XML Cross-reference Problem

[Bernard Aschwanden]

If you are creating XML from 'unstructured' Frame then you are going to run into this and many other issues. To simply create XML for the sake of XML is likely a poor approach to take.

Save As gives you output, but the output is restricted by what FrameMaker defaults to. If you have structured files you can exercise a great deal of control over the output. If you have FM 7.2 then you can also pre/post process the XML files that are generated.

Can you expand on how you build the XML? Is my guess that you 'save as' from unstructured Frame correct? If not and you are using structured Frame you will need an application file and you will also need to set up Read/Write rules.

If you (or anyone else on the list) are interested, send me an email (but don't send it to the entire list) and I can provide a PDF file that walks you through building a very simple, but fully functional, set of files to convert content to and from XML. There is a simple sample (cool, only one vowel difference) that I use which can get someone working with this pretty quickly. This is not a replacement for what you have and shouldn't be seen as a complete solution, but at least it introduces the concept of building structured files, working with XML, developing an EDD, setting up an application file and more. It's a good starting point.

The notes are still rough, but they are based on the hands on seminar I did at the FrameMaker Chautauqua this year and I'll likely deliver it in a couple of other places over the next year or so.

Good luck,

Bernard



Bernard Aschwanden
Publishing Technologies Expert
Publishing Smarter

bernard at publishingsmarter.com 

www.publishingsmarter.com 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+bernard=publishingsmarter.com at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces+bernard=publishingsmarter.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Karen West
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 8:54 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: XML Cross-reference Problem

Hi,

I produce documentation using Framemaker 7.0 and we are now attempting to get all of our documentation online in a help system, using a tool written in-house with our own software (a 4GL called Cyberscreen). My part in this is to save the individual chapters of each book as xml, producing a .xml and .css for each chapter, plus make sure all the images are saved as gifs etc.
The problem we are having is with cross-references. They usually appear in the Frame document as 'see heading on page nn' or 'see chapter xxxxx on page nn'. In the help system we want them to appear as text only hyperlinks to the relevant section of the help. The Framemaker xml file simply has an <A> pointing to a location in the document. There are hundreds of these throughout the manuals, and for most of them there is no "implied" text. For
example:

<A ID="pgfId-1099643"></A>
Manage the help facility using the HM utility. See <A href="hm.xml#id(31807)" xml:link="simple" show="replace" actuate="user"
CLASS="XRef"><Hypertext>
page 147</Hypertext>
</A>

Does anyone have any suggestions how we can get proper links into the xml documents?

TIA

Karen
Technical Writer
Cyberscience Corp UK
http://www.cyberscience.com

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