Generate fm & book file out of XML

[AnonymousCreator]

Hello, I am working on creating some PDF files which will  have some chapters, TOC & Index pages. I have .mif template files ready. What i am looking for is the way where framemaker will create book file and fm file out of XML instead of writing all the contents manually to .mif. Basically I am trying to find some automated way to generate PDF out of xml. 

[Bob_Niland]

What's in the XML file(s)?

[AnonymousCreator · Accepted solution]

We were using one product and have program ready to convert the data to XML. XML had some P tag (kinda like a paragraph), Chapter tag to divide book as per the chapters with required attributes lie template files page number settings etc. I believe this will not work directly with frameMaker and I will have to create new XML structure which FrameMaker would read.

[frameexpert · Accepted solution]

You need a FrameMaker Structured Application, which consists of a structured template, a DTD (or schema), and an EDD (Element Definition Document), which will control template formatting based on element/attribute content. You may want an optional XSLT transform to modify the XML on import to FrameMaker. It's not trivial to set up, but once it's set up, you can basically do File > Open, choose your XML file, and get a formatted FrameMaker document or book. And then you can make your PDF directly from FrameMaker.

It is possible to create XML to MIF (or directly to FM) workflows with ExtendScript, the FDK, or XSLT, but it is usually better to use the Structured Application approach because it requires less programming.