As you’re developing a help system and updating content, it sometimes becomes necessary to delete a topic file because the information is out of date or should be combined with other information. When you’re using both RoboHelp and Subversion, it’s easy to mess things up doing this. It’s important to delete the file in RH first to maintain its version of reality and lessen the hassle. But things have to be done correctly in Subversion too.

These steps go through the steps in general plus specific steps in parentheses for the TortoiseSVN client for Windows Explorer (currently version 1.6.10), which I use. The TortoiseSVN steps explain what to do in Windows Explorer.

1. Commit all current changes to the repository (right-click in folder > SVN Commit).
2. In RH, make sure no links or other references point to the file you want to delete. (To check this, go to Tools > Reports > Topic References to run a link report. Then remove the links that are listed.)
3. Click the topic in Project Manager.
4. Press Delete. (Note that if there are still references to a topic, when you press Delete, the confirmation pop-up asks about removing those references. I recommend you go back to step 1 so you don’t have to find and fix a bunch of broken links.)
5. Click Yes. This deletes the file from your hard drive and from RH’s awareness.
6. Update your folder to pull the file back in from the repository (right-click in the folder that contained the file, and then click SVN Update).
7. Delete the file (right-click file > TortoiseSVN > Delete).
8. Commit the change (right-click in folder > SVN Commit).

Worry about these steps only if you check your output in to Subversion as well:

9. Generate and then publish help to your hard drive (check out my post on making WebHelp and FlashHelp output work correctly with Subversion).
10. Delete the old file (right-click file > TortoiseSVN > Delete).
11. Commit the changes (right-click > SVN Commit).

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As you’re developing a help system and updating content, it sometimes becomes necessary to rename a topic file. When you’re using both RoboHelp and Subversion, it’s easy to mess things up doing this. It’s important to rename the file in RH first so that all links, including in the TOC and index, stay up to date. But things have to be done correctly in Subversion too.

These steps go through the steps in general plus specific steps in parentheses for the TortoiseSVN client for Windows Explorer (currently version 1.6.10), which I use. The TortoiseSVN steps explain what to do in Windows Explorer.

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Somehow, I ended up with a few help topics missing from a set of RoboHelp source files today. Subversion had removed them, and RoboHelp didn’t know where they were. I haven’t solved the case of how that happened, and at this point I don’t really care, because Subversion allowed me to fix the problem.

When I discovered that the topics were missing, I knew the wrong thing to do would be to import the corresponding output files. For WebHelp, RH inserts JavaScript and possibly other code into each topic in the output, and if you import an output topic, you have to deal with stripping out that extra code so it isn’t duplicated later.

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Credit for this one goes to Rick Stone, a.k.a. RoboWizard. I was having this problem and didn’t know what was causing it, and someone was smart enough (you’ll notice it wasn’t me) to put in a post about this in the RoboHelp forums.

Here’s the situation: The help author checks his WebHelp or FlashHelp output files in to a Subversion repository where the developers check in their code. This way, when the code is all rolled up for application builds, the help goes along for the ride. The help author has his output location set to a directory that is under Subversion control. However, every time he generates his output and tries to check it in, Subversion gives him an error. The help author rants and raves against Subversion, RoboHelp, and everything under the sun (you’ll notice that this also isn’t me).

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