DITA-OT error messages This topic lists each error message generated by the toolkit and provides additional information that might be helpful in understanding and resolving the error condition. If your toolkit installation includes custom plug-ins that define additional messages, you can add to this list by rebuilding the DITA-OT documentation.

Each message ID is composed of a message prefix, a message number, and a letter that indicates the severity level (I, W, E, or F).

The toolkit uses the following severity scale:

Info (I)
Informational messages highlight the progress of transformation and call attention to conditions of which you should be aware. For example, draft comments are enabled and will be rendered in the output.
Warning (W)
The toolkit encountered a problem that should be corrected. Processing will continue, but the output might not be as expected.
Error (E)
The toolkit encountered a more severe problem, and the output is affected. For example, some content is missing or invalid, or the content is not rendered in the output
Fatal (F)
The toolkit encountered a severe condition, processing stopped, and no output is generated.

Plug-ins may be used to add additional messages to the toolkit; for more information, see .

Individual cells in this table may be used to push additional explanations for any existing error message into the generated message topic. To add additional explanation to any message, add the explanation to this table in a single cell, and set the the following attributes on the stentry tag:
  • conref="DITA-messages.xml#msgs/MESSAGEID-extra" -- for example, use the following to add additional info to message DOTX001F: conref="DITA-messages.xml#msgs/DOTX001F-extra"
  • conaction="pushreplace"
 Default transformation types that ship with the toolkit include dita, eclipsehelp, html5, htmlhelp, markdown variants, pdf (or pdf2), tocjs, troff, xhtml, and xhtml. Additional transformation types may be available if toolkit plug-ins are installed. The input parameter was not specified, so there is no DITA or DITAMAP file to transform. Ensure the parameter is set properly; see DITA-OT common parameters (args.input) if you are unsure how to specify the input file. An alternate stylesheet was specified to run in place of the default XSLT output process, but that stylesheet could not be loaded. Please correct the parameter to specify a valid stylesheet. This optional parameter is used to set an extension for DITA topic documents in the temporary processing directory. Only "dita", ".dita", "xml", or ".xml" are allowed. If the CSSPATH uses an absolute path, it should be one that can still be accessed after the files are moved to another system (such as http://www.example.org/). Absolute paths on the local file system will be broken if the content is moved to a new system. The running footer file, which contains content to be added to the bottom of each XHTML output topic, cannot be located or read. This is usually caused by a typo in the parameter value. You should also ensure that the value is not specified with "file:" as a prefix. The running header file, which contains content to be added to the top of each XHTML output topic, cannot be located or read. This is usually caused by a typo in the parameter value. You should also ensure that the value is not specified with "file:" as a prefix. The running heading file, which contains content to be added to the head section of each HTML output topic, cannot be located or read. This is usually caused by a typo in the parameter value. You should also ensure that the value is not specified with "file:" as a prefix. An alternate stylesheet was specified to run in place of the default XSL-FO output process, but that stylesheet could not be loaded. Please correct the parameter to specify a valid stylesheet. According to the OASIS DITA Specification, the index-see element should be ignored if the parent indexterm contains other indexterm children. According to the OASIS DITA Specification, the index-see-also element should be ignored if the parent indexterm contains other indexterm children. Please ensure that the input file path and file name were entered correctly. The transform was unable to create files properly during the transform; results may not be as expected. This message may indicate an invalid input file (such as accidentally specifying a PDF file as input rather than a DITA map file), an input file that uses elements which are not allowed, are not part or a DITA file that has errors and cannot be parsed as XML. You could also be using a specialized DITA document type that needs external plug-ins in order to be parsed correctly. The message issued by the XML parser should provide additional information to help diagnose the cause. This message may indicate a reference to an invalid file (such as accidentally referencing a PDF or unknown XML file as if it was DITA), a referenced file that uses elements which are not allowed, or a referenced DITA file that has errors and cannot be parsed as XML. You could also be using a specialized DITA document type that needs external plug-ins in order to be parsed correctly. The message issued by the XML parser should provide additional information to help diagnose the cause. An empty indexterm element was found, and will appear in the index as ***. This index term should be removed from the source. This will appear when one installed plug-in requires another in order to function correctly, but the required plug-in is not found. The installed plug-in will be ignored. This may appear if filter conditions on the root element of a topic cause the entire topic to be filtered out. To remove this message, you could place any filter conditions on the reference to this file, which will prevent the build from accessing this file. Either the input file or the ditaval file should change, otherwise your build is explicitly excluding all content. Check whether the image exists in the source location or already exists in the output directory. This message should only appear in the following cases:
