XMetaL Author 12 and Older Version of DITA-OT

[jpcain429]

We have an older DITA OpenToolkit (version 1.4) that we still use for our custom DITA-OT plugins.  We are upgrading from XMetaL Author 8 to XMetaL Author 12, and after initial install of XMetaL Author 12 and the incorporation of our older DITA-OT, we run into the following error when we try to run one of our custom transform types:

org.dita.dost.exception.DITAOTException: [DOTJ002F][FATAL] Unsupported parameter '/args.filter'. Please refer to User Guide for supported parameters.

Is XMetaL Author 12 no longer supporting older DITA-OT versions?  Or, is there a configuration somewhere to force backward compatibility?

Thanks,

Jim

[Derek Read]

You can switch between the installed copies of the DITA OT that are supported in the version of XMetaL Author Enterprise you are using the Configure Output dialog:

1. From the Tools menu select Configure Output...
2. Select the "Advanced" tab.
3. In the "Other output parameters" section locate the settings that begin with "DITA_OT_DIR".
In the case of version 12 I believe two versions of the DITA OT were installed and configured. You can switch between one and the other by adding an underscore to the start of the one you wish to disable and removing it from the one you wish to enable.

That setting effectively points to the folder containing the version of the DITA OT installed by the XMetaL Author Enterprise installer. In theory you can use that setting to point to any version of the DITA OT, but because they have changed significantly over time it isn't possible to support all older versions.

We are now typically including a copy that is as near to the current release of the DITA OT as we can when our software is released plus one or two versions back. Currently (for version 13) that means we include 3.0, 2.4 and 2.0. For version 12 I believe we included version 2.4 and 2.0 (possibly 2.2?)

Major changes to both the functionality and layout (folder structure and files) of the DITA OT were made around version 1.5 through 1.7 or so, making them quite incompatible with older releases, and custom changes you have made to older release would need to take those changes into account. From what I know the newer releases from about that point onward (1.8 through 3.0) have been quite stable as far as folder layout and file naming is concerned.