With the release of version 9.0 and 10.0, the XMetaL software no longer requires an Internet connection to register or unregister a per-seat license. Users with a version 7.0 or 8.0 license file should receive a new license file (e.g. XMEE.lic) as required to activate this software.
For concurrent licenses, a new version of the XMetaL License Server (XMLS) software must be installed. The new XMLS software does not require an Internet connection to register or unregister. A new product license file (e.g. XMLS-XMEE.lic) must be added to your XMLS server. See the new XMLS User Guide for more details.
Note: Older .lic files are incompatible with this version.
Contact your JustSystems Sales representative if you have further licensing-related questions.
With the release of version 10.0, the XMetaL executable and configuration file names no longer incorporate a version number. Instead of xmetal10.exe or xmetal10.ini, the file names are simply xmetal.exe and xmetal.ini.
These installation notes cover the following XMetaL Author Enterprise installations:
All installations of XMetaL Author are pre-configured to operate in an environment where end-users are assumed to have ‘Limited User’ account privileges. Programs running under such user accounts are normally restricted from writing to Program Files and similar folders along with writing to Windows HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry hives. XMetaL Author still has some features that require operating under a Local Admin user account in order to write to the Program Files folder. A prompt will appear warning the user of this restriction.
For all installations, features requiring Local Admin privileges (right-click and choose ‘Run as Administrator’) warn the user before proceeding or are disabled.
Here are the features that display a warning:
Regardless of account privileges, the following processes and features are disabled:
Alternatively, you can use these features by running XMetaL Author in Administrator mode. Follow these steps:
Note: The disabled features also require you to configure XMetaL Author for Local Admin privileges.
Note: Regardless of being qualified as limited-user or local-administrator, users MUST chose ‘Run as Administrator’.
XMetaL Author Enterprise is installed with the assumption that users have Limited User account privileges under Windows. If you need to set up DITA specializations for your end users, or if you want to enable features that are otherwise disabled for Limited Users you must set the following variable in the XMetaL Author configuration file (xmetal.ini): user_setting_mode=default Local Admin users very familiar with the product may continue to work with XMetaL Author Enterprise in this mode, however, we recommend that it only be used to accomplish tasks that cannot be done otherwise and that the default setting be restored once these tasks are accomplished. The default setting is the "per-user" mode, which is set as follows: user_setting_mode=per_user
The installer includes the following components:
Special note for installations: If you are installing the software from a Limited User account, you must provide an Administrator ID and password in order to run the XMetaL Author installer.
The following additional software is required for generating output and page previewing for DITA documents:
The following additional software is required for the ISO Schematron validation feature:
Note: Version numbers noted above are minimum versions.
You must have a 9.0 compatible or newer license file to install this version. If you do not have a license file, contact Sales.
If you are installing this version onto a computer with an existing version of XMetaL Author Enterprise, please be aware that the software does not support installing or running two versions in the same Windows installation. If you somehow manage to do so neither version will function properly.
If your current version is:
If you must use two versions of the software on the same physical computer you may wish to install one version in a virtual machine running inside software such as VMWare, Virtual PC, or VirtualBox.
If you switch to another program while XMetaL Author Enterprise license activating dialog is in the foreground, you will not be able to switch back to it using Alt+tab. Minimize all other applications in order to reveal the licensing activation dialog once again.
If you have specializations, make copies of the following files and folders and note that n.n can be either "1.2" or "1.1":
Note: If you want to keep a previous version of the DITA Open Toolkit, rename the following folder before you install: %PROGRAMDATA%\SoftQuad\XMetaL\Shared\DITA_OT. If you have added any plug-ins or made customization such as XSLT changes, make sure to do a backup. For more information about specifying parameters, see the XMetaL Author Enterprise User’s Guide.
Activating your XMetaL Author Enterprise software is required in order to be fully licensed to use the software. The license information required for activation is provided by a license file.
Samples files installed in the Program Files folder are deployed on a per-user basis by choosing the Help > Samples submenu item of interest. Customization files may also be deployed on a per-user basis if they are initially deployed in the Program Files folder.
If you need to re-deploy samples, remove the following folder for each user:
If you need to re-deploy customization files deployed in the Program Files folder, remove the corresponding sub-folder for each customization for each user. Note that the folder structure within the following folder mimics the folder structure of the customization files:
The full (expanded) path for %userprofile% varies depending on your Windows version and user account configuration, but generally follows this pattern:
C:\Users\{account name}\Application Data
Note: The %appdata% folder is a hidden folder on most WIndows accounts.
If you have specializations, you need to re-integrate them after installing. Follow these steps:
Note: You must log-in as an Administrator or run XMetaL as Administrator.
Note for XMetaL Author Enterprise for Documentum Webtop users: To see all the enhancements and changes for DITA, please ensure that the DocApp is updated accordingly. Updated DocApps are made available with the XMetaL Author 10.0-compatible release of XMetaL Author Enterprise for Documentum Webtop.
You can re-run the installer from the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel.
If you have already installed XMetaL Author, the installer gives you options to Remove or Repair XMetaL Author (see below).
If you have already successfully installed this version of XMetaL Author, a dialog box appears with two options: Repair, and Remove.
Select Repair if you suspect that the currently installed product has become corrupted in some way. Repair reinstalls the same set of components installed in the previous installation.
Note: The files that the original installer unpacked must still be available if you choose this option.
In some cases there may be two or more choices that the installer can make when installing certain components. In this situation a dialog box appears asking for your preference.