  • Errors earlier in the transform prevented this step of the transform from running; correct any errors and try the build again.
  • An Ant build or plug-in is directly calling the toolkit's topic merge module, and is doing so improperly; in this case the Ant build or plug-in needs to be fixed.
  • In the past, problems have been encountered when calling this module with an absolute path; this should no longer be an issue, but may be fixed in older releases by updating the Ant build or plug-in.
 This message should only appear if an Ant build or plug-in is directly calling the toolkit's topic merge module, or if earlier errors resulted in problems with some of the content. If the topic merge module is called correctly, then this indicates a program error that should be reported to the DITA-OT development team via the . When referencing a non-DITA file, the format attribute should indicate the type of file referenced (such as "html" for HTML topics or "pdf" for PDF files). Otherwise, the transform may attempt to parse the referenced document as a DITA topic. The domains attribute is used in specialized DITA documents to help determine which domain elements are legal. This message will only appear if a DITA specialization was not defined properly. All specialized DITA elements must define a class attribute to provide ancestry information. This message will only appear if a specialized DITA element did not define a class attribute, or if non-DITA elements are included in a DITA context. This informational message is intended to help you catch filter conditions that may have been specified improperly; if the value is correct, no action is needed. DITA processing is based on class attributes defined for every element. Usually these are defaulted in the DTD or Schema; if no DTD or Schema is used, the class attributes must be explicitly included in the map or topic. This will appear when a topic is outside the scope of the map; for example, if the main input map references "../other-directory/some.dita". The result would cause an output file to be created outside of the output directory. See DITA-OT common parameters (outer.control and generate.copy.outer) for details. This will appear when a topic is outside the scope of the map; for example, if the main input map references "../other-directory/some.dita". The result would cause an output file to be created outside of the output directory. If you do not want to see the warning message, please use the Ant parameter 'outer.control', and set the value to "quiet". Otherwise, move the referenced file into the input dita/map directory. See DITA-OT common parameters (outer.control and generate.copy.outer) for details. DITA processing is based on class attributes defined for every element. Usually these are defaulted in the DTD or Schema; if validation against the DTD or Schema is turned off, the class attributes must be explicitly included in the map or topic. This appears to indicate an error in creating specialized metadata elements. Please verify that the document type you are using is complete and complies with DITA Specialization rules. Please see the topic on Conref Push in the DITA specification for details on expected syntax for this function. Please see the topic on Conref Push in the DITA specification for details on expected syntax for this function. The conref attribute must be a URI reference to a DITA element. Please see the topic on URI-based addressing in the DITA specification for details on the expected syntax. The conref push function was used to replace a single element with two or more alternatives. Only one element may directly replace another using conref push. See Conref Push in the DITA specification for more information about the conref push "replace" function. The target for a conref push action does not exist; please make sure that the syntax is correct and that the target exists. See the topic on URI-based addressing in the DITA specification for details on the expected syntax. If the syntax is correct, it is possible that the target was filtered out of your build using a DITAVAL file. Please see the topic on Conref Push in the DITA specification for details on expected syntax for this function. This informational message is intended to help you catch catch duplicate key definitions; if the keys are defined as expected, no action is needed. See the conkeyref definition for details on expected syntax and usage. This message is intended to help you locate incorrectly specified keys; if the key was specified correctly, this message may be ignored. A DITA Subject Scheme map was used to limit values that are available to the specified attribute. Please correct the attribute so that it uses one of the allowed values. The Eclipse index will contain a value such as "See also otherEntry", but otherEntry does not exist in this index. The index reference will be broken unless this plug-in is always loaded into Eclipse with another plug-in that defines otherEntry as an index term. The target for a coderef element, which specifies an external text-based file, could not be located or loaded. Please verify that the reference is correct.

Note that for security reasons, references to code samples outside of the scope of the map directory are not supported by default, as this could allow a reference to access and display any restricted or hidden file on the system. If you are certain that the path is valid and the file should be loaded, the current workaround is to set a parameter to allow these references. See DITA-OT common parameters (outer.control and generate.copy.outer) for details.

