Generating Index using Antenna House

[Yuwono]

Hi,

I have some indexterms for example:
ChicagoOneIndiana

I successfully generate a PDF using a XEP. However when I am using Antenna House v.5.2 Evaluation version, rendering process freeze until running out heap memory.

When I removed tags, XML Enhanced PDF via Antenna can render a PDF flawlessly.

Does anyone experience like this before? How can I solve it?

The second question: where could I find a documentation about parameters = values (In Configure Output) such as cmd_xmreviewer, ANT_PARAM_args.antenna.exe, etc.

Thank you

Reply

[Derek Read]

Please provide the following information so we can try to reproduce this:

1. XMetaL Author Enterprise version.
2. Does having just one element trigger this, or do you need some specific number, like 100+, 1000+, etc?
3. Are you sure it is the presence of the itself that triggers this and not some content it contains (a specific character for example)?
4. Are you generating output from a map, or bookmap (or some other specialized map type)?
5. If you create a brand new map that references the same topic(s) does the issue still occur (this test is linked to test #3 I suppose).
6. Does the DITA OT process things to the point where Antenna House actually starts processing? (sounds like it) If so does the DITA OT log file contain any errors or warnings in it that might help track down the problem?

Reply

[Derek Read]

I cannot repeat your issue exactly using Antenna House v4.2 (which I had configured already so could try immediately). I will try to obtain the same version you have a see if I can reproduce the problem.

In my case a PDF file is created successfully but no entries appear in the Index section (it is empty). The same set of files creates a PDF containing an Index with proper entries when using RenderX. The XSL-FO appears to be correct so it is unclear to me why the Index is empty (despite Antenna House XSL Formatter 4.2 documentation stating that it supports the XSL-FO that is used to do this).

My steps:

0) Install Antenna House XSL Formatter (as noted above so far I have only tested with version 4.2) and XMetaL Author Enterprise (my version 6.0.1.030 — current release) then use the Configure Output option in XMetaL to enable the deliverable called “XMetaL Enhanced PDF via Antenna House XSL Formatter”.

1) Open the sample (Help > Samples) called “XMetaL Reviewer Help (DITA)”.
2) Open the topic (from the map) called “About these sample documents”.
3) Add the following to that topic at a valid location:

ChicagoOneIndiana

Chicago, One, Indiana.

4) Save the topic.
5) In the map editor select File > Generate Output for DITA Map.
6) For the deliverable type select “XMetaL Enhanced PDF via Antenna House XSL Formatter”.
7) Click OK to generate output. It completes successfully but the PDF document contains an empty Index (the title “Index” appears on a blank page with no index entries).

Repeat steps 5-7 but this time select “XMetaL Enhanced PDF via RenderX XEP” in step 6. As you have noted you get a document that contains a proper Index this time.

Reply

[Derek Read]

OK, I've repeated the same test after installing Antenna House XSL Formatter v5.2 and I get the same results: PDF outputs fine with no errors or warnings in the log file but the Index in the PDF contains no entries.

Back to your original problem (with PDF just failing to output in general) I suspect what you might be seeing is that XMetaL Author Enterprise is unable to locate your version of Antenna House. If that is the case then the log file will contain the following entry:

echo ERROR: 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.

To resolve that problem please refer to the following post: http://forums.xmetal.com/index.php/topic,166.msg3748.html#msg3748

I'll see if someone else here can confirm why my Index is empty when using Antenna House and not RenderX. From what I can tell the XSL-FO produced by the DITA OT does not contain any directives that Antenna House documents as unsupported.

Reply

[Su-Laine Yeo]

Yuwono, in response to your second question, some parameters are documented here:

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/XMetaL%20Shared/DITA_OT/doc/DITA-javacmd.html

and here:

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Common%20Files/XMetaL%20Shared/DITA_OT/doc/DITA-antscript.html

For parameters that are not mentioned in these two files, we don't have documentation, but we can answer questions about whatever you're trying to do.

I'm looking into the Antenna House indexing issue.

Reply

[Su-Laine Yeo]

Update: I'm in discussions with Antenna House on this issue. I hope to have a fix available shortly.

Su-Laine

Reply

[Yuwono]

Sorry just responding back. Just to confirm, is this Antenna House Formatter V5.2 issue?

Yuwono

Reply

[Su-Laine Yeo]

Hi Yuwono,

This is definitely a configuration issue rather than a limitation in the Antenna House or XMetaL software itself. What we know so far is that in the topic.fo file that is generated in XMetaL's Generate Output process, the index is wrapped in an element called . This is a RenderX extension element that isn't processed by Antenna House Formatter. If you remove this wrapper from the topic.fo file and then run the topic.fo file through Antenna House Formatter, the index appears as expected.

We're still working on the issue of how to configure PDF output to prevent the wrapper element from being inserted. In the meantime, if you need to use Antenna House, follow the following procedure:

Go to Tools > Configure Output > Advanced tab and “uncomment” a parameter. Remove _rem_ from the line _rem_cmd_synchro_mode = 2 so that it reads cmd_synchro_mode = 2. This prevents XMetaL from cleaning up the work files after a build.

The next time you generate PDF output, you will see a topic.fo file in your output folder. You can edit this file in a text editor to remove the tags, and then run it through Antenna House Formatter to produce your PDF file.

Su-Laine

Reply

[Su-Laine Yeo]

Good news: Antenna House has released a patch for this issue, as described here: http://forums.xmetal.com/index.php/topic,1232.0.html . Can you try that out and let us know how it goes?

Thanks for your patience, and a special thank-you to the team at Antenna House.

Reply

[Author]

Posts