PDF Customisation - Scenario not working

[Boreas]

Hello,
We needed to customise the layout of our PDF so we created a new plug-in directory.(we followed the DITA OT documentation). When we run the transformation directly from the command line, it works fine. Now I am trying to implete the plug-in directory to make it work with Oxygen, and I am unable to get it work.

I pasted the directory under frameworks/dita/Dita-OTest/plugins.
I changed the path of the parameter of the scenario, to make sure it would pick up the rigth Dita-OT.
I ran the startcmd.bat file (ant -f integrator.xml) and the build is successfull.
Then I expected the scenario to generate a PDF with our custom layout, but it keeps generating the PDF with the out of the box layout.I made sure the build.xml, catalog.xml, integrator.xml and plugin.xml, all pointed to the new directory.
Where did I miss something?

Regards.

[Radu]

Hi Carole,

So:

I pasted the directory under frameworks/dita/Dita-OTest/plugins.

So you copied your custom DITA OT folder to:

OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/Dita-OTest

right? You could have stored it anywhere on the hard drive, you did not have to copy it to the Oxygen installation folder.

I changed the path of the parameter of the scenario, to make sure it would pick up the rigth Dita-OT.

So you edited the transformation scenario and set the "dita.dir" parameter to point to the alternate DITA OT, correct?

I ran the startcmd.bat file (ant -f integrator.xml) and the build is successfull.

Did you run the integrator in the proper DITA OT alternate installation folder? Do you have full read/write access rights in that folder? If not, you can keep the alternate DITA OT installation in a separate folder on your hard drive (somewhere in the user home for example).

Then I expected the scenario to generate a PDF with our custom layout, but it keeps generating the PDF with the out of the box layout.

Does your plugin add a new PDF transtype value? If so, when editing the transformation scenario in the Parameters list you should add a parameter called transtype with the transtype contributed by your plugin.

I made sure the build.xml, catalog.xml, integrator.xml and plugin.xml, all pointed to the new directory.

Ok. If you edit the transformation scenario, in the Output tab you can opt for Show Console Output->Always. This will show all the output given by the ANT process in the console view and you can look to see what targets are being executed.

Regards,
Radu

[Boreas]

thank you! it works.

I was missing the transtype parameter.

1- I copied the plugin in ...frameworks/dita/DITA-OTTest/plugins
2- I ran the Run Dita OT Integrator directly from Oxygen using the Run Dita OT Integrator scenario.
I made sure that I was pointing to the proper Dita folder to pick up the proper integrator file.
2 I added a new parameter in my scenario called transtype and gave it the value of the name of the transtype. (found it in the plugin.xml file of the plugin).

Generated the document, and there it was, working as expected.

I really appreciated the Run Dita OT Integrator scenario, I really dont like using the cmd line....

Thanks again.

[Radu]

Hi Carole,

I'm glad it works for you. About this remark:

I really appreciated the Run Dita OT Integrator scenario, I really dont like using the cmd line....

We also plan for a future Oxygen release to add an automatic plugin transtype discovery in order for example to use the New button in the Configure Transformation Scenarios dialog and find your transformation type already there.

Regards,
Radu