Alternate Location for the Structure Applications

On systems where the author does not have admin privileges, it may make sense to install the structure applications to an alternate location that is more accessible.

The structure applications should be installed to a location that’s writable for the end user. This is to allow for modifications to be made as needed.

The following steps describe an option for installing the structure applications in a more accessible location.

  1. Select a writable location for the structure applications.

    It doesn’t really matter where you choose, just some place that is writable by the end user. These instructions will use the path C:\FM-apps.

  2. Copy the app files into the selected folder.

    Extract the contents of the DITA-FMx_apps.zip file (found in the Program Files\Adobe\FrameMaker\DITA-FMx_2 folder) into the FM-apps folder. This will create a folder named DITA-FMx_1.2 which contains three folders, Topic, Map, and Book. Each of these three folders contain a “structapps-stub” file specific to that structure application (structapps-stub_topic_1.2.fm, structapps-stub_map_1.2.fm, and structapps-stub_book_1.2.fm).

  3. Modify the path variables in each of the “structapps-stub” files.

    Open the structapps-stub_topic_1.2.fm file in FrameMaker. You’ll see a number of file references, starting with the text “$STRUCTDIR,” these are FrameMaker variables. The goal is to change these to reference the new location for the files. Double-click the variable, then click the “edit” button in the Variables panel or dialog (this functionality will vary based on the FrameMaker version). Change the definition of this variable from “$STRUCTDIR\\xml\\DITA-FMx_1.2\\” to “C:\\FM-apps\\DITA-FMx_1.2\\” (make the actual value match the real location). Be sure to use double backslashes and to include the trailing slashes.

    Choose “Change” and complete the process of modifying the variable. You should see that all instances of this variable have updated to use the new path.

    Do the same thing for the Map and Book “structapps-stub” files.

  4. Follow the instructions for manually installing the structure applications.

    See, Manual Installation of the Structure Applications. Start with step #3, and in step #5 navigate to the “structapps-stub” files in the folders you just set up.

Important: If you have already installed the structure applications to the default location, you should remove the entries in the structure application definitions file that reference those applications. You can only have one application definition for a named application.