FDK: F_ApiUpdateBook() always results in FA_errno=-1

[Mark_...@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

I have seen this posted a couple times with no real solution and I would like to get to the bottom of it. I am trying to automatically update a book before saving as PDF via the FDK. It looks like the function F_ApiUpdateBook(..) should do this, but it always fails with FA_errno set to -1, which supposedly means:

#define FE_Transport -1 /* Communications is falling apart */

This is odd, because another poster (Angelo?) suggested that when he had this same problem and failed to make it work (receiving the same error), he just used the API call F_ApiSimpleGenerate(..). I tried this, and it appears to work - meaning it generates a bunch of files, and there are no errors. Good.

However! The docs recommend I call F_ApiUpdateXRefs(..) before calling F_ApiSimpleGenerate(..). The problem is - if I call this on my book it fails with FA_errno = -2, meaning an invalid book or document id. So perhaps I need to call this on every document in the book? But then what about all those other F_ApiUpdate* functions - do I need to call them individually as well? This just seems ridiculous when there is a perfectly good API function called F_ApiUpdateBook(..) that is supposed to do it all in one go!

Has anyone got this to work...ever? I have searched until I am blue in the face with no luck. I tried editing the parameter script to basically not attempt to update anything, and F_ApiUpdateBook(..) still fails with FA_errno = -1. It seems like there is something fundamentally wrong here.

I am on FrameMaker 7.2.

Thanks in advance for any help,
Mark.

[Mark_...@adobeforums.com]

Can anyone from Adobe tell me exactly what the error code FE_Transport means in the context of F_ApiUpdateBook(..)? This error code makes no sense because I can use the exact same book id in F_ApiSilentPrintDoc(..) and F_ApiSave(..) with no issues. I can also call F_ApiGetString(bookId, bookId, FP_Name) and I get back the name of my book. I can also call F_ApiGetId(0, FV_SessionId, FP_ActiveBook), and get back the same book id.

It seems to me that there is a bug in F_ApiUpdateBook(..) as I am not the only one to have come across this issue:

<http://tinyurl.com/cv3aka>

(original long link is <http://www.framemakerfdksource.com/bloggers/fdk-coding/2007/10/09/frame_dev-fdk70-errors-with-f_apiupdatebook-same-as-re-baffled-by-f_apiupdatebook/)>

There are even multiple postings here by others with the exact same problem (just do a Google search for "F_ApiUpdateBook" to see what I mean) but all of the links appears be dead and go to the top-level forum page and no amount of searching here has turned up the posts (I'm not sure why that is).

What does it means when F_ApiUpdateBook(..) returns -1?

Mark.

[Russ Ward]

Mark, I'm not sure if anyone knows the answer to this. I saw your exchange on the Yahoo list where you really didn't seem to get any resolution. Some of the smartest Frame developers are on that list, so if no one knows there, you might be on your own. I have personally never encountered difficulty performing a book update, and even if I did, I would have no idea what "FE_Transport" means. In your case, I would probably start experimenting until I could get anything to work, then figure out what is different about the offending book that might be related to the error.

Russ

[Mark_...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the reply, Russ. I'll keep playing with it I guess.

Mark.