Frequently Asked Questions

1. Getting Started and Building Forrest

1.1. How to use these FAQs? +

+ There is no particular order to these FAQs. Use your browser's "Find + in this page" facility to search for keywords. +

1.2. Where can I read an overview about how to work with Forrest? +

+ See the Using Forrest guide. +

1.3. Where is all of the documentation? +

+ You have a local copy of the main documentation with your version of + Forrest. Do 'cd site-author; forrest run' and visit + http://localhost:8888/ in your browser. The most recent documentation + is in SVN trunk which creates the forrest.apache.org website. +

+ Each plugin has its own + documentation and working examples of its techniques. +

+ The example seed site has other documentation and working examples of + various techniques. Do 'cd my-new-directory; forrest seed-sample; + forrest run'. Every hour the forrestbot generates a static version of + this documentation on our testing zone. +

1.4. What are the system requirements for Forrest? +

+ Forrest includes everything necessary to build and run, except of + course for Java. In addition to all the Cocoon JARs, Forrest includes + and uses its own version of Apache Ant. +

+ Java 1.5 (or newer) is required. If you are only going to use Forrest + as-is then you need only the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). If you + intend to enhance and rebuild Forrest (or use the Forrest sources with + Subversion or use a source snapshot) then you need the full JDK. +

1.5. The old xml-forrest CVS code repository seems to be stale. What happened? +

+ Forrest switched from a CVS code repository to SVN (Subversion) code + repository. The old CVS repository is closed and not kept current. +

1.6. How can I use SVN to keep up to date with the latest codebase? +

+ Follow these Building Forrest notes. +

+ The Using Forrest guide provides + further step-by-step assistance in getting started with Forrest for + your project. +

1.7. How to use older versions of specific plugins? +

+ Sometimes one does not want to use the most recent functionality of a + plugin and instead need to use an older version. Information about + changes to each plugin can be found in its + documentation. +

+ In the forrest.properties file, specify the version of the plugin that + you require, e.g. +

+ project.required.plugins=org.apache.forrest.plugin.input.PhotoGallery-0.1,... +

+ Users of Forrest-0.7 will need to do this for the projectInfo plugin + if you get the following error ... +

+ Could not find component for role: + [org.apache.cocoon.components.modules.input.InputModule/lm] + (Key='org.apache.cocoon.components.modules.input.InputModule/ +

+ ... then sorry, we mistakenly added new "locationmap" functionality + (due in version 0.8). So do this ... +

+ project.required.plugins=org.apache.forrest.plugin.input.projectInfo-0.1,... +

1.8. What is the best way to generate "standalone documents" using Forrest? +

+ There is a trick that can cut down your turnaround time with building. + In forrest.properties ... +

+ +# The URL to start crawling from +#project.start-uri=linkmap.html + +

+ Uncomment that and set it to the specific page that you want. Forrest + will build that single document, then of course it will keep crawling + links from there. It might be confined to a sub-directory, but + depending on links could end up generating the whole site. The main + thing is that your page of interest is built first. +

+ It is probably easiest to make this change temporarily as a + command-line parameter, e.g. +

+ +forrest -Dproject.start-uri=live-sites.html + +

+ You can terminate forrest with 'kill' or Ctrl-C after it has built + your pages of interest. +

+ Cocoon can be instructed via the Cocoon + cli.xconf file to not follow links (see its "follow-links" + parameter). So this will build only the document that was specified. + Be careful, if you also usually build PDF pages, then they will not be + built. +

+ Cocoon can also be instructed to not process certain URIs if you need + to temporarily exclude then. +

+ Another useful technique is to use 'wget' or Apache Ant's Get task to + retrieve individual files, e.g. Do 'forrest run' and then + 'wget http://localhost:8888/index.pdf' +

1.9. When running <code>./build.sh</code> in cygwin, I get an error: <code>cygpath.exe: + *** can't create title mutex, Win32 error 6</code>. +

+ This + appears + to be a bug in cygwin. Please use the .bat script instead. +

1.10. On Java 6 fails validate-sitemap task. Missing the RELAX NG datatype library. + +validate-sitemap: +apache-forrest-0.8/main/webapp/resources/schema/relaxng/sitemap-v06.rng:72:31: +error: datatype library "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-datatypes" not recognized + +

+ The version of Jing needs to be updated. +

+ This is fixed in Forrest-0.9-dev version. + See FOR-984. +

+ One workaround is to update your copy of the + Jing jar at + $FORREST_HOME/lib/core/ +

+ Another workaround is to edit the forrest.properties configuration file + to expose the "forrest.validate.sitemap" property and set it to "false". + Might need to do the same for the "forrest.validate.stylesheets" property. +

1.11. Windows gets confused about which Java version to use. +

+ Cough, yes!. See this + explanation + on the Forrest mail lists. +

1.12. How can I specify the amount of memory to be used by Java? +

+ There are two ways to control this. If you get an OutOfMemoryError + when Cocoon is generating pages, see the first paragraph. If you get + an OutOfMemoryError when outside of Cocoon (e.g., copying raw files), + see the second paragraph. +

