IniSwitcher

IniSwitcher is a “plugin” developed for FrameMaker 8. IniSwitcher lets you switch between values in an INI file by selecting a command in FrameMaker.

This command is particularly suited for making modifications to the maker.ini file but can be used for any INI files. If you modify the maker.ini file you must restart FrameMaker before the change will take effect.

Important: It is very important to backup the INI file before using this command. It will delete or overwrite entries and without a backup, it may be difficult to know what’s gone wrong (if you modify the wrong values).

Because IniSwitcher was developed to allow easy switching between DITA-FMx and the built-in FM8 DITA plugin, the default settings are to switch to “DITA-FMx” and “FM8-DITA,” you can delete these options or add more as needed.

IniSwitcher is controlled by the Pubs-Tools\IniSwitcher.ini file. The commands that appear on the IniSwitcher menu are defined by entries in this INI file. After installation, open this file in a text editor to modify the functionality.

The General section of the IniSwitcher.ini file contains a Count parameter followed by that number of entries (you are allowed up to 20 entries). The default setting is shown below:

[General] 
Count=2 
1=DITA-FMx 
2=FM8-DITA

For each numbered parameter you must add a section of the name indicated as the value for that line. The DITA-FMx section looks like this:

[DITA-FMx] 
_iniFile=maker.ini 
_iniSection=APIClients 
ditafm=! 
ditafm_app=! 
ditabook=! 
ditaOpenToolkit=! 
ditafmx=Standard, ditafmx, DITA-FMx\\ditafmx_80.dll, structured 
ditafmx_app=Standard, ditafmx_app, DITA-FMx\\ditafmx_80_app.dll, structured 
ditafmx_book=Standard, ditafmx_book, DITA-FMx\\ditafmx_80_book.dll, structured

Each named section nust have the two parameters “_iniFile” and “_iniSection”, these specify the INI file and section to act upon. The remaining lines in the section specify entries to add or remove. If a parameter value is set to “!”, that entry will be deleted, otherwise that entry will be updated (or added) with the value specified. The DITA-FMx section deletes the entries that are specific to the FM8 DITA plugin and adds those needed for DITA-FMx. The FM8-DITA section (not shown) essentially does the opposite, it deletes the DITA-FMx entries and adds the FM8 entries.

Important: As stated above, use this plugin with caution, and always have backups of the INI files you’re modifying.
Tip: If you frequently switch between DITA-FMx and FM8 DITA, we recommend that you change the “app” client name to be the same for both DITA-FMx and FM8 DITA (that’s the name before the equal sign). Use “ditafm_app” or “ditafmx_app,” either is fine it really doesn’t matter. In addition to changing the client names in the INI file, you’ll need to change the UseApiClient values in the structure application definitions file to the same value. This will let you switch between the two DITA plugins and use any of the structure applications easily.

Contact <tools AT leximation DOT com> with comments and questions

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