How do you add video to FM using DITA?

Report · May 08, 2012

Hi,

I'm using FM10 and the DITA1.2 architecture. I am able to add video to FM files, but DITA does not recognize them as valid elements if I try a simple File > Import. I was under the impression the <object> element should be used for videos, but I can't figure out how to use it to indicate which video file I want to include.

Does anyone know how to insert video files into a FM doc while using the DITA standard? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

D'Arcy

Report · May 08, 2012

I don't think that the default FM DITA support will map from an "imported" video to the proper <object> tag markup .. and if it did, it's likely that the referenced file wouldn't be in the right place when you publish anyway. You'll likely need to manually enter the necessary coding yourself into the <object> and <param> tags. These slides show the syntax ..

http://www.slideshare.net/seabow/richmedia-20101206

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice

Leximation, Inc.

www.leximation.com

Report · May 08, 2012

Thanks Scott,

I'm trying to add a .avi file and I found a document that suggested using the following syntax:

AVI

</object>

I applied all of that to the object and param tags, but nothing happened. Is there another step after this I have to do to get the video to show up?

Thanks!

Report · May 08, 2012

Short answer is .. no, it ain't gonna work.

That syntax will lilely work if you generate HTML output via the DITA-OT, but it's not going to render as a video in FrameMaker. I don't believe that default FM-DITA is set up to interpret that code and render it as an embedded video. This could be done by setting up a plugin or possibly ExtendScript.

To be fair, the problem isn't specific to FrameMaker, it's just that the "object" tag isn't interpreted consistently between all browsers and video types. IN your example, the object/@type attribute specifies "application/x-mplayer2" a "plugin" for a web browser. This isn't something that Frame will understand. I think that the DITA object tag wasn't well though out .. it's specifying "formatting" not content .. and the formatting is speciic to an output type. This flys against the main premise of separation of content from formatting. The object tag should not be defined in the content, but should be generated based on the selected output type. There should be a "video" or "media" tag where you set the type (video, audio, etc), and the filename. The actual object tag (or whatever) should be created based on the rendering method.

You may be able to get things to work for specific deliverable types, and conditionalize (filter via ditaval) to exclude based on output. (Maybe.)

Sorry!

...scott

Report · Jul 17, 2019

Do we have an update on this topic since 2012?