+ The maxmemory property in the + forrest.properties file controls how much memory Cocoon + uses. Like many other properties you can copy them from the default + configuration at main/fresh-site/forrest.properties +

+ Set the ANT_OPTS environment variable before you run + forrest. The exact value you set it to is dependant on your JVM, but + something like ANT_OPTS=-Xmx500M will probably work. +

1.13. How can I start forrest in Java debug mode? +

+ The forrest.jvmargs property in the + forrest.properties file can be used to start forrest in + debug mode on a specific port. forrest.jvmargs=-Xdebug + -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8000,server=y,suspend=n +

2. Content Creation

2.1. What tools can be used to edit the content? +

+ If you are using the Apache Forrest XML + document format or DocBook or other + XML document types, then you can use any text editor or even a + dedicated XML editor. You must ensure valid XML. See our + configuration notes for + various editors. +

+ There are content management systems like + Apache Lenya. +

+ Remember that Forrest can also use other source formats, such as + OpenOffice.org docs or JSPWiki. Use the appropriate editor for those + document types and ensure that the document stucture is consistent. + Forrest can also use "html" as the source format, in which case you + can use text editors or "html editors" such as the one provided with + the Mozilla web browser. +

2.2. + How to use the <code>site.xml</code> configuration file for menus and linking. + +

+ The site.xml configuration file is used for two different + purposes: defining the navigation menus, and as a method for defining + references to be used when linking between documents. This file is + fully explained in Menus and Linking. + Here is a precis: +

+ The labels can be whatever text you want. +

+ +<faq label="FAQs" href="faq.html"> + <tech label="Technical" href="faq-tech.html"> + <docbook href="#docbook"/> + <ignoring_javadocs href="#ignoring_javadocs"/> + </tech> + <user label="User" href="faq-user.html"> +</faq> + +

+ That will create a menu like this with three links: +

+ FAQs + Technical + User +

+ These documents can be linked to from other documents, like this: +

+ +<a href="site:faq/tech"> link to the top of the Tech FAQs +<a href="site:faq/tech/docbook"> link to the DocBook FAQ in the Tech FAQs + +

+ If that "docbook" entry was a unique name in your site.xml then you + can shorten that latter link: +

+ +<a href="site:docbook"> link to the DocBook FAQ in the Tech FAQs + +

2.3. + Where are examples of documents and site.xml and tabs.xml files? + +

+ There are examples in the 'forrest seed site' and also the Forrest + website documents are included with the distribution (cd + forrest/site-author; forrest run). +

2.4. + Help, one of my documents is not being rendered. + +

+ Did you make a link to it? Forrest does not find documents by scanning + the filesystem to find the source documents. Rather it starts at one + document and crawls the links to find other documents to process. +

+ There are essentially two ways to create links. Via a site.xml file to + define the navigation and menu structure, or via direct relative + linking. See the to previous FAQs. +

+ Normally the source material will be local. The Forrest crawler does + not follow and process off-site links. The new locationmap (0.8+) + enables content to be drawn from remote sources. +

2.5. How can I generate one pdf-file out of the whole site or selected pages of the site? +

+ Add the following entries to your site.xml file. + Note that the href must be exactly "wholesite" or "site" which triggers + a special match in the sitemap to aggregate all documents. +

+ + + <about tab="home" label="About" href=""> + ... + <all_site label="Full HTML" href="wholesite.html"/> + <all_sitePDF label="Full PDF" href="wholesite.pdf"/> + ... + </about> + +

+ In this case the menu labeled "About" will have 2 new items: "Full + PDF" and "Full HTML". +

+ See also How to + create a PDF document for each tab. +

+ This assumes that you use the + site.xml method for your site + structure and navigation, rather than the old book.xml method. +

+ + There are many issues with the "wholesite" aggregation. Search the + issue tracker and mail lists. + +

2.6. How do I insert page breaks into documents? +

+ Page breaks do not make a great deal of sense in HTML documents + intended for display on a screen. However, PDF documents are intended + for printing and therefore page breaks can be important. +

+ To insert a page break in a PDF document simply add + pageBreakBefore and/or pageBreakAfter to the class + attribute of the block you wish to force a page break on. All the + common block grouping elements support this class, for example, note, + warning, p and so on. +

+ If you want these classes to be processed in your HTML documents as + well you should add the following to the extra-css + element in your projects skinconf.xml +

+ + .pageBreakBefore { + margin-bottom: 0; + page-break-before: always; + } + .pageBreakAfter { + margin-bottom: 0; + page-break-after: always; + } +

2.7. How can I generate html-pages to show a 'clickable' email-address (of the + author-element)? +

+ You would override + $FORREST_HOME/main/webapp/skins/common/xslt/html/document-to-html.xsl + and edit the "headers/authors" template. +

