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self_taught_too
Participant
July 28, 2009
Question

Part of path lost when importing autogenerated files

  • July 28, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 569 views

Hope someone can help as can't find anything on the forum about this.

Have two Framemaker 8 books, one of which contains all the files for a future publication, including LOT, LOF and IX.  This is the full publication but most of it is still heavily in draft.  The second book represents the first release of the publication and has only a small subset of agreed content.  The idea is that the publication will grow in time.

The second book is in a subdirectory below the directory containing the first book and the full set of files.  It has its own LOT,LOF and IX.  It also links up to a few of the files above, the ones that are in the first release. The LOT, LOF and IX contain contain references only to these few content files. Have done it this way rather than put everything in one directory, as there will be a number of subsets, with multiple PDFs produced for review from each before the finalised PDF containing the current content to be released at any one time, and don't want them all in the same directory with the management problems that would introduce, and risk of people selecting the wrong version of a LOT, LOF etc. The content files with the actual text in are not duplicated in this subdirectory; the book just links to them in the directory above itself.

All was well on one PC but needed to work on a second also. This second one has a different directory structure and it isn't possible to change it because of the different policies in place.  So copied the main directory and the other subdirectory beneath to the new PC.  All appeared OK; the lower level book found the files above etc.

To clarify the structure on the second PC is this:

\dir0\dir1\dir2\Content directory - place where the first book plus the preface, glossary/index and the other files in the draft book - the main body

..dir0\dir1\dir2\Content directory\dirA - place where the second book and LOT, LOF, IX are for the book to be published first (the .. represents some other directories from the root)

(On the first PC, it was \dir0\dir1\Content directory\ and dir0\dir1\Content directory\dir A - and this is the shorter path from the root)

When trying to generate the PDF on the second realised something had gone wrong and then found that the problem began in FMkr. The symptom is this:

The LOT, LOF and IX autogenerated files are fine within the book, their links can be clicked and they go to the source files (in the directory above).  BUT these files aren't part of the actual publication.  The LOT and LOF are embedded in a Preface (one of the files in level above) and the IX is embedded in a Glossary and Index file (ditto). When these are imported into the Preface or Glossary as appropriate, whether by reference or by actually including the file, the result is the same - the links become non clickable and an error is saying that the file can't be found. The path is partly truncated - it excludes the directory where the files actually are.

So for a link to the Introduction.fm file, FMkr says it is looking for it as ..dir0\dir1\dir2\Introduction.fm and not ..dir0\dir1\dir2\Content directory\Introduction.fm where it actually is.

This occurs even if the whole structure is copied elsewhere to a place higher in the hierarchy. It isn't possible to reproduce the structure on the first PC because of the configuration of the second PC.  Have tried taking the LOT etc. out of the second book then regenerating them from scratch - they are fine, the links in them are fine, but when imported into the other files, the links miss out the directory which actually holds the source files where the links point to. Must emphasise this did not happen on the first PC.

Any ideas gratefully received.

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    1 reply

    A
    Anonymous
    July 28, 2009

    It would be really helpful if you might do a screenshot  of the File Manager hierarchy of folders and insert them into your posting, maybe use callouts to annotate the various significant levels -- a visual would really, really make it much easier to interpret what you're describing.

    Edit: oh, and if you can, insert it into your original posting using the "edit" button (and the little camera icon and choose the middle tab that says "Uploaded images" to put the image inline into the content) -- so that we can read your description and then have the graphic to refer to in the same screen.

    S
    self_taught_tooAuthor
    Participant
    July 29, 2009

    Thanks Sheila, have now overcome my problem with editing the post (duh!)

    Hope the below is clear enough as cannot send an actual screen shot. Have discovered that the number of directories above in path is a red herring because the problem now happens back on the original pc when the book and files are copied back to it.

    Have tried creating a test book with only the index, glossary/index and one content file linked from directory above (i.e. test book at dir c level) and it is OK in the autogenerated index but then does the same truncation when the index is imported into glossary/index, i.e. looks for the source file in dir A.  If the source file is copied into the test book directory, the file removed from book and then the local copy added back in and the book updated/import redone, the links work. so it will find it if the source files are in the same directory.  However, this always worked before with lots of test runs and a few real reviews too.

    Subject: FrameMaker General Discussion Part of path lost when importing autogenerated files

    It would be really helpful if you might do a screenshot  of the File Manager hierarchy of folders and insert them into your posting, maybe use callouts to annotate the various significant levels -- a visual would really, really make it much easier to interpret what you're describing.

    FMkr link problem.jpg>

    Sorry, not coming out very clear compared to viewed on PC. Directories are A, B, C - Dir A caption "The Directory above the content directory. Links in the subset book in Directory C look in here after they are imported into other files in the subset book"

    Directory B says "Directory B, the content directory, with introduction, glossary/index and other content files, plus main book, main index, main LOT, LOF. Some of the content files in here are also linked to from the subset book in Directory C"

    Directory C says "Directory C containing the subset book with its own index, LOT, LOF, plus links to introduction, glossary/index and a couple of other files in Directory B.  The links to files in Dir B work in the autogenerated LOT, LOF etc, but not when imported into content files (linked files in directory B) although this used to work. They now look for the content files in Directory A instead"

    Hope that makes it clearer.

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