Framemaker support (was Re: Question from a newbie)

[Ross Gardler <rg...@apache.org>]

Linda Rose wrote:
> Thanks for the reply. I tried using a Framemaker xml file and the build
> failed with a "not valid xml document."
> Do you know what the files in http://forrest.apache.org were authored in?
> (Please don't say vi.)

I'm sure someone uses Vi, but you'll be pleased to hear you don;t have to.

Forrest supports a wide range of input formats and therefore supports a 
wide range of editing tools. Some examples are XHTML, HTML, Open Office,
Docbook, SVG and many more. Most of the documents in forrest.apache.org 
and in the seed site (generated with forrest seed) are in a format we 
call XDoc. This is an internal format used within Forrest.

DTD's for XDOC are available in 
FORRREST_HOME/src/core/context/resources/schema/dtd/

I am not familiar with Framemaker but a quick glance at its feature set 
seems to imply that it can be used to edit any XML document once given a 
DTD. TO do this in a true WYSIWYG environment would, most likely require 
some configuration of Framemaker. I'm afraid I do not know how to do 
that, maybe someone else here can help.

If framemaker can export in any of our supported formats then that would 
probably be the easiest route.

The final option would be to add support to Forrest for Framemakers 
native format (I am assuming it saves in an XML format). If you have any 
XSL skills (or can get a Comp Sci student, since you are now in a 
University, to do it as a project for their course we will be happy to 
help you/them do that).

Ross

Re: Framemaker support (was Re: Question from a newbie)

[Clay Leeds <cl...@medata.com>]

On Oct 15, 2004, at 3:22 PM, Ross Gardler wrote:
> Linda Rose wrote:
>> Thanks for the reply. I tried using a Framemaker xml file and the 
>> build
>> failed with a "not valid xml document."
>> Do you know what the files in http://forrest.apache.org were authored 
>> in?
>> (Please don't say vi.)
>
> I'm sure someone uses Vi, but you'll be pleased to hear you don;t have 
> to.

I've used vi for it, but I prefer to use something like BBEdit (Mac), 
TextPad, or eclipse.org's wonderful open source (and FREE as in beer!) 
text editor.

> Forrest supports a wide range of input formats and therefore supports 
> a wide range of editing tools. Some examples are XHTML, HTML, Open 
> Office, Docbook, SVG and many more. Most of the documents in 
> forrest.apache.org and in the seed site (generated with forrest seed) 
> are in a format we call XDoc. This is an internal format used within 
> Forrest.
>
> DTD's for XDOC are available in 
> FORRREST_HOME/src/core/context/resources/schema/dtd/
>
> I am not familiar with Framemaker but a quick glance at its feature 
> set seems to imply that it can be used to edit any XML document once 
> given a DTD. TO do this in a true WYSIWYG environment would, most 
> likely require some configuration of Framemaker. I'm afraid I do not 
> know how to do that, maybe someone else here can help.
>
> If framemaker can export in any of our supported formats then that 
> would probably be the easiest route.

I suspect FrameMaker has the ability to customize output as well. 
However, The following suggestion is even better:

> The final option would be to add support to Forrest for Framemakers 
> native format (I am assuming it saves in an XML format). If you have 
> any XSL skills (or can get a Comp Sci student, since you are now in a 
> University, to do it as a project for their course we will be happy to 
> help you/them do that).
>
> Ross

Why is this better (IMO)? Because it means that you would be 
contributing to the Apache Forrest Project, the ability to read 
FrameMaker files, which would mean that all future Forrest users would 
benefit. This would be huge!

Here's a sample structure for a Forrest page:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.1//EN" 
"document-v11.dtd">
<document>
   <header>
     <title>Barcode4J Documentation Overview</title>
     <authors>
       <person id="cleeds" name="Web Maestro Clay" 
email="the_webmaestro@users.sourceforge.net"/>
     </authors>
   </header>
   <body>
     <section>
       <title>Introduction</title>
       <p>This page describes the documentation structure for 
<strong>MyProject</strong>.</p>
     </section>
     <section>
       <title>MyProject Documentation Links</title>
       <dl>
         <dt><link href="MyProject.html">The MyProject Format</link></dt>
         <dd>describes the XML format used by <strong>MyProject</strong> 
to define MyProject items. It also contains notes about the message 
format supported by each symbology.</dd>
         <dt><link href="site:output-formats.html">MyProject Output 
Formats</link></dt>
         <dd>gives information about the various output formats 
supported by <strong>MyProject</strong> and tells you how to implement 
additional MyProject output formats.</dd>
         <dt><link href="site:design">Design</link></dt>
         <dd>describes how <strong>MyProject</strong> was designed to 
implement and configure MyProject using XML, in a way that the whole 
package can easily be integrated into a bigger work.</dd>
       </dl>
       <section>
         <title>Scenarios</title>
         <p>These pages show Use Cases for generating 
<strong>MyProject</strong>:</p>
         <dl>
           <dt><link href="site:xsl-fo">XSL-FO</link></dt>
           <dd>shows a use case for generating barcodes in <jump 
href="ext:svg">SVG format</jump> format for <jump 
href="ext:xsl-fo">XSL-FO</jump> documents.</dd>
           <dt><link href="svg-dom.html">SVG DOM</link></dt>
           <dd>describes the generation of an <jump href="ext:svg">SVG 
format</jump> barcode in Java.</dd>
         </dl>
       </section>
     </section>
   </body>
</document>

Web Maestro Clay
-- 
Clay Leeds - <cl...@medata.com>
Webmaster/Developer - Medata, Inc. - <http://www.medata.com/>
PGP Public Key: <https://mail.medata.com/pgp/cleeds.asc>