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theGavMan
theGavMan
Participating Frequently
December 17, 2014
Question

Exporting an existing EDD to a DTD

  • December 17, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 1603 views

I am completely new to Fm, using Fm 11, have a limited understanding of XML and trying to show a proof of concept for a task I was given. In a nutshell, I was given an existing EDD and a publication that contains txt and graphics; these files are Fm files. I am trying to export the valid EDD to a DTD using the Fm  StructureTools -> Save As DTD function and get an error saying the Application "X" does not exist. Reset the app name for the EDD or define a new application. I see at the top of the EDD the tag Structured Application: X , but I cannot figure out what I need to do with this tag/element to get the EDD to save as a DTD. My thought is to use Fm to export the EDD and publication files as XML, then use a script, eventually, to insert new elements throughout the publication, import the marked up XML files back into Fm. I have searched the web, adobe user guides, and various tutorials trying to understand this problem but so far notta. Can someone point me to an example or provide some insight as to what I need to do to export this EDD as a DTD? I am also wondering if anyone can point me to a good tutorial on Fm 11 that might help me with this SW in general.

Many Thanks in advance for any help/info on this matter!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

G
Gorly
Inspiring
December 18, 2014

Hi,

to get that EDD translated to a DTD, you need to specify a structured application for it in your stuctapps.fm file. This is pretty easy, once you take a look at the other applications in that file.

You can open your current structapps.fm via the Structure Tools menu (Edit).

After defining the application, your DTD can be created.

Problem with this automatically generated DTD is, that it needs some manual tweaking afterwards to do exactly what you need.

So before you start messing around with that, I'd suggest you take a closer look on the FM guides here: http://helpx.adobe.com/framemaker.html - specifically the Structured Application Developer Guide.

Then you should also get familiar with the creation of DTDs and XML in general, to get a grasp of what needs to be done to set the export up correctly.

As you mentioned that you want to embed the XML files in an automatic process to insert elements to the document, you should also learn about XSLT and XPATH, which will be most probably the tools you'll be using to accomplish that task.

Still following me? Ok, if you have a slight clue - at least enough, so you can get an idea of a problem and ask the appropriate questions - about all that, you can then start to work on your implementation.

From there on, you'll find lots of useful information on these forums and on stackoverflow (when it comes down to XSLT).

But for now, the most pressing questions should be (in that order):

- What is a Structured Application in FM and how does it work?

- How does a DTD work and how does it impact my work? 

- What is a Read/Write-Ruleset and how does it impact my file export?

- How does roundtripping FM->XML->FM work and what are the odds and ends with it?

- Do my files roundtrip correctly and how can I assure, they will do so in future?

- What are XSLT and XPATH, and how do they work in general?

- What are identity transformations and how do I do them correctly (whitespaces in mind)?

- Is this worth it, or will ExtendScript work better for my buisness case?

I hope you have the time and budget to invest on the effort needed to get a clear vision about what is happening in the process and to get a closer looks on the mechanics of this.

It's nothing that can be done over night, but it's worth it! The better you understand all that, the better your result will be.

Hope that helps you getting started.

-Alex

theGavMan
theGavManAuthor
Participating Frequently
December 18, 2014

Thank you Alex! I really appreciate the time you put into the response and for pointing me in the right direction for Fm resources. It has been clear to me from the moment I was thrown into this task that there were a lot of unknowns and a very steep learning curve lie ahead of me. The questions you outlined should also help us deliver a better product in the end which will benefit us as well as our customer. I do know that FM is a SW program that our customer is using so we are locked into using this SW as well.

Again, Thank You for your time. Happy New Year!

G
Gorly
Inspiring
December 19, 2014

Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year to you, too.

It is indeed a quite steep learning curve, but it is also a rewarding one.

Once you've managed to establish a clean process, it makes so many things much more easy and pays off by saving you literally tons of time.

Especially when it comes to XSLT, you can do quite some impressive "magic" to those documents.

-Cheers Alex

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