webhelp.skin.css in build.xml

[urbanrobots]

Hi,
We're currently setting webhelp.skin.css in a properties file that we specify at run-time. We're trying to move this to the build.xml file instead using a <property> element. When publishing with webhelp.skin.css specified in build.xml and not using a properties file, the skin.css file gets creates with the correct CSS, but no html files actually reference that file. In fact, the skin.css link is not present at all.

Do we need to add this property someplace else as well?

Thanks,
- Nick

[alin]

Hello Nick,

Since you are referring to the "webhelp.skin.css" parameter I assume that you are trying to obtain an WebHelp Classic output. Can you please give me more details about your setup and usecase?

1. What type of documents are you trying to transform, DITA or DocBook?
2. In case you are using DITA, how do you initiate the transformation: from oXygen (via a transformation scenario) or from the command line?
3. What version of oXygen are you using?

Regards,
Alin

[urbanrobots]

Hi Alin,
We use Webhelp Classic v19 for DITA content and publish through the command line.

Take care,
- Nick

[Costin]

Hi Nick,

- In this case, the simplest way to pass a property to the command line is to use the following syntax:
-D<property-name>=<value>
I.e, to use a cutom skin, you should use something like:

Code: Select all

-Dwebhelp.skin.css=D:\path\to\my\skin.css

- As an alternative, you could create and use a custom Ant Build to override the default styling for the WebHelp Classic output.
To achieve that, you should follow the instructions on this page from our User-Guide.
At step 4, you should ignore the properties we used in the example. The only property you should set is the webhelp.skin.css property, as follows:

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<property 

     name="webhelp.skin.css" 

     value="${dita.plugin.com.oxygenxml.webhelp.classic.custom.dir}/css/customSkin.css"/>

In my test, I copied the customSkin.css in the "css" subfolder in the extension plugin's folder, hence the path in the example I just provided.

At step 5, the same instruction applies also for css, so you should create a "css" subfolder in the customization plugin folder you created at first step, then place your custom .css file inside it.

Last, install the custom plugin. You should run a command line instruction like:

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[DITA_OT_DIR] > bin\dita -install

At this point, your custom plugin should be installed, so you could just use the transtype from the plugin in a command line transformation to generate the styled output.
For example, my command line looked like:

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[EXTERNAL_DITA_OT_DIR]>bin\dita -i C:\Path\to\my\ditamap\file.ditamap -o C:\Path\to\my\output\folder -f webhelp-classic-custom -Dclean.output=yes -verbose

I hope this helps!

Regards,
Costin