Write FrameMaker table title to XML

[frameexpert]

I have a FrameMaker table with a Table Title and I want the Table Title to export to XML when I save it to XML. Is there something in the Read/Write Rules that I need to set. Right now, the Table Titles are getting dropped and I am just getting the <tgroup>.

[Lynne A. Price]

Rick,

    Default behavior is to export the table title. Do you have a r/w rule that drops it? Does your application have a client that might be suppressing it?

   --Lynne

[frameexpert]

Thanks for the reply Lynne. I have to check it and see. Maybe the DITA plugin is dropping it.

[frameexpert]

I am using a <ttitle> element for my table titles, which is not part of the DTD. Could this be why they are getting dropped, because they are not valid? My goal is to use XSLT to convert the <ttitle> to a <title> element that would be the preceding sibling of the <tgroup>. But of course I can't apply XSLT to the element if it gets dropped. Thanks.

[frameexpert]

This is all coming back to me now, because I have seen this before with FrameMaker. If you use <tgroup> as the Table element, it drops any child elements that are specified as Table Title elements. If I rename <tgroup> to <t-group>, then I get my Table Title. This is pretty inconvenient, but I don't know how to avoid it. I have supressed the dita dlls, but that doesn't help. Fortunately, I am using XSLT to post-process the files anyway, but I would like to know how to solve this. Here is what my modified structure looks like where it gives me my Table Title:

I am using FrameMaker 2020, Update 4.

[frameexpert]

The other issue I see with renaming the Table element to <t-group> is that I don't get @cols and other attributes and I don't get the <colspec> elements like I do with <tgroup>:

I have budget for this if someone can help me unravel this with Read/Write rules, etc. Thanks.

[Lynne A. Price]

Rick,

   It makes sense to me that you don't get the table title inside the tgroup. In the CALS table model, a table is a sequence of Tgroups, optionally preceded by a Title. Since the Title is not part of a Tgroup, you won't be able to export the title into ab ekenebt cakked tgriyo wutgiyt using XSLT or the FDK.

   Another mismatch between the CALS model and FrameMaker's table representation is the order of the three elements that contain rows. FrameMaker puts them in reading order, so that a table heading precedes the table body which precedes any table footing. CALS, however, puts the table body last, so that the position of a table footing doesn't match its FrameMaker location.

   Your problem with attributes makes sense also. For the most part, when you move material between FrameMaker and XML an element is an element with the same name and content, an attribute is an attribute the same name and possible values. R/w rules allow for some variability. CALS tables are different because the CALS definition assigns semantics to the elements and attributes that are not the same as FrameMaker's default table representation. There could be more r/w rules to cover some of the things that you are trying to do. Since there aren't, you need to use XSLT or the FDK.

   --Lynne

[frameexpert]

If necessary, I can capture the Table Title text in an attribute of the tgroup or table using a script. Then I can use XSLT to put the original content of the Table Title into a <title> element that would be a preceding-sibling of the <tgoup> element.