SandCastle Help File Builder: Search not working

Question

I have just downloaded the latest version of Sancastle Help File Builder 2017.1.28.0. According to the answers and comments from this post, I expected the search to work but it doesn't. No matter what I am trying to search for, I will get a "Nothing found" message. BTW, I do not have any aspx file generated.

I tried using Google Chrome browser

Do I miss any project configuration?

How can I make the search working?

Answer 1

The described behaviour seems to depend on the used browser. Following snapshots show a working and a NOT working case:

I generated a dummy help including some conceptual topics for testing. Trying a search for e.g. CHM ends up with following results:

(1) Open index.html local by “Open with” or double click:

• Browser FireFox: Search is working
• Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer: Search is working
• Browser Microsoft Edge: Search NOT working
• Browser Google Chrome: Search NOT working

(2) Open uploaded files from server (https://www.help-info.de/help-sandcastle)

• All browsers: Search is working

So, search is working but at this stage there are restrictions on locally stored file structure.

Edit: (after contacting Eric Woodruff as the creator of Sandcastle Help File Builder)

When opened from the local file system, extra security kicks in and some of the script gets blocked and can’t run. As such, certain features like search and the expandable TOC don’t work as expected.

Using the local web dev server or IIS Express also works if you don’t want to upload them to a server to test the website output. There’s an option in SHFB to run it with the local server.