seamless conversion to sgml?

[m_118]

Hello,

Has anyone ever had a seamless conversion to sgml using a conversion table?

If so, can you share the examples of the EDD used and the corresponding conversion table?

I've got the EDD working great, but whenever I try to test my tweaked conversion table it never seems to translate everything. There are always stragglers that don't nest properly, especially with tables. Any success out there that you can share?

Thanks,

Anne

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Anne,

I would not expect seamless conversion. You would have to modify your EDD to the possibilities of the Conversion Table to handle your source documents. I never would recommend that.

I found the plugin FrameSLT a very powerful tool to fix documents after applying the Conversion Table in a way, that everything is tagged somehow. With then plug-in you can set up routines that handle most if not all left over tasks in a few seconds. A bit of reading the enclosed tutorial and XPath knowledge is required.

- Michael Müller-Hillebrand

[Russ Ward]

Hi Anne,

I think it depends on how you define "seamless." Nothing in this area is ever really seamless, but you should be able to get a conversion table to structure a document perfectly, if:

- Your format usage in the unstructured source is absolutely regular and flawless

- Your conversion table accounts for every possibility it might find

Having said that, it may not be worth the effort to go that far, versus just doing some cleanup afterwards. It really varies on a case-by-case basis whether it is better to prep your unstructured files more or just clean up more after the conversion. My general rule of thumb is that I expect a conversion table to at least wrap all the way to the highest-level element. If there are some anomalies down the smaller branches afterwards, fine... I'll do some cleanup. Other than that, it is just a judgement call how much work to do before and/or after the conversion.

Russ

[m_118]

Thanks Russ. I was hoping to see an example of someone's successful attempt. I am researching using a conversion table with a real document set, so I set up a file with all the basic elements and how they would be used, then I created the EDD to handle the differing scenarios. The EDD works fine and validates also. Then I created a conversion table to handle this "perfect" file example and thought I could get it to convert seamlessly, ie. no stragglers. If I can get this main part to work seamlessly, then the real-world documents should have very little cleanup to do. But it seems I have some trouble with code somewhere, since it does not behave as it should. For the most part, everything nests properly, but there are stragglers every time I tweak it. So I was wondering if anyone out there has done a small conversion table test with the usual elements and been successful in getting it all to nest properly, even with tables, and without any red lines or boxes in the structure? And if so, could they share it with us folks who are learning how to code this by example, and by trial and error?

Thanks again for your and Michael's expertise. I appreciate it.

Anne : )

[Russ Ward]

Hi Anne,

I have some working samples here:

http://www.weststreetconsulting.com/WSC_ResourceDownloads.htm

The FrameSLT sample might be best. These are old files but they might be somewhat helpful to you.

Russ

[m_118]

Hi Russ, I will take a look at the files you have suggested.

Thanks so much for your help!

Anne

[m_118]

Thanks Michael,

I will have a look at the plug-in and information you suggested. See reply to Russ for more.

Anne