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frameexpert
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frameexpertCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 7, 2025
Question

Keep file attribute value on graphic import

  • November 7, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 88 views

I have xml files that I am opening in FrameMaker. My graphic element has a file attribute that imports the graphic. I would like to keep the file attribute visible in FrameMaker so I can see the path in the structure view. The file attribute doesn't appear in the structure view. Is there a Read/Write rule that will allow me to keep it on FrameMaker import?

1 reply

R
Russ Ward
Legend
November 10, 2025

Hi Rick. Sorry for the delayed response, I was offline for a few days. I don't have the extensive experience to answer conclusively, but it seems to me that there does not exist any such thing as preserving an attribute that is transformed into a property. If your rules (or default rules) say that "file" is the graphic path property (in the FDK, FO_InsetFile property of the FO_Inset object), seems to me it has to disappear upon import. Unless there some other global rule that says "make the attribute not disappear" which seems would be applicable to any attribute.

 

How locked down are you with this? Any chance you could use XSLT to copy the value to another attribute?

 

Russ

frameexpert
Community Expert
frameexpertCommunity ExpertAuthor
Community Expert
November 10, 2025

Hi Russ, thanks for your reply. Yes, right now I am using XSLT to copy the value to a "graphic-path" attribute, which should be sufficient. If they want the value to update if they import a new graphic, I will have to use an event script. Thanks again. I hope everything is good down there in Carlisle.

R
Russ Ward
Legend
November 10, 2025

Hi Rick, thanks for the greetings. Life goes on and the promise is at the end. Seems to me that you would have to use an event script in either case, so probably you have as good as you are going to get. It's actually possible that an explicitly-specified file attribute might mess up a subsequent export process, but I'm not sure.

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