Without a doubt, BizTalk Documenter is my favorite documentation tool, and I do think that if each product had a tool for the generation of technical documentation, it would be simpler to do, as the existing documentation has significantly improved. I do miss this kind of tool for Azure Integration projects.
However, each time I install this tool, I always get the exact same problem:
Unable to locate the help compiler executable
which I know well, and I know why, since it was very well explained by Mitch Vanhelden in this blog post.
So, why this blog post?
Well, for two main reasons:
- I’m always searching for the link to the component I need to install.
- Basically, this is just an easy personal reminder.
- And second, and most importantly, the link to the resource that Mitch point is
obsolete and not working anymore.
📝 One-Minute Brief
Explains how to fix the BizTalk Documenter error “Unable to locate the help compiler executable” by installing and correctly configuring the HTML Help Workshop compiler required to generate documentation.
Cause
As Mitch explained in his blog post, the reason for this is quite clear: the application can’t locate the help compiler executable, either because:
- It isn’t installed à most common situations.
- Or it is also possible if you’re working on a 64-bit machine.
Solution
Make sure you have installed the HTML Help Workshop compiler because this is the most common cause for this issue, and if not:
- First, download and install this compiler that can be found here: HTML Help Workshop and Documentation.
- And then install it by executing the htmlhelp.exe file.
- On the HTML Help Workshop 1.3 screen, click Yes.
- On the HTML Help Workshop 1.3 Setup screen, click Yes
- Specify the installation directory and then click OK
- And finally, when the installation finishes, click OK.
After these steps, you should be able to generate the BizTalk Server documentation from the tool. Otherwise, make sure that the path to this help compiler is configured correctly in BizTalk Documenter by:
- Access to the installation path of BizTalk Documenter
- By default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Services\BizTalk Documenter
- Open Microsoft.Services.Tools.BiztalkDocumenter.exe.config file and validate
and, if necessary, change the path for the HelpCompilerLocation key
that needs to contain the correct path to the HTML Help Workshop compiler
component.
Hope you find this helpful! If you liked the content or found it useful and would like to support me in writing more, consider buying (or helping to buy) a Star Wars Lego set for my son.
The download link for HTML Help Workshop and Documentation is also broken in your blog post.
This looks like the latest link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/htmlhelp/microsoft-html-help-downloads