2.8. How do I link to raw files such as config.txt and brochure.pdf? +

+ Handling of raw files was significantly changed in Forrest 0.7. See + Upgrading to Apache Forrest + 0.7 for all the details. +

2.9. Images don't display in PDFs. How do I fix this? +

+ Forrest uses Apache FOP + for rendering PDFs. FOP cannot handle all image types natively, and + requires third-party jars to be added. FOP natively handles BMP, GIF, + JPG, TIFF and EPS (with a few limitations). FOP can also handle SVG + (via Batik) and PNG (see below). For details, see + FOP + Graphics formats +

+ To get PNGs working in PDFs with Jimi: +

Download Jimi from http://java.sun.com/products/jimi/
Unpack the Jimi distribution and copy JimiProClasses.zip to + $FORREST/lib/optional/jimi-1.0.jar.

+ Alternatively you can use JAI (Java Advanced Imaging API at + http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai). For more + info, see + FOP + Graphics Packages +

+ + Due to Sun's licensing, we cannot redistribute Jimi or JAI with + Forrest. + +

2.10. The tab link in my site incorrectly assumes that 'index.html' is present in the + linked-to directory. How do I fix this? +

+ In tabs.xml, use @href instead of @dir, and omit the + trailing '/'. Which file to serve is then a concern of the sitemap. + For example, if the "User Manual" tab should link to + manual/Introduction.html then tabs.xml + should contain: +

+ + + <tab label="User Manual" href="manual"/> + +

+ and add this rule to the sitemap: +

+ + + <map:match pattern="manual"> + <map:redirect-to uri="manual/Introduction.html"/> + </map:match> + +

2.11. I need help with the interaction between tabs.xml and site.xml +

+ See the tips. +

2.12. How can I change the default file name that Forrest will look for when I request a + URL like <code>http://myserver</code> or <code>http://myserver/mydir/</code> ? +

+ To change the default file name from 'index.html' (default) to + 'overview.html' you need to make the following changes: +

Create a 'cli.xconf' file for your project
Edit that file to replace 'index.html' in + <default-filename>index.html</default-filename> + with 'overview.html'.
Edit your project's sitemap.xmap file.
Add the following code just before the end of the pipelines-element: + + <map:pipeline> + <map:match type="regexp" pattern="^.+/$"> + <map:redirect-to uri="overview.html"/> + </map:match> + </map:pipeline> + +

2.13. How can I use a start-up-page other than index.html? +

+ Forrest by default assumes that the first page (home page) of your + site is named index.html. Which is good because most web servers are + configured to look for index.html when you call a url like + http://myserver +

+ Like most settings in Forrest however this can be changed, for example + when you want your start-up-page for a CD-based documentation project + to be named 'start.html'. +

+ To change the start page of a site: +

Edit your project's sitemap.xmap file.
Add the following code just before the end of the pipelines-element: + + <map:pipeline> + <map:match pattern=""> + <map:redirect-to uri="start.html" /> + </map:match> + </map:pipeline> + +
Name the uri-attribute whatever you'd like your start page to be.
Don't forget to create that page and refer to it in your site.xml

2.14. How to use a different filename extension for output, e.g. *.php? +

+ Use the power of the Cocoon sitemaps. There is default handling for *.php (see main/webapp/sitemap.xmap) to map the 'php' extension to an internal request for "html". See more about PHP below. +

+ Use the same internal re-direction technique for your special needs, e.g. copy that php match to your project sitemap and use ".htm" instead. +

2.15. How to generate pages ready for serving via PHP? +

+ Use the *.php filename extension (see above) + for the output html links in site.xml navigation. Add your php processing instructions to the source documents. +

+ However, beware FOR-999 + "processing-instruction nodes in source are not always passed through to html output" + whereby only PIs in certain body elements are handled. +

2.16. How to use special characters in the labels of the site.xml file? +

+ Use the numeric values for character entities. For example, rather + than using +ö + use +ö + +

+ See the + XHTML + Character Entities and see more discussion at + Issue + FOR-244. +

2.17. Does Forrest handle accents for non-English languages? +

+ Yes, Forrest can process text in any language, so you can include: +

accents: á é í ó ú
diereses: ä ë ï ö ü
tildes: ã ñ ĩ õ ũ

+ This is because sources for Forrest docs are XML documents, which can + include any of these, provided the encoding declared by the XML doc + matches the actual encoding used in the file. For example if you + declare the default encoding: +

+ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +

+ but the file content is actually using ISO-8859-1 then you will + receive validation errors, especially if you include some non-ASCII + characters. +

+ This situation is commonly encountered when you edit the templates + created by forrest seed with your favorite (probably + localized) editor without paying attention to the encoding, or when + you create a new file and simply copy the headers from another file. +

+ Although UTF-8 is an encoding well-suited for most languages, it is + not usually the default in popular editors or systems. In UNIX-like + systems, most popular editors can handle different encodings to write + the file in disk. With some editors the encoding of the file is + preserved, while with others the default is used regardless of the + original encoding. In most cases the encoding used to write files can + be controlled by setting the environment variable LANG to + an appropriate value, for instance: +

