Why does a PDF build fail when using XEP with DITA Open Toolkit 2.0.1?

This is caused by a known issue in the DITA-OT 2.0.1.

Symptom

When using DITA-OT 2.0.1 and XEP as the PDF renderer, no PDF is created. The DITA-OT log records that the build was successful and the topic.fo file was successfully created, but XEP fails to render it into a PDF. The log includes the error message Could not find or load main class com.idiominc.ws.opentopic.fo.xep.Runner.

Problem

The precompiled fo.jar included in the client version of DITA_OT 2.0.1 does not contain the XEP class as described in the following link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/dita-ot-users/sW0kBK2kEt0.

Solution

Two solutions are available:

  • (Recommended) Install DITA-OT 2.1.0 since it includes a fix for the issue and is a more robust release.
  • As stated in the article, copy the XEP install directory over to the build library path (compile.path), and compile the classes again.