Debugging PDF Transformations

To debug a DITA PDF transformation scenario using the XSLT Debugger follow these steps:

  1. Open the Preferences dialog box (Options > Preferences), go to XML > XML Catalog, click Add, and select the file located at DITA-OT-DIR\plugins\org.dita.pdf2\cfg\catalog.xml.
  2. Open the map and create a DITA Map PDF transformation scenario.
  3. Edit the scenario, go to the Parameters tab and change the value of the clean.temp parameter to no.
  4. Run the transformation scenario.
  5. Open the stage1.xml file located in the temporary directory and format and indent it.
  6. Create a transformation scenario for this XML file by associating the topic2fo_shell_fop.xsl stylesheet located at DITA-OT-DIR\plugins\org.dita.pdf2\xsl\fo\topic2fo_shell_fop.xsl. If you are specifically using the RenderX XEP or Antenna House FO processors to build the PDF output, you should use the XSL stylesheets topic2fo_shell_xep.xsl or topic2fo_shell_axf.xsl located in the same folder.
  7. In the transformation scenario edit the XSLT Processor combo box choose the Saxon EE XSLT processor (the same processor used when the DITA OT transformation is executed).
  8. In the transformation scenario, edit the Parameters list and set the parameter locale with the value en_GB and the parameter customizationDir.url to point either to your customization directory or to the default DITA OT customization directory. Its value should have a URL syntax like this: file://c:/path/to/DITA-OT-DIR/plugins/org.dita.pdf2/cfg.
  9. Debug the transformation scenario.