Installing FM8 Plug-in for DITA Open Tool Kit

Report · Nov 04, 2008

Dear all,

I am facing some issues while installing the DITA Open Tool Kit.

Please help me resolve this issue.

Details below:
- I have FM 8 installed on my laptop.
- I am installing the Dita OT version 1.2.2 using the installation instructions given on the adobe site.
- I have already installed the Java Development Kit, Apache Ant, JavaHelp, SAXON, an XSLT and Microsoft® HTML Help
- I have tested the build and its successful.

NOW, when I launch FM 8 I just don't see the DITA menu. I am so confused.
And my FM seems to be too slow.

I have checked and re-checked all the installation steps and I don't think I have missed any step. But DITA menu does not appear.

Please help. Thanks in advance.

Report · Nov 04, 2008

Hi 77...

The "DITA" menu should appear by default .. regardless of the OT plugin being installed. If the OT plugin is installed, it will add a "Generate Output" menu item to the DITA menu.

Is it possible that you don't have the structured authoring interface enabled?

File > Preferences > General > Product Interface > Structured FrameMaker

You might find this topic to be useful ..

http://kb.leximation.com/dfm/?kbid=7

Good luck.

...scott

Report · Nov 04, 2008

Thank you Scott, your answer was right. I had to set it to Structured Authoring to get the DITA menu.
I can be so stupid at times.

Thanks again :-)

Report · Jun 18, 2009

Hi there. I'm new to this DITA phenomenon and I am attempting to get the FrameMaker 8 plugin to work.
I have installed DITA Open Tool Kit 1.5, along with the other goodies (JDK 1.6.0_14, Apache Ant 1.7.1, JavaHelp, SAXON, and Microsoft® HTML Help). I can get a successful build from the command prompt. However, whenever I generate an HTML output from FrameMaker 8's DITA Generate Output dialog box, I get the following error message:

BUILD FAILED
C:\DITA-OT1.5\ditafm-ant.xml:89: The following error occurred while executing this line:
C:\DITA-OT1.5\build_preprocess.xml:25: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xml/resolver/CatalogManager

This error message also appears when I try to generate a CHM or PDF output.
Any thoughts? Please advise. Thanks!

Report · Jun 18, 2009

Hi Lord (?)...

It sounds like your environment variables aren't set up properly. The recent OT versions (since 1.3.3?) provide a "startcmd.bat" file that sets up your environment properly for the current shell. Standard FM8/9 doesn't have access to this file so it relies on all of the required environment variables having been set up in the global environment. This can be somewhat complicated, but it can be done. I think that the documentation for the OT plugin provides information about setting up these environment variables (I don't have that info here, but I can locate it if you're still having trouble).

The real test is to be able to start a command shell (from Start > Run: cmd) and if you can run the OT from there .. you should be able to run it from FM.

It looks like you've got Ant properly set up but you're missing some other items from the environment.

Let me know if you get any further .. I'll be able to provide more details tomorrow.

...scott

Report · Jun 18, 2009

Hi there Scott. Thanks for the response.

Say, I have the documentation for the OT plugin, and I'll review the settings I made for the environment variables. There's a section called "Setting environment variables" in Appendix 1: Installing the DITA Open Toolkit.

As requested, I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for your dedication in providing assitance with DITA-FrameMaker.

Regards,

Barry Parmelee

http://portfolio.thegoldeneye.com

Report · Jun 19, 2009

Regarding my recent build failure from the DITA Open Tool Kit:

Additional testing reveals that I can get a successful build from the command shell window when I run the startcmd.bat file and type ant samples.web -f build_demo.xml. Also, the \out directory is successfully created in the dita-ot folder.
An unsucessful build occurs when I type ant all -f build_demo.xml. This command is recommended in one of the DITA documents (Evaluting the DITA Open ToolKit fullpackage version). Apparently, it tests the "full set of transforms from a single command" so that it "will process every DITA example in the Toolkit into each of the supported output types for the Toolkit."

Here's the build failure message:

==================================

transform.topic2fo:
[dita-version] Search finished
     [java] java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/icl/saxon/StyleSheet
     [java] Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.icl.saxon.Styl
t
     [java]     at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200)
     [java]     at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Metho
     [java]     at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:18
     [java]     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
     [java]     at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java

[java] at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:252)
[java] at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java

     [java] Could not find the main class: com.icl.saxon.StyleSheet. Progr
ll exit.
     [java] Exception in thread "main"
     [java] Java Result: 1

BUILD FAILED
C:\DITA-OT1.5\build_demo.xml:146: The following error occurred while execut
his line:
C:\DITA-OT1.5\build.xml:338: The following error occurred while executing t
ine:
C:\DITA-OT1.5\demo\fo\build.xml:126: The following error occurred while exe
g this line:
C:\DITA-OT1.5\demo\fo\build.xml:217: The following error occurred while exe
g this line:
C:\DITA-OT1.5\demo\fo\build.xml:200: java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\DITA
5\temp\stage2.fo (The system cannot find the file specified)

Total time: 26 seconds

===============================

Here are the system variable settings. My additions are in green, based on instructions in the DITA user guide, or rather my interpretation of the instructions in said guide.

ANT_HOME=C:\apache-ant-1.7.1
ANT_OPTS=-Xmx256M
Classpath=C:\DITA-OT1.5\demo\fo\fop\build\fop.jar;C:\DITA-OT1.5\demo\fo\fop\lib\avalon-framework-4.2.0.jar;C:\DITA-OT1.5\demo\fo\fop\lib\batik-all-1.7.jar;C:\DITA-OT1.5\lib\dost.jar;C:\Saxon\saxon.jar

JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_14
JHHOME=C:\jh2.0
Path=C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Utilities;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;c:\Program Files\Utimaco\SafeGuard Easy\;C:\Program Files\Perforce;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Lenovo;C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 7\RoboHTML;C:\apache-ant-1.7.1\bin

Any assistance is, of course, appreciated. Thanks!