Why is the title tag inserted incorrectly in tables into invalid structure?

[jennic67637762]

I think this is a bug, but every time I insert a table it inserts an invalid format-->  The title tag is inserted under the tgroup element instead of above it.  And the structure is automatically marked invalid.  I tried deleting the title element and it wont let me unless I go into the code view and delete the title tags. 

I've also had it do this and there are no title tags in the xml at all, and then when I place them in the correct location in the xml and switch back to wysiwyg then the structure is fixed.... 

Has anyone else seen this issue?

[Lynne A. Price]

Jenn,

   I assume your question refers to creating a new table in WYSIWYG mode.

   When you insert a FrameMaker table into a document, the table format you select determines whether or not the new table is given a FrameMaker table title. This behavior is independent of the element names of the table or the title, of whether the resulting structure is valid within FrameMaker, and of whether the XML representation is valid.

  I also assume you have a <table> element that contains a <tgroup> and that the <tgroup> corresponds to the FrameMaker table. Furthermore, you have said that the <title> should precede the <tgroup>. In this case, you will need to insert the <title> and <tgroup> elements separately. You can change your table formats to specify No Title so that when you insert a <tgroup> no title is created. Alternatively, just delete the inserted table title.

  Note, however, that if the <title> precedes the <tgroup>, FrameMaker formatting will not automatically repeat the title on every page of a multipage table.

  Tgroup is used in table models based on the CALS model. Here, a table consists of one or more table groups or tgroups. A tgroup is a sequence of adjacent rows. Different tgroups in one table can differ in the number of columns and in the widths of particular columns. The majority of tables contain only one tgroup. This type of table has a 5-level structure where the levels are:

1) Table

2) Title or Tgroup

3) Table part (heading, body, footing)

4) Row

5) Entry (or cell)

  FrameMaker structured tables have a 4-level structure where the levels are:

1) table

2) title or table part (heading, body, footing)

3) row

4) cell

FrameMaker supports two variations of mapping between the tables in  a WYSIWYG document and an XML model that uses tgroups. If the application will never be used for a document with more than one tgroup, the tgroup element need not be used in WYSIWYG view. The EDD needs to define tables without the tgroup element and the read/write rules should include:

     element "tgroup" unwrap;

As long as the DTD defines <tgroup>, FrameMaker will create it when you save the document as XML. The advantages of this model within FM are that there are fewer elements to manipulate and that the title repeats on every page. In this case, the EDD defines the <table> element to be a FrameMaker table.

If you really do need multiple tgroups, you will need to use <tgroup> within FrameMaker as well as in XML. In this case, the element named <table> is a container rather than a FrameMaker table and the element named <tgroup> is a FrameMaker table. Table titles will not repeat on multiple pages.

--Lynne

[jennic67637762]

HI Lynne,

Thanks for you answer - and I think it clarifies that the behavior I'm seeing may be a bug?

So there seem to be three parts to the issue I am seeing--

For clarification -  I'm using the DITA 1.3 EDDs out of the box (no edits) and the DTDs that come with it.  I've been assuming they're designed to be functional without editing... but if that is faulty please let me know!

-- You're correct that I'm inserting the framemaker table and I double checked our table formatting and all the tables are set to not automatically include titles (so why does it get inserted!? - issue #1)

When I insert the table element and choose a format, it inserts the table element (and it's children) in this order:

1) table

2) tgroup

3) TITLE (it's all caps, which seems to be part of the error - issue #2?)

4) table part

5) row

6) entry

(I've included this screen shot of how it's displaying on creation)

When this is inserted it's automatically it automatically highlights the TITLE element in red and says it's not defined and then of course all it's children are invalid.  In the WYSIWYG view, it will not allow me to delete the TITLE element (issue #3)

I can always go in and fix it via xml, but it seems like an extra, and annoying, step and seems like something incorrect is happening in the process that shouldn't be (at least as I understand it).

[Lynne A. Price]

Jenni,

    I have just created a new DITA 1.3 topic in FM 2017. I inserted a <table> with several <tgroup>s, one for each table format in the table catalog. Only one of them, Mapping Table, resulted in an undefined <TITLE>. Mapping Table is intended to be used on the MasterPageMaps reference page to provide information used by the Apply Master Page command; it should not be used on body pages. Thus, this result is not surprising.

issue #1:

    You say you are using the DITA 1.3 EDDs and DTDs out of the box and that all your table formats are set not to include table titles automatically. I gather that you are using your own templates even though you have not modified the EDDs. Despite your comment about table titles, I strongly suspect that the new tables you create in fact use a table format that is defined in the table catalog with the Title option set to Above Title. Remember that the format of any actual table may differ from the format of the same name in the table catalog. To make sure you are looking at the table catalog entry and not the format of an actual table, make sure your insertion point is not in a table, open the table designer, select the desired format from the Style pop-up menu at the top of the and then check the Title property.

issue #2:

    In a structured document, every FrameMaker table must be an element, regardless of whether the EDD defines a table title element in that context. If the EDD does not define the table title element, FrameMaker tags the element TITLE in all caps. The element is invalid and the element tag shows in red in the Structure View because it is not defined. This is the behavior you describe.

issue #3:

    You cannot delete a table title by deleting the table title element. Instead, go to the table designer and change the Title property to No Title.

--Lynne

[jennic67637762]

Hi Lynne,

Thanks so much for your help and your patience I took a deeper look at my formatting and I had accidentally applied the No Title only to the one table rather than updating the style.  Hopefully this resolves it now. 

It still seems rather counter intuitive to me that you can't delete the title element from the Structure View and have to do it through the table designer - but thanks for letting me know that's the way to do it!

[Lynne A. Price]

While it does seem that if should be possible to delete the table title by deleting its element, a design decision was made early in the development of structured FrameMaker not to allow that operation. The motivation was to maintain the integrity of the internal FrameMaker data structure for the table. Every table has a table format and the table format determines whether or not the table has a title. If the title could be deleted (or added) by deleting (or inserting) an element, then the table format of that particular table would have to be updated as well. Since FrameMaker already has a mechanism for controlling the presence of a title table, the decision was made to use the existing mechanism and only that mechanism.

   --Lynne