BI Publisher XDO_TOP - MSword Debugging

In several of my previous posts over the years, I've highlighted quite a few ways to turn on debugging for the Oracle BI Publisher APIs.  I really haven't gone to much into depth on how to turn on debugging for the MSword template builder.  I've outlined an approach below that I have used with great success.  In my opinion it's the easiest way to configure BI Publisher and debug the BI Publisher APIs.
 
1. Create a directory on your C: drive called xdo_top
2. Create a sub-directory called temp:  C:\xdo_top\temp
    Create a sub-directory called resource:   C:\xdo_top\resource
3. Create a xdodebug.cfg file in the resource directory with the following 2 lines:
LogLevel=STATEMENT
LogDir=C:\xdo_top\temp
4. Optionally copy an existing version xdo.cfg file if you need it for barcodes, micr fonts, etc.  Note: You can find this in one of the oracle bi publisher template builder directory's.
5. In MSWord goto the Add-ins menu for BIP,  Click on -> tools->options->java options, Add the following:   -DXDO_TOP=C:\\xdo_top

 


Note:  The screen shot also has a memory parameter, you do not need the memory option -Xmx256M

6. Restart msword* Not really needed but a good idea

When you start bi publisher and preview a template from MSword the following should happen:

• xdo.log should be created under c:\xdo_top\temp.  
• The log file should contain rich debugging information to help you with your troubleshooting.  

When would I need to use debugging?
As an example, let say you wanted to use the xdo.cfg file to configure a font, but that insolent micr font isn't working in your template.  You can review the log to see if it's indeed being pulled in.