compile webquiz

Question

I have some problems to compile webquizes, which made by using the package https://ctan.org/pkg/webquiz?lang=de So far i installed MikTEX, TEXstudio and python 3, get the packages webquiz, TEX4ht and make4ht on a windows os. The next step (i think) to initalise is to copy some files or update a path in TEXstudio?, because i can't compile. LaTEX give me some errors, that he don't know webquizzes yet. I am a little bit helpless (not a crack like most of the people here :-D) with the instructions in the manual. Maybe someone can help me to get the package to work.

Answer 1

Well lets see, in order for the package to run there are a significant number of dependencies that need to be stabilised first, so lets step through them.

1) MiKTeX needs to be installed well such that on Windows 10 ? you press WIN+C keys to get command prompt offered then enter to accept you should be in a Windows console.

Type in and enter at the> Latex -version

The first two lines of the reply should start like this (IF they do not then search how to get MiKTeX binary folder on your system "path")

MiKTeX-pdfTeX 2.9.6993 (1.40.20) (MiKTeX 2.9.7000)
Copyright (C) 1982 D. E. Knuth, (C) 1996-2018 Han The Thanh

Now anytime you need to compile a tex file from the command line that is how you can for example
run> PdfLaTeX Quiz1.tex

the manual shows it would be

> latex quiz1      % latex a quiz file
> pdflatex quiz1   % build a PDF version of the quiz
> xdvi quiz1       % OPTIONAL view the quiz using xdvi
> dvips quiz1      % OPTIONAL print the quiz
> webquiz quiz1    % converts the quiz to html for online use

You don't need TeXstudio yet (in fact MiKTeX should have an inbuilt editor) so we will skip configuring either or both of those for now.

2) Python 3 is only needed for that last step of conversion so you can run it on a web server and since that initiates a heck of a lot of further steps and dependencies, we need to A) check you want to go there B) check what you have got in preparation. So back to the command prompt and test the following.

For each of the following if the first call does not work giving you a version then it may be on the system but not on path. To check if available run > where /r \ program in each case the "program" is the first word.
So for example if python -v fails to respond then it would be where /r \ python and the folder identified needs to be added to "path"

beware the next line to enter ends with Capital V

> python -V

If you see Python 2... its not good since you need version 3+ if no version its not installed correctly on path and follow the note above.

beware the next line to enter ends with Capital V

> dvisvgm -V

2.6.3 or newer is good (do not download this, if its not there, since MiKTeX will probably provide its own version)

beware the next line to enter ends with lower case v

> gswin32c -v
or if you installed the 64 bit version
> gswin64c -v

you should see GPL Ghostscript 9.2.. (2018) 9.25 or newer is good
although MiKTeX has mgs you may need this conventional fuller version

So far none of this includes the web server with a working JavaScript

> java --version
check its a recent late 2018 version and anything further server related is beyond viewing the TeX in this question.

NOTE when serving the files they would need to be in highly secured public accessible folders such as C:\inetpub\wwwroot

That goes well beyond this TeX phase where we are only building the source TeX materials in a personal unsecured area.

make a folder in a location you have full rights to control so for example c:\texprojects and a subfolder c:\texprojects\mytexmf with another alongside say c:\texprojects\webquiz for unpacking the zip. Once the zip is unpacked copy the example folders from webquiz to C:\texprojects\examples and copy the contents of latex to C:\texprojects\mytexmf\tex\latex\webquiz. Thus you have a master back-up copy in c:\texprojects\webquiz and a working copy to corrupt :-) in C:\texprojects\examples and you can edit those to get familiar with the layouts.

One more critical step is that in MiKTeX-console you need to add C:\texprojects\mytexmf to the settings directories using + and browse to the folder then go to tasks and refresh the filename database so MiKTeX knows the webquiz is available to the editors.

That plus the documentation should get you potentially started with what seems to be a very complex way of producing nice web pages.!