Handling xlsx, docx, and pptx baggage files when publishing to RoboHelp Server

Issue: baggage files (xlsx, docx, or pptx) open as .ZIP files when published to RoboHelp Server

Baggage files are an important part of your project especially when you want to link a Word, Excel, or PDF file to your project. When you create a project containing baggage files and generate the output locally, it works absolutely fine. However, sometimes when you publish the output to RoboHelp Server and then try to open a baggage file, it opens as a .ZIP file instead of the original Word, Excel, or PDF file. This generally happens when your project contains baggage files with new file formats such as xlsx, docx, or pptx.

This problem occurs due to the absence of proper MIME-Mapping for the new file formats.

To resolve this problem, do the following on the RoboHelp Server machine:

1. Go to the install location of Tomcat – <install location for Tomcat>\conf and open the web.xml file.
2. Add the following lines in the web.xml:

• • For docx files
    <mime-mapping>
    <extension>docx</extension>
    <mime-type>application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>
  • For xlsx files
    <mime-mapping>
    <extension>xlsx</extension>
    <mime-type>application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>
  • For pptx files
    <mime-mapping>
    <extension>pptx</extension>
    <mime-type>application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>

3. Restart Tomcat.

Now your baggage file will open with the right extension.

Submitted by: Piyush Bhatnagar, Asst Manager Tech Support