FrameMaker 9 plug-in for DITA Open Toolkit/ RoboHelp 8

[777rclark]

Hi -

Does anyone know where to download the FM9 plug-in for DITA-OT?

Also, do you have to have the FM9 DITA-OT plug-in installed in order to import a Ditamap into RoboHelp 8? I am working in a Windows 7 Premium/64 bit enviroment... RoboHelp 8 crashes/stalls whenever I try to import a Ditamap.

Thank you for any help/suggestions -

Rebecca

[ScottPrentice]

Hi Rebecca...

There is no FM9 DITA-OT plugin .. you're supposed to use the FM8 version (last I heard). This plugin *was* available from here ..

     http://www.adobe.com/devnet/framemaker/fm8_opentoolkit.html

but it doesn't seem to be available now. Hmm. Perhaps someone else knows where it is?

RoboHelp 8 uses the DITA-OT to import DITA into RH. Based on my testing, it doesn't seem to work with DITA-OT 1.5, but it does work with DITA-OT 1.4.2. Create an empty project, then run the Import > DITA command. You select the ditamap to import, then you'll get a dialog that you specify the location for the DITA-OT (all the rest of the fields in this dialog are optional). The import process can take some time if you've got a big map .. try a small map to start off with.

You don't need the FM DITA-OT plugin installed (or FM installed at all) to do this. The other option for getting DITA into RH is to generate a FM book from your DITA map, then import the generated FM files into RH.

Cheers,

...scott

[777rclark]

Hi Scott and thanks!

Have installed DITA-OT 1.4.2... receiving the following error message in RoboHelp:

"Processing with DITA Open Toolkit failed. No Logs found.
Check DITA Open Toolkit is installed and working."

Have verified the DITA-OT installation with the startcmd.bat file running both sets of transforms.  Also have my Enviromental Variable set per/the DITA Open Toolkit User Guide (they are not set to the "Using the Open Toolkit plug-in for FrameMaker" whitepaper instructions).

Thanks again for your direction... I was previously utilizing DITA-OT 1.5.1 full_easy_install.

Rebecca

[ScottPrentice]

Hi Rebecca...

The startcmd script makes it unnecessary to set your environment variables globally (this was really only needed for OT 1.3 I believe). Running the script sets the environment for that shell. When I've done this import to RH I have no environment variables set .. all I did was to point the DITA OT Processing Options dialog (in RH) at my OT directory. I've just tested it again with a freshly extracted OT (1.4.2.1), and it imported fine.

I don't know what the message about finding the log files is all about.

Keep in mind that this import process should have nothing to do with FrameMaker, so no need to worry about instructions that include FM.

If you'd like to send me your files, I'll see if they import for me. You can upload a ZIP to .. http://leximation.com/inbox

Cheers,

...scott

[777rclark]

Hi Scott -

Great news!!  I was able to import a Dita Map into RoboHelp on my Vista machine!   Bad news is I am still receiving the same error message on my Windows 7 machine ("Processing with DITA Open Toolkit failed. No Logs found. Check DITA Open Toolkit is installed and working"). Thrilled to have a working environment to play in though!!  Can now start incorporating all the tools in the Adobe Technical Communications Suite 2.

Thank you so much for all of your help and direction... I have spent several days trying to get this work using the most up-to-date tools out there.  Funny that it works with an older version of OT and no environmental settings at all.

Thanks again!!

Rebecca

p.s.... still going to get to the bottom of the Windows 7 environment though

[ScottPrentice · Accepted solution]

Hi Rebecca...

It sounds like you're making progress .. that's great!

That is odd that it would work on Vista but not under Win7. You might try running RH "As Administrator" to see if that helps.

My RH8 is installed on XP .. perhaps someone else running RH on Win7 can report their success with importing a DITA map.

Cheers,

...scott

[777rclark]

Woo Hoo that did it!!!  Running RH "As Administrator" in Windows 7 allows me to import a DITA map!

You have helped me so much on this project and I really do appreciate you and your time on this.

Thanks so much -

Rebecca

p.s.... you are Da-Bomb!!!

[ScottPrentice]

Excellent! That's good to know. I'll be sure to mention that in my upcoming talk on the subject at the tcworld conference.

BTW .. if you're looking for enhanced DITA authoring and publishing features for FM9, you might want to check out DITA-FMx ..

     http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/

Cheers!

...scott

Scott Prentice

Leximation, Inc.

www.leximation.com

[SQUIDDS]

Please check your DITAMAP first, is all valid? Reduce the  topics to check is any referenced topic unvalid.

Optional: Test WebWorks ePublisher it works fine with DITA  and  OTK.

- Georg

[777rclark]

Thank You Georg... confirming that DITAMAPS are valid.  Utilizing some that I have created and some from the DITA-OT and Oxygen sample folders.

Thank you again for help and suggestions.

Rebecca