 The DITA-OT supports a special syntax on coderef elements to specify the character set of the target document. See for details on the expected syntax. By default, the DITA-OT supports the extensions "dita" and "xml" for DITA topics, as mandated by the DITA Specification. Please verify that your topics use one of these extensions, or configure the toolkit to allow additional extensions. This message indicates that the href value specified in %1 does not use proper URI syntax. This may occur when href includes characters that should be escaped (such as the space character, which should be %20 when in a URI). In strict processing mode this will cause a build failure; in other processing modes the build will continue using the value in %2. A conref "mark" action has been used to mark a target element without a corresponding content reference target. This may occur when the order of the "mark" element and the pushed element is reversed.

A circular reference was found in key definitions: a series of key references where the last key references the first.

This may occur if a topicref element contains both a key name in the keys attribute and a reference to the same key in the keyref attribute, or if a keyref attribute points to a key that refers back to the referencing element.

To resolve this issue, change the target of the keyref so the key is defined by pointing to a resource other than itself.

When a class attribute does not use the expected syntax, this usually indicates that class has been explicitly set on a DITA element. The attribute should be removed from the document so that the expected default value can be automatically used.

If this is a non-DITA element, it needs to be placed inside a foreign element so that is not validated against DITA rules.

Ensure that the DITAVAL file exists. If more than one DITAVAL file is specified, ensure that the paths are delimited using the file path separator character appropriate for your operating system (semicolon ‘;’ on Windows, or colon ‘:’ on macOS or Linux).

 This build uses generated text, such as the phrase "Related information" (which is generated above many link groups). The toolkit was unable to locate the string %1 for your specified language, so the string will appear in the default language. This generally indicates that the toolkit's strings need to be updated to support your language, or that your language setting is incorrect. The Eclipse help system requires a title in the project files generated from your map. Please add a title to your input map to get valid Eclipse help output. Eclipse uses anchor references to connect with other TOC files. For this to work in content generated from a DITA map, the anchorref element must reference either an existing Eclipse TOC XML file, or another DITA map (which will presumably also be converted to an Eclipse TOC). Eclipse builds use DITA's navref element to pull in other Eclipse TOC files. The build found a navref element that does not reference any other file; the element will be ignored. To remove this message, provide a navigation title for the referenced object in the map or topic, or ensure that you are referencing a valid local DITA target. Set the format attribute to identify the format of the file. If the reference is to a DITA document, ensure that the document uses a valid DITA extension (default supported extensions are "dita" and "xml"). The HTML Help compiler will only include some types of information in the compiled CHM file; the current reference will not be included. Ensure that the file exists and can be read. To fix the table of contents, specify a navigation title in your map or ensure that the referenced file is local and can be accessed. No title was found in the specified topic, so the table of contents will use the indicated fallback value for this topic. The conref attribute must be a URI reference to an existing DITA element. Please see the topic on URI-based addressing in the DITA specification for details on the expected syntax. Note that the name of the file in this message may have be changed to use a standard dita topic file extension ('.dita' or '.xml'), instead of the original extension used by the file; it may also include a path to the temporary directory rather than to the original.

If the target element exists in your source file, check to make sure it is not filtered out of the build with a DITAVAL file (which will remove the target before conref processing runs).

