Installing the Structure Applications

In order for FrameMaker to properly import and export DITA files, you must have structure applications that support the authoring of topic and map files. DITA-FMx provides both of these applications as well as a structure application for book processing. If you want to customize the appearance of the templates or change the elements supported (adding through specialization or removing unwanted elements), you should clone the provided structure application folders and modify the cloned versions.

If you are upgrading from the App Pack, and want to continue using those structure applications (or your customized version), you’ll need to edit the “stub” files for those applications and change the “Use API Clients” element so it references the client “ditafmx_app” instead of “ditafm_app.” Or, if you want to use the new structure application that are provided with DITA-FMx, you may want to delete the old ones to eliminate possible confusion.

Follow these steps to install the structure applications provided with this version of DITA-FMx:


  1. Extract the contents of the DITA-FMx_apps.zip file to the FrameMaker\Structure\xml folder. This will create a folder named DITA-FMx that contains folders named Book, dtd, Map, and Topic. These folders contains the three structure application as well as the DITA 1.0 DTD files used by the applications.

  2. Make a backup copy of your current structure application definitions file (typically found at FrameMaker\Structure\structapps.fm. Store this file in a safe location before making modifications.

  3. Start FrameMaker and open the structure application definitions file (File > Structure Tools > Edit Application Definitions).

  4. In the structure application definitions file place the insertion point just after the Version element.

  5. Choose File > Import > File, then navigate to the structapps-stub_topic.fm file in the DITA-FMx\Topic folder created in step 1. Select the Import by Reference option and choose the Import button. In the next dialog accept the defaults and choose Import.

  6. Repeat step 4 for the “structapps-stub” files in the DITA-FMx\Map and DITA-FMx\Book folders.

  7. Save the file, then choose File > Structure Tools > Read Application Definitions.

  8. Close the file and exit FrameMaker.

  9. Restart FrameMaker and run the DITA-FMx > Options command and select DITA-FMx-Topic for the DITA Topic Application, DITA-FMx-Map for the DITA Map Application, and DITA-FMx-Book for the DITA Book Application.

Note: If your folder structure is non-standard, you may need to modify the paths specified in the “structapps-stub” files to match the file paths on your system. To do this, just open the structure application definitions file and double-click each application’s text inset. In the dialog that displays, choose the Open Source button and make the changes in the “stub” file. When you have finished editing the stub file, save and close that file, then double-click the text inset again and choose the Update Now button.

If you plan to make use of the DITA Open Toolkit for generating output, see Setting Up to use the Generate Output Command.

Parent topic: Installation and Setup