRL+F and searching for

<toggle type="dropdown

You only need to search for the first characters of this tag as shown above. You will see whether there is a caption because the highlighted CDATA block that contains the caption will be empty. In an valid toggle, the closing </toggle></para> tags of the toggle will be followed by another <para .. > tag enclosing a table in a <table..> tag. That will be missing in an orphaned toggle.

To delete the orphaned toggle once you have located it, select and delete the entire <para...><toggle..> ... </toggle></para> block in the XML editor.

orphan_toggle_xml.png

[Rodney Foth]

Hi Tim,

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I'll download and install the update and implement your suggestions. Then, if I still can't resolve the issue, I'll send a sample project. By the way - Help and Manual is a godsend for help authors such as myself and it keeps getting better! I love it!

Thanks,

--Rod

[Rodney Foth]

Hi Tim,

I have the latest H&M version installed (6.5.5) as suggested, carried out your instructions for identifying orphaned toggles and am confident that there aren't any. I built a new .chm and it runs just fine on several computers here at work. There are no problems with images loading and no script errors.

I suspect that the problem is not with the project but rather with this person's PC configuration (a-v software, firewall, internet options settings). My IT administrator is assisting with the PC configuration path towards resolving this issue. If we have no success and I need to send you the project, should I send just the hmxz and skin or the entire folder with image and script files (about 250)?

Thanks a bunch,

--Rod

[Tim Green]

Hi Rodney,

If it's only failing on this one machine and the error is just this JS message then the problem is with 99% certainty restrictions on JS execution on that machine. There's no need for us to look at the project here, because if it works on the majority of your machines it will work here too, and there won't be anything for us to find.

Another possibility is damage to the runtime CHM display components. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer makes these available separately for download. The only way to fix damaged or missing CHM runtimes now is to reinstall Windows. A repair install can sometimes work, so I would recommend trying that first.

[Rodney Foth]

Hi Tim,

I will have our software user make sure JS is enabled in all of his browsers. If that doesn't work I will make your Windows Repair recommendation. Thanks for your time,

--Rod