Nested DITA files not aggregating into chapter fm

Question

Hello,I'm using DITA in structured FM 12 and want to use the ditamap-to-fmbook-to PDF workflow. However, I was expecting the nested topicrefs to aggregate into a chapter fm file when I save the bookmap/ditamap to a FrameMaker 12 Book with Components. Instead, I'm simply getting a separate fm file for every single DITA topic/topicref regardless of how it's nested in the bookmap/ditamap. When I Save as PDF each topic starts on its own page in the PDF.  I was expecting that FM would pull these nested files into a FM chapter file, so that when the PDF is built, there would be a break before each chapter, but the topics within the chapter would flow continuously.Couple of things to note: FM correctly puts the top level topics as chapters in the TOC, and I get the appropriate heading levels/styles.I've tried this with bookmaps and ditamaps with individual topicrefs and maprefs to sub-ditamaps and get the same result regardless of the configuration.So I have a couple of questions:Does FrameMaker support this functionality? The DITA-FMx plugin looks like it does. Do I need to purchase it?If it does support it, how do I change the configuration? I've been through the template.fm files, the EDDs, and the ini files and I cannot see where this is controlled.If FrameMaker won't aggregate the individual files, is there a way to eliminate the page breaks between topics.I'm hoping the answer is not to nest topics in topics or add content as section conrefs to topics to artificially create this hierarchy.I appreciate your time and help,Rob

robv71765614 · Accepted Answer

Thanks for replying Scott. DITA-FMx is definitely something I'm looking at for the expanded feature set.

It seems that this functionality is controlled with the ditafm-output.ini. Setting the GenerateFlatBook flag to 1 (true) did the trick. (Right in front of my face the whole time). Now when I generate my FM book from my bookmap, the DITA chapters and nested topics are each aggregated into chapter.fm files.

[BookWithFM-General]

GenerateFlatBook=1

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\AdobeFrameMaker12\fminit\ditafm\ditafm-output.ini

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\12\ditafm-output.ini

ScottPrentice · Answer

Hi Rob...I was waiting for someone who "knows" to answer this. I don't have the answer, but I'm pretty sure it can be done. From what I understand there's a setting in the INI file (not sure which one) that lets you create "merged" FM chapter files instead of the separate files.Note that I'm the developer of DITA-FMx, so that's what I use for publishing from DITA. I suppose I should at least learn the basics about default FM and DITA, but that's just not high on my list. That said .. you might want to take a look at DITA-FMx. It gives you a lot of features that don't exist in default FM-DITA, and many of the features that exist in both environments are much easier to use in FMx (like key references). The default "map to book" process gives you the type of output that you're looking for (I have no idea why you'd want the default output that you're seeing in FM). Here's a feature comparison .. http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/featurecomparison.phpHopefully someone else will reply to you with an answer to your question .. I'm pretty sure FM-DITA can do what you're trying to do. But you might consider installing the trial of DITA-FMx.Cheers,Scott PrenticeLeximation, Inc.www.leximation.com

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