Setting Up to use the Generate Output Command

The DITA-FMx > Generate Output command lets you generate output through the DITA Open Toolkit. This command provides two main options, you can generate output from the current topic or map file, or by using a specific Ant target. The setup required for these two options is described below.

DITA-FMx makes calls to the DITA Open Toolkit (DITA-OT) through a batch file (named ~ant-build.cmd) that is generated on the fly in the FrameMaker\DITA-FMx folder. In order for this batch file to work properly, the environment variables that define the location of Java and Ant (and possibly other utilities) must be defined globally. This is particularly an issue if you are using DITA-OT 1.3 or later, since these versions provide a batch file that sets the environment variables at run time. To test for proper environment variable settings, open a command shell (choose Start > Run, then enter “cmd” and press Enter). In the command shell enter the following to list the version information for each utility. If you get a message “command unknown” the environment variables are not set up properly for DITA-FMx.

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe User>ant -version 
Apache Ant version 1.6.5 compiled on June 2 2005

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe User>java -version 
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-b105)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-b105, mixed mode)

Generate Output: Current File Option

The Current File option of the Generate Output command lets you generate output from the current topic or map file using a pre-defined Ant script. The files referenced below are initially installed to the FrameMaker/DITA-FMx folder.


  1. Copy the ditafmx-ant.xml file to your DITA-OT directory.
  2. In the DITA-FMx > Options dialog, set the DITA-OT Directory field to reference the DITA-OT directory on your system.

That should be all that is required. The information about the current file and project are passed to the Ant script through command line parameters. By default, this provides three targets: HTML, CHM, and PDF. If you want to add others, modify the ditafmx-ant.xml file accordingly and add more targets to the BuildFile section of the ditafmx.ini file.

The ditafmx-ant.xml file contains a target for the FrameMaker Adapter. If you have this installed, you can enable access to it from the Generate Output dialog by adding a 4th item to the BuildFile section of the ditafmx.ini file “4=FMAdapter” and updating the Count parameter to 4.

Generate Output: Selected Target Option

The following steps should get you up and running with the Selected Target option of the Generate Output command.


  1. Copy the PROJECT.xml file to your DITA-OT directory and rename it something appropriate for your project.
  2. Edit the <project>.xml file and set the properties indicated in the comments so they match your system and project.
  3. Set up the ditafmx.ini file as follows:

    NOTES:


    • Be sure that the LogFile parameter specifies a directory that exists before the Ant script is run, otherwise the build will fail.
    • In the examples below, swap “<PROJECT>” for the actual project name.
    • If the builds aren't working, try running the script from the command line .. ant -f project.xml html
    [AntBuild]
Count=3
1=<PROJECT> - CHM
2=<PROJECT> - HTML
3=<PROJECT> - PDF
 
[ANT:<PROJECT> - CHM]
BuildFile=C:\DITA-OT1.3.1\<PROJECT>.xml
Target=chm
OutputDir=C:\Projects\<PROJECT>\out\chm
Logfile=C:\Projects\<PROJECT>\ant-buildlog-chm.txt
 
[ANT:<PROJECT> - HTML]
BuildFile=C:\DITA-OT1.3.1\<PROJECT>.xml
Target=html
OutputDir=C:\Projects\<PROJECT>\out\html
Logfile=C:\Projects\<PROJECT>\ant-buildlog-html.txt
 
[ANT:<PROJECT> - PDF]
BuildFile=C:\DITA-OT1.3.1\<PROJECT>.xml
Target=pdf
OutputDir=C:\Projects\<PROJECT>\out\pdf
Logfile=C:\Projects\<PROJECT>\ant-buildlog-pdf.txt
Parent topic: Installation and Setup