+ [localhost]$ export LANG=en_US.UTF-8 +

+ Of course the appropriate way to set the encoding depends on + the editor/OS, but ultimately relys on the user preferences. So you + can use the encoding you prefer, as long as the encoding + attribute of the XML declaration matches the actual encoding of the + file. This means that if you are not willing to abandon ISO-8859-1 you + can always use the following declaration instead: +

+ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> + +

+ Another option is to use "character entities" such as +ö + (ö) or the numeric form +ö + (ö). +

+ Another related issue is that your webserver needs to send http + headers with the matching charset definitions to the html page. +

+ Here are some references which explain further: + GT2004 + presentation by Torsten Schlabach and + Alan Wood's Unicode + resources. +

2.18. How to use XML entities, for example string + replacement? +

+ A set of symbols is available. See the demonstration in a fresh + 'forrest seed' site (at + samples-b/xml-entities.html). + For example, use + "&myp-t;" to represent the project name together with + trademark symbol "My Project Name™". Avoid lengthy typing and + potential spelling errors. +

2.19. How to make Forrest clean up the project build directories? +

+ By default Forrest does not clean its build directories in the project + workspaces. This enables Cocoon to use its disk cache to speed up + successive runs of forrest. +

+ Doing 'forrest clean-site' will remove the contents of the project's + generated documents directory. Doing 'forrest clean-work' will remove + the project's work directories (usually build/tmp and build/webapp + which include the Cocoon cache and the Cocoon logs). Doing 'forrest + clean' will remove both sections. +

2.20. How can I internationalise (i18n) my content? +

+ For example, navigation + menus can be internationalized and different content can be served. +

+ There is an example to demonstrate and explain the facilities. + See a 'forrest seed-sample' site. +

+ All internationalisation of tokens is carried out by the + Cocoon + i18n Transformer. +

2.21. How can I include HTML content that is not to be skinned by Forrest? +

+ To serve, for example a legacy HTML site, add something like the + following to your project's sitemap and place the source content in a + src/documentation/content/old_site/ directory. +

+ + + <map:match pattern="old_site/**.html"> + <map:select type="exists"> + <map:when test="{properties:content}{0}"> + <map:read src="{properties:content}{0}" mime-type="text/html"/> + + </map:when> + </map:select> + </map:match> + +

+ Exactly what the match should be is dependant on your content + structure. It is outside the scope of this FAQ to provide full + details, but new users may like to refer to the + Cocoon sitemap docs. +

+ There is a more detailed discussion of this topic in the samples of a + freshly seeded site. To see this documentation do the following: +

mkdir seed
cd seed
forrest seed-sample
forrest run
http://localhost:8888/samples-b/linking.html#no-decoration

2.22. How to include additional Javascript and CSS files? +

+ Place various resources (e.g. javascript, css) into the "project + skins" directory. The default forrest.properties has this at + src/documentation/skins/$skin-name/ Javascript files would go in a + "scripts" subdirectory. CSS files would go in a "css" subdirectory. +

+ Then refer to those from your source documents with URIs like + /skin/blah.js and /skin/foo.css +

+ See how this is handled in the core sitemap called + forrest/main/webapp/resources.xmap Search for "javascript" then follow + to the <map:resource name="skin-read"> section. +

2.23. How to show a Table Of Contents for the whole site? +

+ Every site has an automatically generated document at + /linkmap.html which is produced from the site.xml + navigation configuration. It uses the @label and absolutized @href and + element name and @description attribute for each node. +

+ For example, the Forrest project's Site + Linkmap Table of Contents. +

+ The document is also useful when developing your documentation and + linking to other docs. The element names (column #2) e.g. + href="site:mail-lists" or + href="site:howto/overview" +

+ This is also the document that 'forrest site' uses to kick-start the + Cocoon crawler which then follows links to build each page. See the + project.start-uri in the forrest.properties file. +

3. Technical

3.1. Where is the Java code? +

+ Because we are based on Apache Cocoon, a lot of the functionality is + provided behind-the-scenes, i.e. we use Cocoon's sitemaps and sitemap + components such as XSLT transformers. So there is not much need for + Java code in Forrest. +

+ For Forrest developers who want to explore or enhance that code, see + the Apache Cocoon SVN trunk. From time-to-time we update Forrest's + packaged version of Cocoon and so can include your contributions. +

+ That said, you will find some Java code in Forrest at main/java/... + for Cocoon components that have been developed at Forrest, e.g. + Locationmap and Dispatcher. There is also Java code for some plugins + with specialised purpose, e.g. PhotoGallery. +

3.2. How to enhance the responsiveness of the cache? +

+ Apache Cocoon has a sophisticated cache. When running Forrest in + dynamic mode, the initial visitor will receive slower response. The + very first page served will cause Cocoon to cache the pipelines. Later + requests will re-use those cached components and add others to the + cache. A good technique is to warm up the cache after the forrest + webapp has been re-started. Requesting the front page alone will + populate the cache with the common items used for other pages. Using a + spider such as wget, will warm up everything. +

+ The Cocoon cache and sitemaps can be tuned. See + Cocoon + Performance Tips and + CocoonPerformance + and the "Object Stores" section of + main/webapp/WEB-INF/cocoon.xconf +

+ Responsiveness can be further enhanced by utilising a transparent + proxy server, e.g. Apache HTTP Server as a frontend. See + CocoonAndApacheModProxy. +

3.3. I'm behind a proxy and it's preventing Plugins from being downloaded, what should I + do? +

+ You can configure the proxy in the forrest.properties + file. Set the proxy.host and proxy.port + accordingly. +

+ You can also cross an authenticated proxy by setting the + proxy.user and proxy.password accordingly. +

+ + You certainly need to cross your proxy for every Forrest projects you + have. To avoid to edit every project forrest.properties + files, you can do once in your + ${user.home}/forrest.properties ! + +

3.4. How can I generate html-pages to show the Revision tag of CVS or SVN? +

+ If you have:<version>$Revision: 1.30 + $</version>The '1.30' will be extracted and + displayed at the bottom of the page as "version 1.30". See for + example the bottom of the Using + Forrest document. +

+ This technique could also be used for a modification date with $Date: + 2004/01/15 08:52:47 $ +

+ When using Subversion, remember to set the relevant svn:keywords + properties. +

3.5. How to control the processing of URIs by Cocoon, e.g. exclude certain URIs, include + other additional ones. +

+ Forrest uses a configuration file to control the processing done by + the Apache Cocoon command-line called cli.xconf +

+ Your project can supply its own cli.xconf and define + patterns for URIs to exclude. There are also other powerful + configuration features. +

+ This means creating a directory src/documentation/conf + (or wherever ${forrest.conf-dir} points) and copying + $FORREST_HOME/main/webapp/WEB-INF/cli.xconf to it. + Declare the location of this file in the forrest.properties + configuration, e.g. + project.configfile=${project.home}/src/documentation/conf/cli.xconf +

+ Then edit cli.xconf, and add any exclude sections that you require. + The default cli.xconf ignores directory links and links containing + 'apidocs' or starting with 'api/': +

+ + + .... +  + + + <exclude pattern="**/"/> + <exclude pattern="**apidocs**"/> + <exclude pattern="api/**"/> + + + <uri src="favicon.ico"/> +</cocoon> + +

+ This is just an example, and you should modify it appropriately for + your site. +

+ + Wildcards may be used. These are a powerful feature of Cocoon's + sitemap. For example, + foo/* would match foo/bar, but not + foo/bar/baz — use foo/** to match + that. + +

+ See the example "HowTo Generate an ASF mirrors page" + which explains how to include non-linked extra documents to the processing + using the Cocoon CLI. +

3.6. How do I stop Forrest breaking on links to external files that may not exist, like + javadocs? +

+ This can be done by overriding the + cli.xconf Cocoon config file, and defining + patterns for URLs to exclude. +

3.7. Some of my files are not being processed because they use common filenames. +

+ Certain patterns are claimed by the default sitemaps for special + processing. These reserved words include: site, wholesite, changes, todo, + faq, images, my-images, skinconf, community, howto +

+ Sometimes there are workarounds, e.g. faq.html or faq-interview.html + would fail, but interview-faq.html would be fine. In future versions + of Forrest we will attempt to deal with this issue + (FOR-217). +

3.8. What do the symbols and numbers mean when Forrest lists each document that it has + built? +

+ Each time that Cocoon processes a link, it will report the status + messages ... +

+ +... +* [212/166] [0/0] 1.16s 62.4Kb docs_0_60/your-project.pdf +X [0] /docs_0_80/upgrading_08.html BROKEN: No pipeline matched... +* [213/164] [0/0] 0.391s 29.2Kb docs_0_70/howto/howto-buildPlugin.pdf +^ apidocs/index.html +* [214/170] [7/66] 1.476s 45.5Kb docs_0_60/sitemap-ref.html +... + +

Column 1 is the page build status (*=okay X=brokenLink ^=pageSkipped).
Column 2 is the page count (pagesComplete/pagesRemaining). The latter will change because during processing one page, Cocoon will discover more.
Column 3 is the number of links that were gathered from that page (newLinksInPage/linksInPage).
Column 4 is the time taken.
Column 5 is the page size.

