How to use DHTML and accordion widget in Framemaker?

Report · Aug 08, 2022

I am using Unstructured FrameMaker and trying to add drop-down text or expanding text effects in my content, something similar to this:

FrameMaker 2019 has these Dynamic HTML effects listed under the Insert menu. It's a native FM feature, so I expected it to work, but unfortunately, Dynamic HTML effects do not seem to work for me. I have checked the Output settings in the Publish pod, and even though the checkboxes for dropdowns and expanding text are selected, I cannot see that in the generated output. Do I need to use conditional tagging for this to work?

I see a widgets folder at this location:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2019\fminit\Publisher\ResponsiveHelpExt\widgets

It has a bunch of folders named accordion<_suffix>, and I am not sure how these can be helpful. Any ideas on how widgets can be used in FM, please?

I want this to work in Responsive HTML5 output, so PDFs are not a problem. I tried saving the file as an HTML, but cannot see the DHTML effects. It is also entirely possible, that the settings have been tweaked to disable DHTML in FM by our IT department. Is there any setting in maker.ini that can be used to enable or disable Dynamic HTML effects in FM?

Can you please help me out in figuring out where these settings are saved? Would appreciate any help with this.

Thanks!

Report · Aug 09, 2022

I'm pretty sure that saving the FM file as HTML is the old way of getting plain HTML output - the new way is via Publishing. Have you examined the HTML5 output for the DHTML code? Have you tried launching it on a non-corporate machine to see if they've disabled JavaScript on you?

Report · Aug 12, 2022

Hi Jeff,

At my workplace, we do a check-in and the generated output is saved in XML format and uploaded to the server for further processing. However, I tried to generate the HTML5 output using the Publish menu at a custom location, and I could see it the right output with the DHTML effects, which means that no settings are disabled on the local system. I probably need to ask IT to allow DHTML effects on the server side as well.

However, I am also interested in exploring the use of widgets in FrameMaker and would appreciate it if you could help me with how to add them.

I see a widgets folder at this location:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2019\fminit\Publisher\ResponsiveHelpExt\widgets
It has a bunch of folders named accordion<_suffix>, and I am not sure how these can be helpful. Any ideas on how widgets can be used in FM, please?

These examples or files must be there for a reason, right?

Thanks!

Report · Aug 15, 2022

Sorry, no idea on those ones.