How to fix a broken DITA cross-reference

[SuzieC2014]

Hello all,

I have what is hopefully a simple question. I'm using FrameMaker 2017 and authoring new DITA documents.

I have a ditamap with dita files in it. I have some cross-references between files.

I renamed one of my dita files, removed the old named file from the ditamap and added the new named file to the ditamap.

Obviously, cross-references to the old named file broke.

When I select the Edit > Update References command, I get the familiar "Update Unresolved Cross-references" dialog, and proceed to fix the cross-reference in the same way I used to with unstructured FrameMaker. And it seems to work because the top of the dialog box states "0 unresolved cross-references". However, when I then save the file that includes the cross-reference and then re-open it, the cross-reference is still broken. I see that the fm-xref's "href" is still pointing to the old file.

Is there a way to fix broken cross-references, other than manually?

Thanks!

[SuzieC2014]

Does anyone have any hints for this?

[DLindsay]

Hi!

You've probably fixed this by now, but in case you haven't, and assuming that the cross reference links to the task or concept element of your renamed file, you could try updating the element ID of that topic. Save the new file, then recreate the xref links to the topic and see if they stick.

When I hit a similar issue in the past it was because my element IDs were not unique so FrameMaker was getting confused and pointing to the file I didn't want.

Kat