Modularised EDDs?

[Scott Prentice]

Hi Hedley...

Yes .. you can do this, and it works quite well (as long as you don't 
get too carried away with the modularization). A FM binary file can have 
any element at the root .. it may be "invalid" but it will open fine and 
if it's imported into a container EDD will work fine. Just keep in mind 
that if you update one of the insets, you do still need to open the 
"root" EDD and import that file into the template. Using this technique 
along with variables to define chunks of the EDD is a good approach for 
EDD maintenance.

Note that this is how the structapp stub files have been implemented in 
DITA-FMx .. the stub files themselves are invalid, but when imported as 
an inset into the structapps file, work fine.

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Hedley Finger wrote:
> Lynne Price, Kay Whatley and others:
>
> The DITA DTDs are modularised to allow ready re-use, specialisation 
> and maintenance.
>
> Is there any way to create a modularised EDD, with a skeleton host 
> file and modules imported as text insets?  I have been studying the 
> Adobe documentation for developing structured applications but cannot 
> find any reference to using text insets in this way.  I read 
> somewhere a couple of years ago that EDD fragments always require a 
> root element that matches an element in the main host EDD skeleton, 
> which would rather undermine this idea.  But perhaps there is a 
> special root element that can map onto ANY element in the host EDD -- 
> a new feature in FM8?
>
> It seems to me that both the Adobe and Leximation EDDs could benefit 
> from modularisation that exactly maps onto the *.dtd and *.mod files 
> of the DITA schemas/DTDs.
>
> Regards,
> Hedley
>
>
> --
> Hedley Stewart Finger
> 28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
> Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Mobile +61 412 461 558,
> E-mail <mailto:hfinger at handholding.com.au>
>
>
>
>