Need DITA element for custom IDs (structured framemaker)

[katica]

I need to add custom IDs to certain DITA elements (topics, sections) in my Structured Framemaker documents. In unstructured Framemaker, I used markers. I need to transfer these, or recreate that marker data in my structured FM docs which are in DITA. I can put markers in the DITA file, but I'd rather put them into a proper element so I can find them and manage them more easily. Can anyone help?

[frameexpert]

Can you set values on the id attributes, or are you trying to identify them some other way?

[katica]

Actually I just learned that what I need is to create context-sensitive help anchors. I know that the "resource id" element is probably what I need. I also understand that I have to fill out three of its attributes: appid, appname, and ux-context-string. I understand what ux-context-string is, and I have that data, but what values do I use for the other two attributes? Eventually we use Robohelp to output the help...

[frameexpert]

I am not sure what Robohelp requires for these. Hopefully, someone that knows both structured FrameMaker and Robohelp will jump in. In the meantime, you may want to post the question to the Robohelp forum too.

[katica]

I can set a value on the id attribute on the resourceid element inside a prolog element.... and at first glance that would seem to be a workable solution... except that based on DITA documentation, this method has been deprecated:

Versions of DITA before 1.3 used the @iDattribute on the <resourceid> element to specify an ID for an external application. Beginning with DITA 1.3, this use of the @iDattribute is deprecated in favor of using the @appid attribute.

The trouble is, if I use appid instead, then the text that I input there  (id string) is not visible in Framemaker. And in order to manage all these strings, I need to be able to see them and list them and so forth... I am happy to use any solution that works. I am sure there are utilities in structured framemaker that makes it easy to list certain elements and edit them easily... (in unstructured framemaker, for example, you can list markers by type, very useful...)

[frameexpert]

Are you saying that you want the resourceid/@appid value to show on the page instead of the resourceid/@id? (See the screenshot.) This just requires an update to the FrameMaker template that you are using.

[katica]

yes, that's exactly right - if I use the appid attribute (like the DITA-bible tells me), then I also want to see that text when I am editing the document. If that is achievable via a template modification, then great! (My Robohelp person says he thinks he can use this type of data when rendering the help...so things are looking up).

Now - how do I modify the FrameMaker template? Sorry, I am just a content author...

[frameexpert]

The first thing is to figure out what kind of DITA topics you are creating/editing? Concepts, tasks, references, topics, etc.? We can start with one kind and you can do the rest. What kind of DITA files are you typically creating?

[frameexpert · Accepted solution]

Here is a 13 minute video showing you how to make this change in your template. It's unedited and a bit rough, but it should be useful to you. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

https://youtu.be/Ebowun9km4I

[katica]

thank you!!!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Maybe Matt might know the Structured FM to RH part of things - I only know Unstructured FM to RH. And yes, I use a custom CSH marker type in my FM content that comes over to RH in the import process as CSH tags in the RH topics.

[frameexpert]

There is a way to add unstructured markers to structured FrameMaker using processing instructions, but if there is a way to do it through attributes, that would be preferred.