3.9. When generating PNG images from SVG, I get an error: Can't connect to X11 window + server using ':0.0' as the value of the DISPLAY variable. +

+ If you are using JDK 1.5 or newer, you can enable headless + operation by running Forrest with the forrest.jvmarg + parameter set to -Djava.awt.headless=true, like this: +

+ forrest -Dforrest.jvmargs=-Djava.awt.headless=true site +

+ See also + Cocoon + FAQ. +

3.10. + The project logo that is generated from SVG is truncating my project name. + +

+ In a 'forrest seed site' the project and the group logo are generated + from a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file, using the text from the + <project-name> and <group-name> + elements of the skinconf.xml file. If you have a long + project-name then you may need to adjust the width of the image. + Perhaps you want to change the colours too. Edit the file at + src/documentation/content/xdocs/images/project.svg and + adjust the "width" attribute of the <svg> element. For further + details see SVG + resources. +

3.11. How do i configure my favourite XML editor or parser to find the local Forrest + DTDs? +

+ Notes are provided for various tools at + Using Catalog Entity Resolver for local + DTDs. +

3.12. How to configure the Catalog Entity Resolver to use my own local project DTDs? +

+ See Using Forrest for + configuration guidance. +

3.13. We need an additional system-wide catalog to share DTDs between projects +

+ See Using Forrest for + configuration guidance. +

3.14. How to debug the Catalog Entity Resolver and local DTDs? +

+ See XML validation. +

3.15. How to make the site look better and change its skin? +

+ There are default skins provided, which + are configurable and so should meet the needs of most projects. The + aim is to provide many capabilities so that extra skins are not + needed. +

+ See notes about + configuration of the + skins. Some projects may have special needs and can define their + own skin. +

3.16. How do I enable <acronym title="eXtensible Server Pages">XSP</acronym> processing? +

+ First consider whether your needs would be better met by Cocoon + itself, rather than Forrest. +

+ That said, there are valid reasons for wanting programmatically + generated content, so here is how to enable XSP: +

Download jdtcore-*.jar from Cocoons SVN tree, and copy it to the $FORREST_HOME/main/webapp/WEB-INF/lib + directory (or lib/core/ directory in the source distribution).
+ Add the following generator definition in the map:generators + section of your + project + sitemap +
+ + + <map:generator name="serverpages" + pool-grow="2" pool-max="32" pool-min="4" + src="org.apache.cocoon.generation.ServerPagesGenerator"/> +
+ Decide how you want to use XSP. For single files, you could just + define a *.xml matcher: +
+ + +<map:match pattern="dynamic.xml"> + <map:generate src="content/xdocs/dynamic.xsp" type="serverpages"/> + ... + <map:serialize type="xml"/> +</map:match> + +
+ You may instead wish to override forrest.xmap to define a general + mapping for XSPs. +

+ See also the + AddingXSPToForrest + Wiki page. +

3.17. How do breadcrumbs work? Why don't they work locally? +

+ Breadcrumbs begin with up to three URLs specified in + skinconf.xml. Here is what the Forrest site uses: +

+ + + <trail> + <link1 name="Apache Software Foundation" href="http://www.apache.org/"/> + <link2 name="Apache Forrest" href="http://forrest.apache.org/"/> + <link3 name="" href=""/> + </trail> + +

+ If any links are blank, they are not used. After these first links, + JavaScript looks at the URL for the current page and makes a link for + each directory after the domain. If you are viewing the site locally, + there is no domain and so there will be no extra breadcrumbs, only the + ones that are specified in skinconf.xml. +

3.18. How do I make <code>forrest run</code> listen on a different port? +

+ forrest run -Dforrest.jvmargs="-Djetty.port=80" +

+ Or copy Forrest's main/webapp/jettyconf.xml file to your project's + src/documentation directory and set the port number in that file. Then + do forrest run +

3.19. Can I run Forrest with Java debugging turned on? +

+ If you use an IDE like Eclipse and want to debug java code in Forrest + you need to start Forrest with debugging mode turned on. To do this + you need to add -Xdebug + -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8000,server=y,susp end=n + to the forrest.jvmargs property in the + forrest.properties file. Don't forget to ensure the + property is uncommented in that file. +

3.20. How do I enable Cocoon's document checksum feature? +

+ Why might you want to do this? There is really no effect on Cocoon + processing, but a little time can be saved on filesystem writes, which + will accumulate to a big savings for a site with thousands of files. +

+ Some tools depend on the "date-last-modified" timestamp of the + generated files. For example, the Forrestbot will then deploy only the + modified files. +

+ There was some discussion about this on the Forrest developer mailing + list: + Cocoon + Checksum Specifically note that this feature only stops Cocoon + from writing to disk if the new file is the same as the existing file. + Cocoon still spends the same amount of time generating the content as + it would if checksums were not enabled. +

+ Locate the checksums-uri tag within cli.xconf and replace + the contents with an absolute path and filename for the checksums + file. Projects can supply their own (see FAQ: + Cocoon cli.xconf) or use the default + installation-wide cli.xconf file. +

3.21. How to configure some Cocoon sitemap components, e.g. output html encoding or doctype? +

+ The core Cocoon components are defined in the + main/webapp/sitemap.xmap file. Normally the default + settings are suitable. There are some things that you might like to + change per project. For example, change the html encoding for output + html files from the default UTF-8 or configure a different document + type declaration for the Dispatcher. +

