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Moxamoll
Moxamoll
Known Participant
November 15, 2012
Question

DITA templates erratic in FM10 on Win 7 32-bit

  • November 15, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 1138 views

We are a writing team of 4 - two using Windows XP 32-bit, one using Windows 7 32-bit and until recently I was using Windows XP 64-bit.  We are all using TCS3, with FM10.

We developed our desired DITA templates (task, topic, concept, etc.), updated our EDD and edited our structapps file and everything was working perfectly on the XP 32-bit and XP 64-bit systems.  Our fourth colleague joined us, was given the Win 7 32-bit, and tried to set up our templates to use.  They all worked fine, except for the Task template - which will not open a new file, nor allow her to open any existing Task .xml or .fm files.

Then, for other reasons, my OS was switched from XP 64-bit to Win 7 32-bit, and I had to set up the templates again after loading TCS 3 on.  Now, all of the templates are working perfectly, except for Topic. If I choose DITA>New DITA file>New Topic and choose the template, it starts to open the file window and then just shuts down again, no error message, no file, no nothing.  If I try to open an existing topic.xml file I get this error message:

     XML Read Report Log

     November 15, 2012 10:14 am

     Source Document: R:\User_Manuals\baseline\...\Topic\12AJF070H4Y.xml

     XML Read Messages...

     Cannot open the template file ($STRUCTDIR\xml\DITA_1.2\app\technicalContent\template\TemplateMasterTopic.fm)

Which is exactly what happens when my colleague with 7 32-bit tries to open a task file.  Any ideas on what could be happening, that would make one file type unable to access a template, when all the others work exactly as they should be?

If I've missed including any information that would help clarify the situation, please let me know!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Moxamoll
MoxamollAuthor
Known Participant
November 16, 2012

I was trying to clarify the situation for myself, to see if I could figure out where the problem is.  So let me share:

If I click File>Open>select our task.template.fm it opens, but insists on a DITA top level element.

If I click File>Open>select out topic.template.fm it opens, but insists on a DITA top level element.

If I click File>Open>select our task.template.fm.xml it opens with a TASK top level element.

If I click File>Open>select out topic.template.fm.xml it starts to open the page, but then it just stops, with no page open and no error message.

If I click DITA>New DITA File>New Task>select out task.template.fm it asks if it can open in .xml, I say yes, it opens with a TASK top level element.

If I click DITA>New DITA File>New Topic>slect our topic.template.fm, it opens the XML Read Report log above.

According to that error message - it is pointing at the correct file. But the message doesn't give any information on WHY it can't open the file. I'm starting to wonder if this is some kind of bug in the Win 7 to FM10 interface, because exactly the same thing is happening to my colleague, but it's her TASK file that won't open.

I know a bunch of you have looked at this post and it's disheartening to see no replies.  Any thoughts - even off the wall ones - would be appreciated, since this is obviously not a workable situation.  My colleague tried to approach Adobe when it first happened to her and got no help.  I'm about to dive in and try them myself, but I don't hold out much hope.

ScottPrentice
ScottPrentice
Inspiring
November 16, 2012

All very strange.

I'd start by testing the default apps. Hopefully, you have created new apps rather than modifying the default apps .. yes? If so, switch back to the default apps and see if you're getting the same behavior. If this is happening with the default, unmodified, apps, you'll know that it's a system issue of some kind .. if it on;y happens with your apps, then it's likely a problem with your apps.

In your second post, you say some things that I don't really understand ..

1) You said .. "If I click File>Open>select our task.template.fm.xml it opens with a TASK top level element." .. why do you have a file named "task.template.fm.xml"? Templates are typically FM binary files not XML files. Was this a typo or can you explain what this file is used for?

2) You said .. "If I click DITA>New DITA File>New Task>select out task.template.fm it asks if it can open in .xml, I say yes, it opens with a TASK top level element." .. If you select "New Task" (or any new DITA topic type), it's asking for a new file name. If you're selecting the file "task.template.fm", FM thinks that you want to name the new file with that name, but an XML file cannot have a ".fm" extension so it asks if it's OK to use ".xml" as the extension. This then creates a new file named "task.template.fm.xml" (perhaps that's how you got the file in my question #1). My question is .. why are you doing this? Selecting the template file will have no affect on things, and just ends up creating a file with an odd name in the app folder.

Let me know how the testing with the default apps goes, and with a bit more info we may be able to resolve your problems.

Cheers,

...scott

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