 When pulling content with a conref attribute, you may only pull from a single element, but the target ID appears twice in the referenced topic. This message is deprecated and should no longer appear in any logs. This may appear if (for example) you have a ph element that references another phrase, but that phrase itself contains a reference to the original. This will result in an infinite loop. The toolkit will stop following the conref trail when this is detected; you will need to correct the reference in your source files. The conref attribute must be a URI reference to a DITA element. Please see the topic on URI-based addressing in the DITA specification for details on the expected syntax. The conref attribute must be a URI reference to a DITA element. Please see the topic on URI-based addressing in the DITA specification for details on the expected syntax. This warning is intended to catch instances where a non-DITA format setting unexpectedly cascades to a DITA topic, which will prevent the topic from being processed. To remove this message, set the format attribute directly on the indicated reference. Found a value such as <xref href="">link text</xref>. The empty href attribute is not serving a purpose and has caused problems with some tools in the past; you should remove the attribute entirely or specify a value. The type attribute in DITA is intended to describe the type of the target; for example, a reference to a concept topic may use type="concept". Generally, this attribute is optional, and the DITA-OT build will automatically determine the value during processing. In this case, the type attribute lists a more general type than what is actually found. This is not an error but may result in unexpected sorting for links to this topic. The type attribute in DITA is intended to describe the type of the target; for example, a reference to a concept topic may use type="concept". Generally, this attribute is optional, and the DITA-OT build will automatically determine the value during processing. In this case, the specified type value does not match the target, which may cause your links to sort inappropriately. The DITA-OT is only able to dynamically retrieve titles when the target is a local (not peer or external) DITA resource. The DITA-OT is only able to dynamically retrieve titles when the target is a local DITA resource. The build was unable to get a title from the referenced topic; instead, a navigation title will be created based on the specified linktext element inside of topicmeta. If the target is a local DITA topic, ensure the reference is correct and the topic is available. Otherwise, provide a navigation title, and ensure the scope and format attributes are set appropriately. The DITA-OT is only able to dynamically retrieve titles and link text when the target is a local (not peer or external) DITA resource. The DITA-OT is only able to dynamically retrieve titles when the target is a local DITA resource. The referenc to this document did not specify any link text for generated map-based links; the navigation title will be used as fallback. The referenced file did not specify any link text for generated map-based links, and no fallback text could be located. Any links generated from this reference will have incorrect link text. The link or cross reference has no target specified and will not generate a link. The type attribute in DITA is intended to describe the type of the target; for example, a reference to a concept topic may use type="concept". Generally, this attribute is optional, and the DITA-OT build will automatically determine the value during processing. In this case, the type attribute lists a more general type than what is actually found. This is not an error but may result in unexpected sorting for links to this topic. The type attribute in DITA is intended to describe the type of the target; for example, a reference to a concept topic may use type="concept". Generally, this attribute is optional, and the DITA-OT build will automatically determine the value during processing. In this case, the specified type value does not match the target, which may cause your links to sort inappropriately. The build attempted to access the specified file in order to retrive a title or short description, but the file could not be found. If the file exists, it is possible that a DITAVAL file was used to remove the file's contents from the build. Be aware that the path information above may not match the link in your topic. When a link or cross reference does not have content, the build will attempt to pull the target's title for use as link text. If the target is unavailable, be sure to set the scope attribute to an appropriate value. If the target does not have a title (such as when linking to a paragraph), be sure to provide link text inside the cross reference. An xref element specifies type="li", which indicates a link to a list item, but the item number could not be determined to use as link text. Please specify link text inside the reference, or ensure that you are referencing an available list item. The cross reference goes to a list item in an unordered list. The process could not automatically generate link text because the list item is not numbered. Please provide link text within the cross reference. An xref element specifies type="fn", which indicates a link to a footnote, but the footnote number could not be determined to use as link text. Please specify link text inside the reference, or ensure that you are referencing an available footnote. An xref element specifies type="dlentry", which indicates a link to a definition list entry, but the term could not be located to use as link text. Please specify link text inside the reference, or ensure that you are referencing an available definition list entry No title was found for the current document, so the HTML output file will set the title to "***". This value generally appears in the title bar at the top of a browser. The object element in HTML does not support using longdescref for accessibility. To make the object accessible, you may need to add text before or after the element. You may also be able to handle it with a param element inside the object. This message is generated when creating draft output in order to help you locate all topics that need to be cleaned up; the cleanup items will appear in your output with styling that makes it stand out. The content will be hidden when the draft parameter is not active. This message is generated when creating draft output in order to help you locate all topics that have draft comments. Each comment will appear in your HTML output; the comments will be hidden when the draft parameter is not active. Because of the way XML and DITA are defined, it is generally not possible to prohibit adding a second title to a section during editing (or to force that title to come first). However, the DITA specification states that only one title should be used in a section. When multiple titles are found, only the first one will appear in the output. If it is important to flag this piece of information, try placing a flag on the block element that contains your phrase. If you just want to have an image next to the phrase, you may place an image directly into