Testing the Installation with AutoFM

After installing FMx-Auto you can confirm that everything is set up properly by using the provided AutoFM sample files.

AutoFM can be run manually from the FrameMaker interface as well as scripted (using batch or other scripting languages). Sample files are provided with the FMx-Auto installation and are found in the FMx-Auto_Sample.zip file in the FrameMaker\DITA-FMx folder. After extracting the sample files to a location on your file system (it doesn’t matter where), start by performing the manual test described below.

The sample files provided are a small example of the type of processing that can be achieved with DITA-FMx and FMx-Auto. The source is in a dita folder, and the FrameMaker book and chapter files are created in a book folder.

In the book folder is the ditafmx-bookbuild.ini file which contains the instructions for generating the FM files. In this case the DITA map is a bookmap, which contains a toc and indexlist which become a proper generated TOC and Index file. The ditafmx-bookbuild.ini file provides the instructions for creating those generated lists as well as setting up the pagination and numbering in the chapter files. The “book-build” INI file also specifies that a title page be added to the generated book, and indicates that the metadata in the map be used to update variables in the title page (book title, version, date, copyright info, and more). It also specifies a ditaval file to be used for the processing.

You can use this set of files as an example for setting up your own scripted builds.

Note: The sample DITA map includes toc and indexlist elements. In order to be compatible with all DITA-FMx installations, these booklist elements were added using the “placeholder file” feature that was implemented in an early release of DITA-FMx. These placeholder files are no longer a DITA-FMx requirement, and to be more DITA-compliant we recommend not using this feature. To turn off this feature, set the ditafmx.ini parameter INIOnly/UseBooklistPlaceholder set to 0.

Manual Testing

Open the sample-autofm.xml file in FrameMaker.

If the AutoFM structure application is installed properly, this file should open without prompting for a structure application. Review the structure and available elements.
Run this AutoFM script manually by choosing DITA-FMx > FMx-Addons > FMx-Auto > Run AutoFM Script.

You can also run an AutoFM script from the Pubs-Tools menu.
This should open and convert the sample DITA map into a book, then generate a PDF.

You’ll see the message “EXIT operator is only available in scripted mode.” This is to be expected and is as designed.

If this test is successful, try scripted testing.

FM9 ISSUE: FrameMaker 9 seems to have a problem keeping lock files (*.lck) around after closing FrameMaker when using AutoFM in the “manual testing” mode. After completing the manual test, check for errant lock files and delete them before continuing. This problem does not seem to occur when running in scripted testing mode. We hope to address this properly in a future update, but you may want to add some code to your “build” batch file that checks for and deletes any *.lck files before starting the build process.

Scripted Testing

Run the appropriate build-sample-fm<ver>.bat batch file.

The sample batch files read the path to the FrameMaker executable from the registry, so in most cases they should “just work.” If the batch file doesn’t run properly, you may need to edit it to suit your system.

The batch file should start FrameMaker and pass the sample AutoFM script file name to it as a command line parameter. This will open the AutoFM script file and execute the instructions in that file. This should do the same thing you saw in manual testing, but will also exit FrameMaker when the processing has completed.

Important: Windows 7 or 8 users will likely see the “Application has stopped responding” message from the OS when FrameMaker exits. To prevent this message, perform the minor registry tweak described in the Troubleshooting topic in the AutoFM documentation.

Now try creating your own script to convert your files.