Preserving Graphics with Conversion Tables

[_Alex_Masycheff_]

Hi All,

Is there a way to preserve the file names of images when converting unstructured Frame documents to structured Frame? I know how to wrap an appropriate unstructured Frame format to an element, such as <graphic> or <image>, but I need the href attribute to be set to the name of the image file. Is it possible? I haven't found any information in the Adobe Structure Application Developer Reference Guide...

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[Russ Ward]

Alex,

It's not possible with a conversion table. A referenced graphic file path is a hidden property. Is there a reason you need the path in the href attribute? Nothing is lost when you convert to structured docs, the graphics still work the same as they always have.

When you save to XML, you can have the file path saved to an attribute. I don't know if this is relevant to your current situation, though.

Russ

[_Alex_Masycheff_]

Hi Russ,

Thank you for the prompt reply. The reason why I need it is because my target is XML files, not FrameMaker documents. These XML files will be processed by another application.

Your mentioning of the hidden attribute helped me make a guess and find a solution. I updated the read/write rules so they look as follows:

element "image"
{
is fm element "GRAPHIC";
attribute "href" is fm property file;
}

Now the path from the hidden file attribute is put into the href attribute as I need.

Thanks!
Alex

[_Van_Kurtz_]

Alex,

This may not help, but see Chapter 19, Translating Graphics and Equations, and Appendix A, Conversion Tables, in the Developer reference.

In my case, the conversion table assigns the Graphic element to a graphic object by putting G: (capital G and colon) in the first column of the conversion table and Graphic (the name of the element) in the second column, nothing in the third column. There is no need to assign the href of the graphic to an attribute; Frame stores the location of the graphic internally in its representation of the Graphic element.

Note however, that I do not export the structured document to XML or do XML round-tripping. If you need to do that, you need to find a way to assign the location to an attribute. I do not do that.

Chapter 19 seems to say that IF you name your attributes according to a default set, then Frame will assign the properties of the graphic to these attributes when you export to XML. For example, the attribute that holds the location of the graphic file is named entity, not href. So, maybe changing the name of your attribute to entity may do the trick, if you are exporting to XML.

I HAVE DONE, however, imported an XML file into structured Frame. In this case, the graphic elements each has an attribute named entity that holds the location of the graphic file. The import works fine, EVEN THOUGH, my EDD does not define the Graphic element as having an attribute named entity.

I admit that this is not a complete answer to your question, but I hope it helps.

Van

[_Alex_Masycheff_]

Hi Van,

Thank you for your help! Yes, I realized that Frame stores the location of the graphic in a hidden attribute called file and defined in the read/write rules for the image element that:

attribute "href" is fm property file;

Thanks!

Alex

[_Van_Kurtz_]

Alex,

The attribute is entity, NOT file.

NOTE that read/write rules apply to import and export, NOT conversion from unstructured to structured. The latter requires only a conversion table.

Van

[Russ Ward]

Hi Alex,

I was indeed referring to that read/write rule. I'm sorry I wasn't more specific... I didn't mean to make you guess :)

Russ