the document. The DITA-OT is able to remove duplicate links in most cases. However, if two links to the same resource use different attributes or link text, it is possible for them to appear together. For example, if the same link shows up with role="next" and again with no specified role, it may show up as both the "Next topic" link and as a related link. Note that links generated from a reltable in a DITA Map will have the role attribute set to "friend". The area element in an image map must provide a link target for the specified area. Please add an xref element as a child of area and ensure that it specifies a link target. Cross reference text inside the area element is used to provide accessibility for screen readers that can identify different areas of an image map. If text cannot be retrieved automatically by referencing a DITA element, it should be specified directly in the cross reference. The specified value was passed as-is through to the area element in the HTML. The area element is intended to define a region in an image map; coordinates must be specified in order to define that region. The build will not look for peer or external topics before compiling your CHM file, so they may not be included. If you are referencing an actual HTML file that will not be available, it cannot be included in the project, and you should set the toc attribute to "no" on your topicref element. Otherwise, check to be sure your HTML file was included in the CHM; if it was not, you will need to place it in the correct location with your other output files and recompile. The PDF, ODT, and RTF output processes cannot automatically convert non-DITA content into DITA in order to merge it with the rest of your content. The referenced items are ignored. Eclipse requires that an ID be specified when creating an Eclipse Help project; the toolkit expects to locate that ID on the root element of your input map. The toolkit is attempting to add generated text, such as the string "Related information" that appears above links. The requested string could not be found in any language. Your output may contain a meaningful string, or it may contain a code that was intended to map to a string. This likely indicates an error in a plug-in or XSL override; either the string was requested incorrectly, or you will need to provide a mapping for the string in all of the languages you require. This will occur if a map references another map, and then that second map (or another further nested map) references the original map. The result is an infinite nesting of maps; please correct the chain of map references to remove circular reference. This will occur when a DITAVAL file contains multiple styling rules that apply to the same element. The "flagit" named template was deprecated in DITA-OT version 1.4, when the OASIS standard formalized the DITAVAL syntax. The template is removed in DITA-OT 1.6. Stylesheets that used this template need to be updated. The build attempted to access the specified file in order to retrive a title or short description, but the file could not be found. If the file exists, it is possible that a DITAVAL file was used to remove the file's contents from the build. Another possibility is that the file is located outside of the scope of the main input directory, and was not available because the onlytopic.in.map parameter was specified. Be aware that the path information above may not match the link in your topic. The link appears to use valid syntax to reference a DITA element, but that element cannot be found. Please verify that the element exists, and is not removed from the build by DITAVAL based filtering. Processing for terms, acronyms, or abbreviated forms will associate the key from the element's keyref attribute with a glossentry (glossary entry) topic. This message will appear if the key was defined, but was not associated with a glossentry topic. The process will try to use the best available fallback (usually the title of the referenced topic). Processing for abbreviated form elements will associate the key from the element's keyref attribute with a glossentry (glossary entry) topic. This message will appear if the key was defined, but was not associated with a glossentry topic. This element is only supported with keys that are associated with glossary topics; the element will not generate any output. Please correct the reference, or use a different element to reference your topic. According to the DITA Specification, references from maps should either go to DITA Maps, DITA Topics, or any non-DITA resource. References below the topic level should only be made from cross references (using xref or similar) inside of a topic. For details, see the href attribute description in the OASIS standard's definition of the topicref element. This will appear when generating PDF or ODT output that includes a link to a local topic, but the referenced topic is not part of the map itself. This will result in a broken link. You should include the topic in your map or remove the link from the build. The copy-to attribute is used to copy a topic over a document that already exists. Please make sure that any copy-to attributes use a unique name so that the copy will not overwrite existing content. Two different topics are copied to the same location using copy-to; as a result, one of these files would be over-written. Only the first instance of this copy-to value will be recognized. Please correct the use of copy-to attributes. This message indicates that your custom XSLT or plug-ins rely on templates that will be removed in an upcoming release. Typically this occurs when a named template has been converted to a mode template; any code that uses the deprecated template should be updated. This PDF build uses generated text, such as the phrase "Related information" (which is generated above many link groups). The toolkit was unable to locate the string %1 for your specified language, so the string will appear in the default language. This generally indicates that the toolkit's strings need to be updated to support your language, or that your language setting is incorrect.
Additional explanation for messages in the <filepath>org.dita.pdf2</filepath> plugin The PDF index process relies on pre-defined letter headings when sorting terms. The specified term does not begin with a character that can be mapped to an existing heading. Typically this term would be placed in a "Special characters" group, but the current language did not specify such a group when setting up the index sort process. The PDF index process relies on pre-defined letter headings when sorting terms. The specified term does not begin with a character that can be mapped to an existing heading, so it has been placed under a heading for terms that begin with special characters such as punctuation. If this term should be sorted under a new or existing letter heading, please open an issue with DITA-OT to correct the sort. Found an index-see element as a child of a term that also exists as a standalone index term, or as a term that also uses index-see-also. When using index-see with an index term, that term should not be used to create page references and should not reference additional terms. Treating the index-see as index-see-also.