Conditional Processing Values missing from XMetaL Dialog Boxes

[[email protected]]

XMetaL 6.0.2.070
Windows 7 Professional, SP1 64-bit

XMetaL crashed this morning while I was working in a Reference topic, updating an ID in the Attributes panel. I forced XMetaL closed through Task Manager, and then re-started XMetaL. When I went to generate output for a dita map, I clicked the Show/Hide Conditional Text button, and the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialog box displays, but there are no values in the Attribute-Values list. If I click Advanced on that window and select to use a ditaval instead, the output generation fails. If I don't select a ditaval, but just click out of the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialg box, the output generates, but with all of my conditional text.

I rebooted the PC, and tried to repair the XMetaL installation – same results.

I uninstalled XMetaL and re-installed – same results.

The Style Conditional Text dialog box doesn't display any values either.
Any thoughts?

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[Derek Read]

If you have IE9 installed that could be the problem. We think we can reproduce this with IE9 installed, assuming the dialogs look like the attached. The issue does not always occur. We have found that it doesn't occur if you move your mouse away from the location that the dialog will appear when it opens, if your mouse is inside the dialog when it opens then switching the value in the dropdown at the top (in my screenshot it is a

) that normally causes the blank section to refresh and function correctly.

The other option is to remove IE9 and restore a previous version of IE (6,7,8). The issue does not occur with previous releases of IE and we are looking into the cause and trying to figure out a fix.

If that doesn't help then the issue might be related to running the software on 64-bit Windows 7. Even if this particular issue is resolved by changing IE version you will very likely have output related issues when running on 64-bit. XMetaL Author Enterprise itself generally runs OK but the DITA OT that we install and have configured with this version may have some issues. I would recommend running the software using “XP Mode” (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx) until we release a version that is supported on 64-bit Windows 7 in that case.

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[gcrews]

or the ct_preferences.xml or ct_config.xml file got corrupted.

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[Derek Read]

ah, good point gcrews, that is another possibility to check

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[[email protected]]

I deleted the current copy of the ct_preferences.xml and then replaced the ct_config.xml with an archived copy from 2010 – that seemed to do the trick. Not sure what was going on in the ct_config.xml I had, as it appeared okay, but none the less, all the conditions are now displaying in the appropriate dialog boxes…

Thanks much!

RP

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