Need help with XML Conversion

Report · Sep 30, 2010

I have a very large unstructured document that I need to convert to XML. This document once had a structure applied to it but somehow this structure was deleted (not by me). Since the structure was deleted, a fair amount of content has been added to the file.

Ive been reading through PDF help files and trying to figure out how to solve this problem. I am very new to this so any help or input would really be great.

So far thoughts on converting to XML are:

1) Get structure back working in the original file. I do not know if there is a way to transfer the structure Pre-Loss to the new file. I have created a conversion table already that I can use. I have ran the CT and created what seems to be a structured document, but I think I may be missing further steps.

2) Export the element definitions to an EDD

3) Convert the EDD to a DTD

4) Create a template file (not sure how to do this?)

Finally export to XML. Before I start on this some feedback would be very welcomed. Sorry I am very inexperienced with all of this.

Report · Oct 01, 2010

Hi Frank,

Your overall plan of attack seems good. However, I think this is a very difficult topic to address with a simple forum post because it is a very complicated subject that can take months to get a hold of. There might be others that will venture a reply, but I'd suggest that you begin to study the Structure Developer's Guide and then return here if you have more specific questions that can be answered succinctly with a forum post.

I will say that you may want to consider reversing steps 1 and 2. Sometimes people do it the way you have it, but it may be better to have a working EDD before you attempt to structure a document around it. In either case, you will need to do work in the EDD to configure it as appropriate to your needs and my thought is it might be better just to do it up front.

Also, one other thing... if you wanted to use DITA, you could get much of this stuff already built for you. All the EDDs, DTDs, and structured application (XML roundtripping) files are built into FM (FM9 anyway). You could also use an application like Mif2Go from Omni Systems to convert your unstructured files directly to DITA XML. DITA may or may not be right for you... I just thought I'd mention it. Otherwise, you'll need to build all the components yourself, which is not an unreasonable proposition but represents a challenge for the inexperienced. It is a fabulous resume bullet when you are done, though.

Russ

Report · Oct 04, 2010

Hello Frank,

with the conversion there is a problem concering the graphics/ xrefs.

after you have created the conversion table and structured your document you now can

save the document as xml file.
In the output you then will still have all graphics that are in the document, but the xrefs are missing.
convert the document via StructureTools > Utilities > Convert Documents to Structured Format.
In the output you then will have all the xrefs, but the graphics are missing.

However, it's possible that I'm not up-to-date her as I haven't tried this since quite some time now.

Point 2 and 3 from your list:

Normally it's the other way around: You have a DTD and import that as a new EDD file in FrameMaker.

Also I don't think that there really is a possiblity to export any element definitions from FrameMaker. But I'm happy, if you are able to disabuse me here.

Template file:

Any FM file. It just contains the page layout and the character formats etc.

What you need to do is to add a Structured Application containing all the information on where to find the Template, EDD, DTD and also the read and write rules.

With FrameMaker there are several Structured Applications delivered, e.g. DITA.

If you do not have enough experience to create a new structured application without any model, it's best to copy and modify one of these.

Regards,

Anna