How does FrameMaker know that JRE is installed?

[Tobinator0806]

I'm trying to use the DITA-OT with FrameMaker to produce output.

Oracle has recently changed its licensing terms for Java 8, and I would prefer to not use an Oracle-based JRE. I have a 3rd party runtime installed, and DITA-OT runs just fine with it. However, FrameMaker does not see the runtime and tells me the JRE is required.

• I installed the Oracle JRE, and FrameMaker works just fine
• Interestingly, FrameMaker uses my 3rd party runtime to actually run DITA-OT; this runtime is what my JAVA_HOME variable points to.

So, what does FrameMaker look for to determine whether the Java runtime is installed? Since FrameMaker will _use_ my 3rd party runtime, I want it to recognize it.

Best,

MT

[Tobinator0806 · Accepted solution]

After digging around a little, I found my answer.

FrameMaker seems to require the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\{ver}

with JavaHome defined with a string value.

Some notes:

{ver} can apparently be anything, so long as JavaHome is defined.

JavaHome can be anything, so long as it's not empty. (The Oracle JRE uses the folder where the java.exe file is--same as the JAVA_HOME environment variable, but FrameMaker doesn't seem to use this registry value; it uses JAVA_HOME.)

Hope this is helpful to anyone trying to use a non-Oracle JRE!

Cheers!

MT