4 Replies Latest reply: Oct 7, 2014 6:46 AM by Gorly RSS

    dynamically read topics

    UKJS Community Member
    UKJS Sep 24, 2014 12:15 AM

      Hi,

       

      I'm very new to DITA, I understand XML but am looking to create more documents using it and DITA/Framemaker seems the way to go.

       

      Is it possible to create a document that looks through all of the topics in a folder then creates a new topic from those (essentially a summary), pulling out certain elements?

       

      I'm looking at a timesaving mechanism, so that I can have lots of folders with subjects in each (ie - several topics) then be able to quickly create either summary sheets or note sheets from that content

       

      Many thanks

       

      John.

        • 1. Re: dynamically read topics
          Russ Ward Community Member
          Russ Ward Sep 24, 2014 5:18 AM (in response to UKJS)

          Hi John,

           

          It is possible, but you would need to do some scripting or use a plugin. You are talking about something conceptually similar to XSLT, perhaps actually XSLT for real. If you are willing to do some development work, there are many routes you can take for this. The XML Author view of FrameMaker has some XSLT capabilities, but I'm not sure if they would be sufficient to accomplish this task in its entirety. With the FDK or ExtendScript, you can also do virtually limitless content manipulation within the regular WYSIWYG view. If you want to get a taste of the possibilities for content manipulation within the normal interface, consider downloading a trial version of my FrameSLT plugin and check out the tutorials.

           

          FrameSLT - West Street Consulting

           

          Russ

          • 2. Re: dynamically read topics
            Gorly Community Member
            Gorly Sep 24, 2014 8:24 AM (in response to UKJS)

            Hi John,

            this is exactly what XSLT in conjunction with Saxon (FM11 provides Saxon already) is capable of, as Russ already stated.

            I'm pretty sure the basics of what you need is explained here:

            http://www.xmlplease.com/collection

             

            Everything else is a walk in the park with XSLT. Simply seek the element you want to extract and write it into some new XML file.

             

            -Alex

            • 3. Re: dynamically read topics
              UKJS Community Member
              UKJS Oct 7, 2014 5:55 AM (in response to UKJS)

              Hi,

               

              Thank you both, I will take a look at using XSLT to do this. I had hoped Framemaker might have a native way to do this, but I guess I can use a different tool, Ubless Framemaker has a way to open and run such an XSLT file?

               

              Cheers

               

              John

              • 4. Re: dynamically read topics
                Gorly Community Member
                Gorly Oct 7, 2014 6:46 AM (in response to UKJS)

                Hi John,

                yes you can run XSLTs directly in FM (version 11 and up). To do that, you need to switch into the XML view of the structured mode.

                There's a menu where you can select the XSLTs of your choice.

                 

                -Alex