Importing ditamap into RoboHelp fails

[hthomastw2012]

I am trying to import a ditamap (created in FrameMaker) into RoboHelp. I am able to create Web output using command line DITA-OT, which is what RH uses in the background. But when I try in RH, I get the following error:

Error occurred while importing C:\......\a.ditamap. See Output View for details.

The Output View says:

Processing with DITA Open Toolkit failed. No Logs found.

Check DITA Open Toolkit is installed and working.

Well, as I said, DITA Open Toolkit is indeed installed and working for the exact ditamap that fails in RH. Even more puzzling is the fact that my colleague, who we believe has the same setup as I do, is able to import the ditamap.

We are both using RoboHelp 10.0.0.287, which I believe is the latest update available. Please correct me if I'm wrong! Our machines are Windows 7 and we have FrameMaker 11 (not that it should matter). DITA-OT is 1.6.3.

I found some talk about this problem from an old post (here), in which someone stated that Adobe is working on this. Any ideas whether that is still the case, or if I can try anything else?

Thanks,

Heather

[RoboColum_n_]

In the post you refer to it states that reinstalling ALL the applications (not just FM and RH) fixed the problem. I'm not sure if this is the case with your scenario or whether the applications were bought in isolation.

[hthomastw2012]

Thank you for your reply, RoboColum(n). It turns out that the solution was to use DITA-OT 1.5 rather than 1.6.3. I was mistaken when I said above that my colleague and I had the same setup. He has been running the OT 1.5 for quite some time and since I recently installed it, I went for the newer version.

We can use version 1.5 for what we need, but it is rather strange that version 1.6 does not work to import ditamaps in RoboHelp. The information I found states that version 1.6 improves performance, provides clearer error messages and has undergone significant code cleanup.

I would be interested to know if Adobe will be keeping up with future versions of the DITA Open Toolkit. There are plans to incorporate the creation of context-sensitive webhelp in a future version, which would be really helpful for us.

Thanks again,

Heather

[RoboColum_n_]

Thanks for posting back Heather. It will certainly help others in the future. I can ask around about DITA 1.6.3 and will post back if I hear anything useful.

[hthomastw2012]

I hope I can spare others some frustration through my experience.

I would appreciate you doing some asking. Thanks.