CHM help files is EMPTY - no help files about apsw

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on February 24, 2009 15:28:24

Thanks for reporting this. The file isn't empty as it is a 185KB download. It is
only the Windows CHM viewer that gets confused - the other CHM viewers are all fine.
The file is produced by the Windows help compiler so I have no idea why it is
producing an invalid file.

The only way I can fix this is by doing a new APSW release. As a short term
alternative you can browse the help online at http://apsw.googlecode.com/svn/publish/index.html or use a CHM viewer from someone else.

Status: Accepted

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on April 21, 2009 19:13:13

I completely reinstalled the environment used for producing the compiled HTML help
and the Windows help viewer now displays the output correctly. The just released
APSW 3.6.13- r1 downloads have the working help file.

Status: Verified
Labels: Component-Docs

[rogerbinns]

From phrrngtn on May 01, 2009 17:08:29

This is not working for me on XP SP2 with HTML Help Workshop: neither the viewer nor
hhw.exe can not view it.

print md5.new(open('c:/ftp/apsw-3.6.13- r1 (2).chm').read()).hexdigest()
9c18613abf5927c608b5ea2a1a548e83

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on May 01, 2009 17:41:30

This is driving me nuts. It really did work, but as part of the build process was
rebuilt again. It looks like maybe the build process is non-deterministic. I just
did a test, building 10 times in a row and every time Windows CHM viewer showed the
file just fine.

Also your md5sum method isn't good as it opens the file in text mode which munges end
of lines and stops at the first control-Z. If you click on the second column in the
downloads list then you get a page with a sha1sum like this http://code.google.com/p/apsw/downloads/detail?name=apsw-3.6.13-r1.chm

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on May 01, 2009 17:44:02

I uploaded a new file which worked fine locally but when downloaded failed even
though they have the same sha1sum. My best guess is that it is something to do with
the build process producing a file named apsw.chm that I then rename to include the
version number coupled with the IE inside the CHM viewer treating it as some sort of
attempt to access the internet.

Status: Accepted

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on May 01, 2009 17:56:40

The name doesn't matter. If I copy the file from a network share then it displays
just fine. If I download (Firefox or IE) it then the Windows CHM viewer fails to
display it. If I download it with Opera then it displays just fine.

I traced this to the download protection builtin into Windows. It marks downloaded
files with an extended attribute saying they came from the Internet. If you
right-click on the CHM, choose Properties and then look at the bottom of the General
tab you should see a "security section" with an Unblock button. If you click the
Unblock button then the file can be displayed just fine.

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on May 01, 2009 18:12:05

After investigation there is no trivial workaround - this is a feature of Windows.
I'll add some links to the HTML doc about this, but there isn't space on the download
page itself as Google generates that. I am marking this as "WontFix" but I really
mean that there is nothing I can do to fix it. Some reading: http://weblog.helpware.net/?p=36 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902225/

Status: WontFix

[rogerbinns]

From rogerbinns on May 01, 2009 18:27:27

The doc is updated - see r433 and I have asked Google Code to automatically mention
this issue for CHM downloads - see http://code.google.com/p/support/issues/detail?id=2556

[rogerbinns]

From phrrngtn on May 02, 2009 16:53:38

very good debugging. Thanks.