[FrameSGML] Getting FM auto numbers into the xml

[Daniel Emory]

At 09:50 AM 3/31/2006, Terry Badger wrote:
>Is there a way to push the auto numbers ing
>information generated in FM into the xml file?
>I don't see any variables to grab and put into an
> xml attribute.
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What you describe is a serious incompatibility between
the FrameMaker autonumbering approach and that used in
SGML and XML. In the latter two, the numbering must
somehow be restored by a FOSI or DSSL (in SGML) or
XSLT in XML. In many types of documents ( e.g.,
regulatory, legal, aircraft maintenance), preservation
of the original numbering is crucial. And when XML
data is stored in, and retrieved from, a database or
CMS, the numbering must be retained in the database so
that, if you query the database to retrieve a
particular numbered section by itself, the query can
be successful simply by specifying its unique number,
and that number must also appear in the retrieved
section.

In many cases the numbering scheme itself is
non-sequential. That is, the number itself conveys
information about the content. An example is Air
Transport Association (ATA) publications, which
provide a way for users to identify the information
applicable to a particular task by means of the
numbering system itself. All the user needs to do to
retrieve the needed information or procedure from a
database is to issue a query that specifies the
applicable number, and the delivered content
(containing only the desired information) is properly
numbered

Clearly, there is only one workable solution, and that
is to create a set of attributes--a separate attribute
for each level of the number, and, in structured
FrameMaker, EDD prefix rules use those attribute
values to construct the number. When a document using
this method is round-tripped between FrameMaker and an
XML database, all numbering is preserved.

Admittedly, this means autonumbering of documents must
be abandoned, which adds the burden of properly
maintaing the corrrect numbering in the associated
attributes.

Usually, it's possible to continue to use
autonumbering for numbered lists, because (usually)
nothing less than the entire list can be retrieved,
and thus it is easy, using XSLT, to reconstruct the
sequential numbering.

Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
<danemory7224 at sbcglobal.net>