Has anyone successfully integrated TCS with a Continuous Integration - Automated Documentation program?

[RGH-ADTN]

Has anyone successfully integrated TCS with a Continuous Integration - Automated Documentation program?

As our software developers are building their code, they are submitting information artifacts, in MarkUp format, into a GitHub repository. We manually access the information, groom it in FrameMaker, and  manually update the repository file.  Has anyone developed an automated solution for this process?

[Bob_Niland]

Is what you're describing what Framemaker Publishing Server does?

I've never used it myself, nor have I been motivated to dig through the vacuous Adobe web pages, and the WhitePaper roadblocks, to discover how it actually differs from just being a multi-user FM, and/or what it adds/subtracts vs. TCS.

[RGH-ADTN]

I have not worked with the FrameMaker Publishing Server - I am not aware of its capabilities. 

We are using TCS2015 and a local Enterprise version of GitHub.

We would like to be able to import the content from a GitHub rst file into FM, groom it and save it back to the repository in its original format - MML or other MarkUp language.

[Wiedenmaier]

Hi,

not sure if I fully got your requirements. But I'll give it a try.

Your problem is not publishing, right? Your problem is the integration of developer's content in your documentation. They provide their content in XML und use GIT as their Version Control System. You have access to this content with a local sync copy of the GIT repository. Now you want to open this content in FrameMaker directly, make your changes and save it back to GIT. This Content also should be used in your book to publish your manual i.e. to PDF.

Am I right so far?

If so, FMPS is not what you need for this use case. The solution is working with FM directly. You have to create an XML Application (Template, EDD, RW-Rules, etc.) which makes it possible to open this content in FM, in an environment writers like. If your developers provide Content in DITA, such an XML Application is already there and only templates have to be customized for your needs.

If your "normal" Content is unstructured, make use of FrameMaker's unique feature, and mix your unstructured documents with your XML content. Simply add your XML-Files to the book. The rest is done by FrameMaker and the XML application.

Hope this helps. If this isn't your problem, perhaps you can provide some more detailed Information.

Markus

[Stefan Gentz]

I'm wondering if the dev content in GitHub is really in "MarkUp format", of if it's "MarkDown"?

Markdown to DITA and back should be not that hard and could be automated with FrameMaker. There are many possibilities to do this with ExtendScript, XSLT or a plugin. Or maybe use a cloud service like c-rex.net (check with Markus if they already offer a markdown<->DITA transformation, maybe even as a FrameMaker plugin).

[Wiedenmaier]

Stefan, may be you are right. MarkDown perhaps makes more sense in a github environment. Thanks for mention my service, it can do the Job out of the box doubtless 😉

But there are also possibilities to do the job within FrameMaker directly. Most things are already there.

If it is markdown in fact, one has to move from markdown to XML and in an roundtripping process like this from XML back to markdown. So you need some pre- and postprocessing but process I described above is still the base for this.

1. Markdown 2 DITA

Step 1: Move your markdown content to XHTML (i.e. with GitHub - cwjohan/markdown-to-html: Command-line utility to convert Github Flavored Markdown to HTML. )

Step 2: Use $InstallDir\AdobeFrameMaker2015\Structure\xml\DITA_1.3\app\technicalContent\xslt\h2d.xsl to convert HTML 2 DITA (BTW: FM uses this for smart pasting content to DITA Topics)

Step 3: Integrate this in your XML application mentioned above; perhaps extended with an ExtendScript

Step 4: Work like described above

2. DITA 2 Markdown

Use an XSLT to move DITA content to markdown directly and add it as a postprocess to your XML application. If someone is interested, please contact me by PM. I can provide a small skeleton as a starting point, which can be fit for custom requirements.

(BTW: if someone has a link for an XSLT in the web wich converts DITA to markdown (outside of an DITA OT process), would be happy, if someone would share it. I know this plugin GitHub - jelovirt/dita-ot-markdown: Markdown parser and output for DITA-OT​ but that's not that what we need here)

Hope this helps

Markus

[RGH-ADTN]

We are currently posting content in GitHub in restructedText format (rst).

All of your responses are helpful in allowing us to explore further. 

Very much appreciated!!

Richard