Skip to main content
Smith_SK
Smith_SK
Known Participant
November 26, 2013
Question

Save ditamap as Book 11 with fm components

  • November 26, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 1104 views

Hello,

I have a ditamap that consists of files converted, using Mif2Go, to DITA 1.2 <concept> and <task> files. Each file is a heading from a single chapter in a manual.

The ditafm-output.ini has the following:

  • TemplateDir=$STRUCTDIR\xml\DITA_1.2\app\technicalContent\template
  • CompositeDocTemplate_1.2=ditabase.template.fm

I do not have each <concept> and <task> file wrapped in <dita>.

Questions:

  • Is there anyway to tell FM to use the respective template for each root-level element? I looked in the FM 11 ini Reference and it appears the answer to that is no.
  • If I do have to wrap the root elements in <dita>, is this considered a less than best practice?
  • If I do have to wrap in <dita>, does anybody know of any potential issues with a CMS or whatever?

FYI1: We need to go with DITA 1.2, because down the road we are going to use the learning modules.

FYI2: I will be using RobeHelp to to create Web Help from imported book files.

To Scott Prentice: Are you coming out with DITA-FMx for DITA 1.2 somewhere down the road?

Thanks,

Stan

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

ScottPrentice
ScottPrentice
Inspiring
November 26, 2013

Hi Stan...

First .. I'm not at all knowlegable in the default FM11 method for generating a book from a DITA map. Since I use (and develop) DITA-FMx, I use that method which seems to provide much better results (yes, I am biased). To answer your questions ..

1) I don't know .. if that's what the docs imply, that's probably the way it is. Since you're generating chapter files (composites), you can only have one template applied to any given file, so that would seem to limit the templates to one per file, but in theory you should be able to have different templates applied to each chapter file (this is a feature that FMx offers).

2) Wrapping topics in <dita> is only needed for files that contain multiple topic types. It is not invalid to wrap a single topic in <dita>, but it's unnecessary. In general it's not a common practice, whether it's considered "less than best practice" .. probably by some.

3) Technically wrapping a topic in <dita> shouldn't cause problems for any CMS. If it does, that's a bug in the CMS .. but that said, I'm sure there are CMSes that won't like it.

Yes .. I am working on DITA-FMx 2.0 (which will support DITA 1.2), and hope to have something available in the "near" future. I do have a DITA 1.2 structure application that you can use with DITA-FMx 1.1. Note that this only supports the "models", it does not support the DITA 1.2 features (referencing features in particular). If you're interested in giving this a test drive, feel free to contact me off-list.

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice

Leximation, Inc.

www.leximation.com

Smith_SK
Smith_SKAuthor
Known Participant
November 26, 2013

Thanks Scott,

I have been using DITA-FMx for a few years. You have a reason to be biased, it's better.

I have made some progress. The ini file was set to generate a flat file. I set it to 0 to turn that off.

[BookWithFM-General]

GenerateFlatBook=0

Now, when I select File > Save Ditamap > Book 11.0 with fm components, I get a book with seperate and nested files, but they are all *.dita files. My guess is it's looking for a template called out in the ini file, and since it can't find it, it defualts to *.dita. If that is the case, I have yet to break the code, based on the poorly documented ini file. Why it can't use the template in the structapps.fm file is beyond me.

Speaking of DITA-FMx, I just got the notice the v1.1.17 is out. (I'm also running FM 7.2 & FM 9 on this machine.)

Thanks,

Stan

Smith_SK
Smith_SKAuthor
Known Participant
December 31, 2013

Yeah .. definitely a significant bug. Hopefully Adobe is now aware of it.

Did you create the map in FM? It would be a worse bug if FM is creating a map with topicrefs that point to filename#topicid, but it can't work with those. This syntax is often created by other XML editors. It's really a bit redundant unless you're referncing a topic that's in a file that contains multiple topics (legal but not considered a best practice).

I'm glad that helped to get things working.

Cheers!

...scott


Scott,

Mif2Go created the map. FM11 does not add the #<topicid>. I just double-checked.

Thanks again for your help!

Happy New Year!

Stan

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices