Adobe Framemaker does not recognize cross-reference from XML file

Christof,

    FrameMaker supports two models of cross-references and you have attempted to use a combination of both. The difference is the way the spot cited by a cross-reference is identified. (In FrameMaker terminology, this spot is called the source, because it is the source of the text that appears when the user inserts a cross-reference. Thinking of the cross-reference as a link, though, it is tempting to refer to this spot as the destination or target of the cross-reference.)

    Marker-based cross-references are used in unstructured documents. The source of the cross-reference is identified by a cross-reference marker in the cited paragraph. That marker can be inserted automatically by FrameMaker when the user selects a paragraph in the cross-reference dialog, or inserted explicitly by the user. Structured documents can contain marker-based cross-references, but such cross-references cannot be round-tripped to XML.

   Following a convention common in XML (and that motivated the definition of ID and IDREF attributes), FrameMaker also supports element-based cross-references. The source of an element-based cross-reference is an element. There is no need to define a new element type to define the elements that will be the target of links. Instead, declare an ID attribute on the elements that you want to cite. The cross-references will use such attributes to identify cross-reference sources.

   In your example, thus, you do not need the XRef element, but you do need to add a new attribute to the Paragraph element. Furthermore, the refid attribute on your HRef element needs to be declared as IDREF instead of CDATA

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<!DOCTYPE Root [

<!ELEMENT Root (Section)>

<!ELEMENT Section (Paragraph*)>

<!ELEMENT Paragraph ANY>

<!ATTLIST Paragraph

        id ID #IMPLIED

>

<!ATTLIST HRef format CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!ATTLIST HRef refid IDREF #IMPLIED>

]>

<Root>

  <Section>

    <Paragraph id="hello">Hello <XRef type="Cross-Ref" text="world-link"/>world.</Paragraph>

    <Paragraph>Here is the link: <HRef format="Page" refid="hello"/></Paragraph>

  </Section>

</Root>

Read/write rules (read_write_rules.fm):
element "HRef" {

      is fm cross-reference element;

      attribute "refid" is fm property cross-reference id;

}

I have also removed the sourcefile attribute you had declared on HREF. FrameMaker uses an attribute named srcfile for cross-references from one XML document to another, but that's a topic for another forum thread.

    --Lynne