structured doc ---> xml

Wed Jun 14 06:22:10 PDT 2006

>Did u try rendering XML without R/W rules?

If, by rendering, you mean display in a browser, no. I used XSLT. If you
mean Save as XML from Frame and get valid XML, yes. I eventually added two
R/W rules to handle some graphics conversion and remove some line breaks
that Frame decided it wanted to add.

>what resources did you use to learn to write R/W rule. As of now i just
have access to the online manuals shipped along with frame.

Just the Structured Applications Developers guide, but I am by no means an
expert in R/W rules. If I don't like the result, I flip through the guide
and try and figure out if a R/W rule will help. There is also a Yahoo group
dedicated to structured Frame issues
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FrameSGML/). There is some great information
there, and some very knowledgeable and helpful people.

>Also, which book do you think is good to learn XSLT? Please guide me on
this front.

I have Inside XSLT by Steven Holzner. I bought it primarily because it was
the only book I found in my local bookstore that covered both XSLT and
XSL-FO. O'Reilly books have a good reputation, but I've never looked at
them. I've looked at a couple of Michael Kay's books. The Kay books are very
detailed, but might be a little intimidating to someone just starting out.
They also have the advantage (or disadvantage) of being written by the
primary XSLT spec author.

Mike

  _____  

From: Surbhi Singhal [mailto:surbhee at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 12:32 AM
To: Mike Feimster
Cc: framers at frameusers.com
Subject: Re: structured doc ---> xml

hi Mike
thnx for ur help. Did u try rendering XML without R/W rules?
what resources did you use to learn to write R/W rule. As of now i just have
access to the online manuals shipped along with frame. 

Also, which book do you think is good to learn XSLT? Please guide me on this
front.

Thanx
Surbhi

On 6/7/06, Mike Feimster <mike.feimster at acstechnologies.com> wrote: 

Surbhi,

I would try it without creating R/W rules and see how it turns out. Your
basic elements and attributes should be fine, but some of your objects
(graphics, etc.) may require them. The R/W rules section in the Structured
Applications developers guide explains the default behavior of elements,
attributes, graphics, etc. If that doesn't meet your needs, you might need
R/W rules. (In some cases, even r/w rules won't work and you'll need to use
XSLT or a custom FDK client. The last requires C programming. 

XML is plain text. It's like HTML with custom tags. Browsers know what to do
with HTML tags, but they don't know what to do with your custom tags. To get
bulleted lists, or other formatting, you'll probably need to use XSLT to
transform the XML into HTML/XHTML, It might be possible to do it with CSS,
depending upon the browser, and the complexity of your XML. 

For XML within FrameMaker, you can map your structured Frame elements to
paragraph and character styles in a FM template. Let's say each item in a
bulleted list is wrapped in a 'List' element. In your EDD, you would map the
'List' element to the 'ListBullet' paragraph style. 

Copying the list so others can reply as well.

Mike

  _____  

From: Surbhi Singhal [mailto:surbhee at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 12:17 PM 
To: Mike Feimster
Subject: Re: structured doc ---> xml

yes. i myself made my EDD. So i wil generate the DTD from the EDD itself.
does that mean i can get away with Read/Write rules??

regarding formatting part, i am talking about the formatting info once the
fm doc gets converted to XML. I used lists in my edd and when i convert them
to XML, they are rendered as plain text. I need help on this part. I have
both FM 7.1 and FM 7.2 available at work.

Please help.

Regards
Surbhi

On 6/7/06, Mike Feimster <mike.feimster at acstechnologies.com
<mailto:mike.feimster at acstechnologies.com> > wrote: 

<snip>
i want to  convert my structured document to xml. I have with me
1) EDD
2) sample document 

are read/write rules necessary??
</snip>

Maybe. Depends on how closely you're EDD and DTD match. If you generate your
DTD from your EDD, you might be able to get away with the default R/W rules.

If your DTD is different from your EDD, you will almost definitely need R/W
rules (Although, with FM 7.2, you might be able to use the built-in XSL
processor instead).

<snip>
Do i need XSLT for the formatting part?  if yes, can anyone suggest some 
links for the same.
</snip>

Depends. Generally people use XSLT to format the XML, but you can also use
cascading style sheets. Depends what browser you are using (assuming this is
for display on the Web) and if you only want to format the text. If you want

to "transform" the text to html or something else, you will most likely want
to use XSLT, although I suppose you could use Perl, or something like that.

If you are talking about formatting within FrameMaker itself, then your EDD 
and possibly a FM template would contain the formatting information.

www.w3schools.com <http://www.w3schools.com/>  is a good site to help you
get started with XSLT. 

http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/index.html has some great information, but it
helps to know a little XSL before jumping in. 

Several list members also offer XSL training. Personally, I bought a book
and worked my way through it. 

Mike