Select Remove if you want to uninstall the complete product.
Other types of user data, such as files that were created directly by the user or that contain preferences that a user might want to re-use in a later version installation, are not removed at uninstallation time. If you want to remove them, you must delete them manually after uninstallation has completed. Such files may exist here:
You can install XMetaL Author silently from the command line. If you obtained a single EXE file (sometimes referred to as the "web installer") you need to unpack it to obtain the "real" installer as follows: (Note: If you obtained XMetaL Author on CD you can skip this section. )
Use the following syntax to silently install:
msiexec /i "path of XMetaL Author Enterprise.msi file" /qn
Note: The XMETAL_LICENSE_PATH parameter is required only when the license file is not in the same folder as the MSI file or the name of the license file is not xmetal.lic.
Important note: If you intend to use the DITA Open Toolkit on a Citrix installation, you must configure per-user deployment of the DITA Open Toolkit. See Shared versus per-user DITA Open Toolkit deployments for details.
Use the following syntax to silently uninstall:
msiexec /x "path of XMetaL Author Enterprise.msi file" /qn
To get more options pertaining to the silent installation, run msiexec in another Command Prompt without any options.
This release of XMetaL Author automatically installs all supported languages for spell checking and the thesaurus including the following:
This release can be configured to use Hunspell compatible dictionaries for spell checking. These can be used to extend or replace the languages included with the spell checker. They are the same standard Hunspell spell checking dictionary files supported by OpenOffice™ and some other applications.
Most of these files come with their own EULA and so it is up to you to obtain and deploy compatible .DIC and associated .AFF files for each language you want XMetaL Author to use. For additional and updated information on this subject please see Obtaining and Using Hunspell Compatible Dictionaries with XMetaL Author
Once you have a compatible .DIC file (and optional .AFF file) use the following the procedure to configure XMetaL Author to use them.
Restart XMetaL Author to start spell checking with the newly added Hunspell dictionary.
If the language you have added a Hunspell dictionary for is not set as the "default Writing Tools" language you may wish to set it. There are other ways to spell check (using xml:lang and APIs) so this is not necessarily the case. Please refer to Help for information on spell checker functionality.
The XMetaL Author Installer Setup program warns you if you do not have permission to install XMetaL Author (for example, if you are logged in as a normal or restricted user). The solution is to install XMetaL Author on Windows by logging in as a user who has administrator privileges.
XMetaL Author is now certified on Citrix Metaframe Presentation Server 4.0. The Citrix-compatible version of XMetaL uses the MSI-type installer and has specific installation prerequisites. There are also some minor functional differences in the software. These and other differences are detailed below.
The Citrix Installation Manager will install the MSI installer silently, so there is no user interaction.
The MSI installer cannot be modified or repaired through Add/Remove programs. It should be removed only from the Citrix Installation Manager.
The following components must be installed on your server before XMetaL Author will operate correctly:
The following components are optional but required if you intend to use the ISO Schematron validation feature:
Note: Version numbers noted above are minimum versions.
You can create a silent installer packages for Citrix installations. To create a silent installer from Installation Manager, add the product serial number as a command line parameter.
XMETAL_LICENSE_PATH=path of license file
To enable per-user deployments of the DITA Open Toolkit, please see Shared versus per-user DITA Open Toolkit deployments.
No command line parameters are required to un-install.
XMetaL Author has been tested and operates properly when the Citrix drive remap feature is configured. Please ensure XMetaL Author is installed only after drive remap has been applied.
The following additional software is required for the generating output and page previewing:
In Citrix environments, it is expected that the administrator will setup XMetaL Author prior to publishing the application to the Citrix users. If specializations or some pre-configuration is required using these features, the Citrix admin needs to toggle the 'user_setting_mode' variable (see Configuring XMetaL Author).
The Citrix Presentation Server requires you to do a ‘publish application’ in order to make XMetaL Author visible to your end users. The following settings are recommended or suggested minimum settings:
Application Limits: Check 'Allow only one instance of application for each user'
Application Appearance: Session Window Size: 1024x768
Application Appearance: Colors: High Color (16-bit) or better
If you encounter problems, it is possible that the XMetaL document customization you are using is not Citrix-aware. In addition to the above ‘Publish Application’ settings, adjust the following setting:
Application Location : Check 'Isolate Application'
By default, version 2.0 of the DITA Open Toolkit (DOTK) is configured for Generate Output operations within the software. If you require the older version to be used, version 1.8M2, there is a configure output variable that needs to be hidden in order to make version 1.8M2 the default for Generate Output operations.
Follow the steps below to change the "active" DOTK back to v1.8M2:
The default DITA Open Toolkit (DOTK) installation and execution location has changed with this release. For some types of installations such as on Citrix, you will need to adjust the execution location via the DITAOT_PER_USER option described below.
By default, the DOTK will be installed and run from here: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\SoftQuad\XMetaL\Shared\DITA_OT
For installations requiring per-user deployment of the DOTK (re: Citrix), please run the installer choosing one of the following command-line options:
For per-user (Citrix) installations, the DOTK will be installed to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\SoftQuad\XMetaL\Shared\DITA_OT but run from here: %APPDATA%\SoftQuad\XMetaL\Shared\DITA_OT
To adjust the behavior after installing, confirm XMetaL Author Enterprise is not running, delete %APPDATA%\SoftQuad\XMetaL\10.0\print_local.xml, and change the value of the dita_ot_per_user INI variable in the %PROGRAMFILES%\XMetaL 10.0\Author\xmetal.ini file: