XMetaL Author Enterprise can't find Antenna House XSL Formatter

[Derek Read]

Problem:
You are using the deliverable type "XMetaL Enhanced PDF via Antenna House XSL Formatter" and you have Antenna House XSL Formatter installed but output fails and your output log file contains something similar to the following:

Antenna House XSL Formatter could not be found. Please install this applicaton. If XSL Formatter is already installed, ensure XMetaL is configured to identify where the application is installed.

Solution:
Specify the location to your copy of Antenna House XSL Formatter using the following parameter* in Tools > Configure Output > [your deliverable's name] > Edit (button) > Advanced (tab) > Other output parameters:

Code:

ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe = <absolute path to xslcmd.exe>

You can pass command line parameters to xslcmd.exe using the following parameter:

Code:

ANTENNA_PARAM = <additional command line parameters>

Example:

Code:

ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe  =  "c:\progra~1\antenna\xslfor~1\xslcmd.exe"
ANTENNA_PARAM  =  -i "c:\config_file1.xml"

If any of the paths you use contain spaces you should place quotation marks around them.

*Note: If the ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe parameter doesn't accept a quoted path for paths that contain spaces (you'll see a truncated path in your output log file after the first space) please use an 8.3 formatted path as shown in the example above. We hope to correct this in the future.

[Tazz64]

what type of XMetaL Enhanced PDF via Antenna House XSL Formatter you are using?Can you tell me what is it?

[Derek Read]

The original post was in reference to the out of the box deliverable that ships with XMetaL Author Enterprise 5.1 and 5.5 called "XMetaL Enhanced PDF via Antenna House XSL Formatter" and documented in help. We do not include a copy of XSL Formatter however, which is why the product does not know where you have installed it (nor is it possible to figure that out using Windows system calls).

[Su-Laine Yeo]

If you are using Antenna House XSL Formatter 4.3 and it is installed in the default location, the parameter is:

Code:

ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe  =  "C:\Progra~1\Antenna\XSLFor~1\XSLCmd.exe"

[Derek Read]

Antenna House has changed the name of their "XSL Formatter" command line tool with their v5.2 release. By default it is now installed here:

C:\Program Files\AntennaHouse\AHFormatterV52\AHFCmd.exe

So, in order for XMetaL Author Enterprise to locate it you will need to add the following parameter (as outlined in the rest of this post):

ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe = C:\Program Files\AntennaHouse\AHFormatterV52\AHFCmd.exe

Note: Tested with XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0.1.030 (current version to date) on Windows XP.

[Yuwono]

Derek,

I tried 3 different ways:

ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe = C:\Program Files\AntennaHouse\AHFormatterV52\AHFCmd.exe
ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe = "C:\Program Files\AntennaHouse\AHFormatterV52\AHFCmd.exe"
ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe = C:\PROGRA~1\ANTENN~1\AHFORM~1\AHFCmd.exe

and they produced an error in the log although PDFs were successfully rendered.

Should I just ignore the error?

[Derek Read]

I don't see this issue, however, I'm also not running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 (and you seem to be). That might be the reason, I'm not sure.

XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0 does not currently officially support 64-bit Windows 7 (only 32-bit) but we have plans to with our next major release.

[gcrews]

don't see how it would not show that error. If you look at the batch code in print_dita142.xml around line  1557 you have a "echo on" and its after the toolkit runs witch enables echo too as i recall. looks like its finding the file but its just a echo from the batch code. If it was actually echoing that message you would not see the echo in the error line. Derek, did you look at the log file in xmetal or just see that it completed successfully?

[Derek Read]

I just recall that output was successful. I don't remember looking to see if there were any messages in the log. I'll see if I still have this VM image (I should) tomorrow and have a look at the log.

[Derek Read]

OK, I've set up a clean install and also reviewed the batch file instructions and yes, you will see the lines you have highlighted in the log file. However, they are simply commands that happen to be echoed into the log file and are not actual errors. The fact that they are outlined in orange and yellow is a side effect of the simplistic logic that we use to suggest places you may wish to double check in the log file. That logic tries to highlight any line containing certain keywords (error, warning, warn, among others).

The parameter I suggested before works just fine for AHF 5.2:
ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe = C:\Program Files\AntennaHouse\AHFormatterV52\AHFCmd.exe

PDF output is produced, the "BUILD SUCCESSFUL" message appears in the log file (above the lines you have indicated), and you should be able to open the PDF directly from our UI once it is complete.