+ Create a fresh site with 'forrest seed' and see the set of symbols at the + src/documentation/resources/schema/symbols-project-v10.ent file. + Copy that file to your own projects at the same location. Also add the + entry to your project xml catalog as shown in the seed site at + src/documentation/resources/schema/catalog.xcat file. +

+ Now copy the particular entity that you wish to re-define from + main/webapp/resources/schema/entity/symbols-core-v10.ent + file into your project symbols file and edit the entity declaration. + Re-start Forrest. +

3.22. Why are there SVN diffs for some documents, even though they have not changed? +

+ These un-necessary differences happen because the comitter who did 'svn add' for those files + did not have their Subversion client configured properly for the "svn:eol-style" setting. + See some notes + about rectifying this issue. +

4. Older version: 0.6

4.1. Some of my files are not being processed because they use common filenames. +

+ Certain patterns are claimed by the default sitemaps for special + processing. These include: site, changes, todo, faq, images, + my-images, skinconf, community, howto +

5. General

5.1. What is the relationship between <code>site.xml</code> and <code>book.xml</code>? +

+ One site.xml file in your project root can replace all the book.xml files + (one per directory) in your site. Internally, Forrest uses site.xml to + dynamically generate book.xml files. However, Forrest first checks for + the existence of a book.xml file, so backwards-compatibility is + preserved. If a directory has a book.xml file, the book.xml will be + used to generate the menu. This supplement is useful in situations + where site.xml-generated menus aren't appropriate. See + Menus and Linking. +

5.2. How do I use DocBook as the XML documentation format? +

+ There are two ways. Forrest has a simplifiedDocbook + plugin which can transform the DocBook format into the Forrest "xdocs" + format on-the-fly and then render that as normal Forrest documents. Be + aware that the stylesheet that does this transformation is + deliberately very limited and does not attempt to deal with all + DocBook elements. +

+ The other way is to use the full DocBook stylesheets directly. The + DocBook DTDs are shipped with Forrest and automatically handled. + However, you will need to have the DocBook stylesheets on your system + (they are too massive to ship with Forrest) and configure Forrest + accordingly. You will need to create a + project sitemap as explained + in Using Forrest and add matches + to handle your DocBook documents. Here is an example. Note that you + need to change it to suit your situation. The match must be very + specific so that only the DocBook documents are matched. The rest of + the documents will be handled by Forrest core. Powerful regex + capabilities are available. +

+ +<?xml version="1.0"?> +<map:sitemap xmlns:map="http://apache.org/cocoon/sitemap/1.0"> + <map:pipelines> + <map:pipeline> + <map:match pattern="resolver-*.html"> + <map:generate src="{properties:content.xdocs}resolver-{1}.xml"/> + <map:transform + src="file:///usr/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets/xhtml/docbook.xsl"/> + <map:serialize type="xhtml"/> + </map:match> + </map:pipeline> + </map:pipelines> +</map:sitemap> + +

+ You need to define the xhtml serializer used in <map:serialize + type="xhtml"/> in the components section of the sitemap. See the + Cocoon + docs for the elements you need to add to define this component. + You can see examples of other components being added in the + FORREST_HOME/main/webapp/sitemap.xmap file. Alternatively + use the "html" DocBook stylesheets and the default Cocoon serializer, + i.e. <map:serialize type="html"/> +

+ The output of the above sitemap will be plain html not adorned with a + Forrest theme and navigation. If instead you need the latter, then use + the following technique instead. This transforms DocBook xml to html, + then uses a Forrest core stylesheet to transform and serialize to the + internal xml format, then the normal machinery takes over and does the + output transformation. This use the Content Aware Pipelines + (SourceTypeAction) to peek at the source + xml. If it is DocBook-4.2 then this sitemap match is triggered, if not + then it falls through to the core of Forrest. +

+ +<?xml version="1.0"?> +<map:sitemap xmlns:map="http://apache.org/cocoon/sitemap/1.0"> + <map:components> + <map:actions> + <map:action logger="sitemap.action.sourcetype" + name="sourcetype"src="org.apache.forrest.sourcetype.SourceTypeAction"> + <sourcetype name="docbook-v4.2"> + <document-declaration public-id="-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"/> + </sourcetype> + </map:action> + </map:actions> + <map:selectors default="parameter"> + <map:selector logger="sitemap.selector.parameter" + name="parameter" src="org.apache.cocoon.selection.ParameterSelector"/> + </map:selectors> + </map:components> + <map:pipelines> + <map:pipeline> + <map:match pattern="**.xml"> + <map:act type="sourcetype" src="{properties:content.xdocs}{1}.xml"> + <map:select type="parameter"> + <map:parameter name="parameter-selector-test" value="{sourcetype}"/> + <map:when test="docbook-v4.2"> + <map:generate src="{properties:content.xdocs}{../1}.xml"/> + <map:transform + src="file:///usr/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets/html/docbook.xsl"/> + <map:transform src="{forrest:forrest.stylesheets}/html-to-document.xsl"/> + <map:transform type="idgen"/> + <map:serialize type="xml-document"/> + </map:when> + </map:select> + </map:act> + </map:match> + </map:pipeline> + </map:pipelines> +</map:sitemap> + +

