IXIASOFT CCMS Output Generator specifications

The CCMS Output Generator is a Java program that runs as a service. It runs in the background as a Windows service or Linux daemon and executes the transformation process as requested by the IXIASOFT CCMS Desktop.

The IXIASOFT CCMS Output Generator is a centralized server that ensures that users generate their outputs using the same style sheets. Its multi-threaded architecture allows users to generate multiple outputs simultaneously.

The IXIASOFT CCMS Output Generator works as follows:
  1. It retrieves from the docbase the objects to be transformed.
  2. It saves the files to a working folder.
  3. It calls all the tasks defined in the conductor file to transform the DITA files.
  4. When the transformation is completed, it zips the generated output and returns it to the CCMS.

Any process can be defined in the conductor file to achieve the final transformation to the selected rendered output. The process can be a DITA Open Toolkit script (provided in the CCMS installation) or a custom build script. Also, the rendering engine for PDF can be customized to Antenna House, RenderX, or Apache FOP.

Interactions with other components

The CCMS Output Generator interacts with the different IXIASOFT CCMS components through the following processes:

  • By default, the CCMS Output Generator process listens on TCP port 1500 for transformation requests.
  • The CCMS Output Generator configuration is stored in a local text file.
  • When a request comes in, the CCMS Output Generator retrieves from IXIASOFT TEXTML Server the documents to be transformed and saves them to a local, temporary working directory. This directory must be monitored and cleaned regularly.
  • The CCMS Output Generator transforms the CCMS content using the DITA Open Toolkit (packaged with the CCMS Output Generator) or a customized build system, depending on the deployment.
  • When the transformation is completed, the CCMS Output Generator creates a zip archive of the generated output and returns it to the CCMS Desktop.
  • The CCMS Output Generator may establish a callback to the client. This callback is controlled by the client, which supplies the port when requesting to get feedback from an CCMS Output Generator (for example, TCP port 1501). If the client sets this value to 0 (zero), the CCMS Output Generator will not send any progress information through the callback.
  • Multiple instances of the CCMS Output Generator can be installed per deployment.