Troubleshooting PTC ALD Publishing

You may need to troubleshoot the publishing process when using PTC ALD to print or publish PDF. This troubleshooting process requires an PTC ALD snapshot zip file. You need to create the PTC ALD snapshot file using one of the following:

• the app-snapshot=yes document conversion parameter when sending f=convert publishing requests to the Arbortext PE server. The request places the snapshot file in the transaction archive. For more information on transaction archives, refer to Configuration Guide for Arbortext Publishing Engine.

• dynamic.dtd or dynamic.xsd — (optional) An XML document type definition (DTD) file or an XML schema (XSD) file may be necessary to read inputDoc.xml. The snapshot can contain one of these files if it is needed to read the inputDoc.xml. For example, DITA documents use a dynamic DTD.

The PTC ALD snapshot does not contain the document type, stylesheet, PTC ALD configuration file, or the contents of the application or custom directories. You can generate a zip containing those using Tools > Save Application.

After generating the PTC ALD snapshot zip file, you will use the Execute ALD Snapshot tool to run the publishing process on the PTC ALD snapshot file. You can use a hints.xml file to override some of the parameters used by PTC ALD during publishing the document. The PTC ALD snapshot file does not contain a hints.xml file. You can either provide a path to it in the Execute ALD Snapshot dialog box, or you can insert one directly into the snapshot archive before you execute the troubleshooting process. Unzip the snapshot zip file, copy the hints.xml file into the extracted directory, and then zip the directory again.

To provide the hints.xml file , you must create one. It is an XML document that provides parameters to override some of the publishing parameters in effect when the snapshot was created. The file takes the following form:

<app:AppSnapshotHints xmlns:app="http://arbortext.ptc.com/AppSnapshot">
<Hint name="parameter-name" value="parameter-value"/>
<Hint name="parameter-name" value="parameter-value"/>
<Hint name="parameter-name" value="parameter-value" />
</app:AppSnapshotHints>

Hint Name	Value
cropmarks	Specify 1 to display crop marks. Specify 0 to suppress them.
datemark	Specify 1 to display date marks. Specify 0 to suppress them.
printRange	Specify the pages to print or publish to PDF. You can specify page numbers, page ranges, or combinations of both, for example, 3-5,9,21-33.
regmarks	Specify 1 to display registration marks. Specify 0 to suppress them.
APPChecksumPath	Specify 1 to generate a checksum file. Specify 0 to suppress it. The file is placed in the same directory as the PDF produced from the snapshot.
APPSavePath	Specify 1 to save the PTC ALD template file generated during publishing. Specify 0 to suppress them. The file is placed in the same directory as the PDF produced from the snapshot.
editstylesheet	Specify the absolute path to a stylesheet to use when opening the input document before publishing.
stylesheet	Specify the absolute path to a stylesheet to pass to PTC ALD during publishing.
APPConfigFile	Specify the absolute path to an PTC ALD configuration file to pass to PTC ALD during publishing.

If you have trouble running the snapshot tool, you can use the diagnostics program. Launch the PTC Arbortext Diagnostics tool from your program group shortcuts. Then set the ACL global variable appsnapx::debug to 2. Issue the command set debug==extwin on the command line or from a script in custom\init. Then execute the snapshot tool again and check the diagnostics window. For more information on the diagnostics window, refer to Getting Trace Information in the Configuration Guide for Arbortext Publishing Engine PDF.