+ You can also use a mixture of the methods, some handled automatically + by Forrest and some directly using DocBook stylesheets. You can also + have a mixture of source files as "document-v*" DTD and DocBook. +

+ Ensure that the document type declaration in your XML instance is well + specified. Use a public identifier. The DTD will then be properly + resolved by Forrest. If you need to use different DTDs, then see + Using Forrest for + configuration guidance. +

5.3. How to report which version of Forrest is being used and the properties that are + set? +

+ Do 'forrest -projecthelp' or './build.sh' to + find the version number. + Also when starting 'forrest' or 'forrest run' + the versions are reported for forrest, java, and ant. +

+ To list the properties and other stuff, add "forrest.echo=true" to your + forrest.properties file and watch the build messages. Doing + 'forrest -v' will provide verbose build messages and other useful + information. +

+ In 'forrest run' mode, use the + Forrestbar to see the build-info + and properties, or access them directly: +

http://localhost:8888/build-info
http://localhost:8888/module.properties.properties

+ See the documentation about the new Properties + system. +

5.4. Where are the log files to find more infomation about errors? +

+ The logfiles are at build/webapp/WEB-INF/logs/ +

+ The log level can be raised with the logkit.xconf + configuration. If you are using Forrest in the interactive webapp mode + (which is generally easiest for debugging errors) then see the + main/webapp/WEB-INF/logkit.xconf file. If you are + generating a static site (with command-line 'forrest') then copy + $FORREST_HOME/main/webapp/WEB-INF/logkit.xconf to your + project at src/documentation/conf/logkit.xconf and modify + it. See more information and efficiency tips with + Cocoon + logging. +

+ Doing 'forrest -v' will provide verbose build messages to + the standard output. +

5.5. How to filter or reduce the standard output messages? +

+ Where normally you would do + 'forrest' or 'forrest run' etc. instead use + the "quiet" option, and do + 'forrest -q' or 'forrest -q run' etc. + If errors are reported, then drop the "quiet" option and run again to + get the context for the error. +

+ Doing 'forrest -v' will provide very verbose build messages to + the standard output. +

5.6. How to enabled coloured standard output messages? +

+ Adding colour to the forrest output messages will greatly assist + readability. +

+ Set the ANT_ARGS environment variable like so:
+ export ANT_ARGS="$ANT_ARGS -logger org.apache.tools.ant.listener.AnsiColorLogger" +

+ To change the default colours, set the ANT_OPTS environment variable + like so:
+ export ANT_OPTS="$ANT_OPTS -Dant.logger.defaults=$FORREST_HOME/etc/AnsiColorLogger.properties"
+ and create that configuration file as + explained + in the Apache Ant Manual. + That is required on Mac OS X and the "Attribute" for each colour needs + to be "0" rather than the default "2". +

+ Note that not all terminals support ANSI color codes. +

5.7. How to help? +

+ Join one of the Forrest project mailing + lists and tell us what you would like to see improved. We + regard all feedback as valuable, particularly from + newcomers—often, close proximity blinds software developers to + faults that are obvious to everyone else. Don't be shy! +

5.8. How to contribute a patch? +

+ Please send all contributions via our issue + tracker. Here are notes about + making patches. +

+ More info about contributing can be found at the + Contributing to Forrest page. It is + always a good idea to check the Forrest + issue tracker before diving + in. +

5.9. How can job positions be advertised? +

+ Employers can send notices about employment opportunities. There is a + special jobs<AT>apache.org mailing list. You can also send these + notices to the project mailing lists, e.g. dev list at Forrest or + Cocoon (add [jobs] to the subject line). You can also approach + particular developers off-list. However only genuine jobs, not pleas + for free support (see mailing + lists). +

+ Some enlightened employers enable their employees to contribute + material which was created during work time using work-related + resources. Please note the need to file a Corporate Contributor + License Agreement + (CCLA) with The + Apache Software Foundation. +

5.10. Is there a press kit? Who can journalists contact? +

+ Press enquiries should be co-ordinated through the ASF Public Relations Committee (PRC). + See contact information. + The PRC also provides guidelines and handles particular usage of ASF + trademarks and logos (see also + FAQ + and + Guidelines). +

+ The Apache Forrest logo + (PNG) + and banner (SVG + | PNG) + are available. + Unfortunately the logo is only available as PNG. +

5.11. How to report a security issue? +

+ Security and vulnerability issues are co-ordinated through the + ASF Security Team. + This is only for reporting undisclosed security vulnerabilities in + Apache products. For other issues, use the Forrest project + Issue tracker. +