XML files

[Jack DeLand]

This is actually a WebHelp question that I posted in the wrong forum. Sorry for the doubling, and it won't happen again. :I have 12 sets of topics, each file of which has one XML file assigned to it. It's much easier to build a complex structure with XML alterations, but lately I've had to change directories and two files now aren't "seeing" the XML file, printdoclayout(n). Can you tell me what I broke, and how these things are stuck together? 100 karma points
I did some testing, and yup it writes to the XML, because it overwrote a structure of mine. Where is it getting the information from to overwrite this? (and how can it be killed, or better, how can I get it to remember the right stuff, so to speak?)

[MergeThis]

There's a printdoclayout file for each of your Printed Documentation Single Source Layouts. These are created in the Project Manager by right clicking Printed Documentation and selecting New Layout. You might, for example, want to create DOC and PDF files for one or more chapters (books) for review purposes.

I'm not sure why you need to "build a complex structure with XML alterations," but if you open a printdoclayout file in Notepad, you'll see that it's simply a text file that specifies style mapping and file listings for the generation of your selected print version. These files simply have no bearing on the RH project or its WebHelp output.


Good luck,
Leon

[Jack DeLand]

Thanks for the good luck, Leon. The "complex structure" is a very long list of icons of books and pages that define the heading levels. There are multiple levels of indent, so I found it easier to edit the XML printdoclayout. But it gets overwritten. Why? Where is the "print" information stored if not printdoclayout? I'm very familiar with the type of this topic equals this file stuff, since I've been doing Help since 1986. I've looked into almost every file that's viewable. Harvey says try the database files, and I will.
If you have any ideas as to why this project would remember to use printdoclayout n with topic m and then forget when reopened, I'd sure like to hear it.

[HKabaker]

Max,

Editing the printdoclayout.xml file works fine for me, even with the RH project open. Deleting and adding topics. The next time I open it in RH, the topic lineup is the way I changed it to be. And so is the print output.

Note: I have no conditional build tags in this test project.


Harvey

[MergeThis]

Whew! For awhile there, I thought I had really gone crazy! You seem to have assigned certain features to the printdoclayout.xml file that were simply not designed to have.

The printdoclayout.xml file contains the following sections: <stylemapping> lists all paragraph and character styles in the Printed Documentation layout; <tocstructure> lists the books and topics you selected to appear in that Printed Documentation layout; <sectionlist> lists the elements you selected to include (title page, Index, etc.) in that Printed Documentation layout; and some formatting stuff in <robopdfgeneratorsettings />. This file is pointed to by the .SSL file that has the name you assigned to the Printed Documentation layout.

One default printdoclayout.xml file (and matching named SSL file) is created by RH when you create a project.
When you create a new Printed Documentation layout (say, Chapter 1), RH creates a printdoclayout(2).xml file and Chapter 1.SSL file for you.
When you create a new Printed Documentation layout (say, Chapter 2), RH creates a printdoclayout(3).xml file and Chapter 2.SSL file for you.
When you create a new Printed Documentation layout (say, Chapter 3), RH creates a printdoclayout(3).xml file and Chapter 3.SSL file for you.
etc.
etc.
etc.

The bottom line is this: these files only relate to specific Printed Documentation layouts, and do not affect the project or other outputs.


Good luck,
Leon

[HKabaker]

Max,

With conditional build tags:

I marked some topics "donotuse" and on the first page of the setup dialog I specified "donotuse" topics to be excluded.

When I continued to the Chapter layout dialog, those items were still there, but grayed out to indicate they were being excluded.

In the .xml file these entries were still there, but with a flags="1" tag instead of "0" like the others. I changed the "1" flags to "0" and saved the xml file.
The Chapter layout still showed ther gray book on the right, and they were omitted.

That's probably because the .ssl file for this layout still had this line:

BuildExpression=NOT Not used

So it appears that you can't just change the .xml file to force a topic into the lineup if it's excluded in the build expression.

I also tried an advanced expression with one "include" and one "exclude" tag. It seemed to work OK.

In the past I did not get the expected results when I used several tags of both types in a complex expression.


Harvey