generate.outer.copy parameter

DITA Open Toolkit 1.8.4

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generate.outer.copy parameter

Elaboration on how the generate.outer.copy parameter functions.

Background

This is an issue in the following situations:
  • The DITA map is in a directory that is a peer to directories that contain referenced objects.
  • The DITA map is in a directory that is below the directories that contain the referenced objects.
Let's assume that the directory structure for the DITA content looks like the following:
maps
topics
images
The DITA map is in the maps directory, the topics are in the topics directory, and the images are in the images directory.

Setting the generate.outer.copy parameter to 1

Let's assume that you run the XHTML transformation and specify an output directory of C:\A-test. By default, The DITA-OT uses the generate.outer.copy parameter with a value of 1. Output is not built for the topics. You receive only the following output:
A-test
--- dita.list
--- dita.xml.properties
--- index.html
--- commonltr.css
--- commonrtl.css
The index.html file contains the navigation structure, but all the links are broken, since no XHTML files were built for the topics.

How do you fix this? By specifying a value of 2 or 3 for the generate.outer.copy parameter.

Setting the generate.outer.copy parameter to 2

Let's assume that you run the XHTML transformation again and specify the following parameters:
  • The generate.outer.copy parameter is set to 2.
  • The output.dir parameter is set to C:\A-test.
This is what your output looks like:
C:\A-test
--- dita.list
--- dita.xml.properties
--- index.html
--- commonltr.css
--- commonrtl.css
...
C:\images
...
C:\topics

The links in the output all work properly. However, depending on how many other directories are located at the same level of your build system as the output directory, it might not be easy gather all the output together if you need to copy it elsewhere.

Setting the generate.outer.copy parameter to 3

Now your output directory structure looks like this:
C:\A-test
--- images\
--- maps\
--- topics\
The index.html file is in the maps directory, and the CSS and other files are located in the output directory, C:\A-test. Copying the output directory is simplified.
Parent topic: Ant parameters: Common HTML-based transformations
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