Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Experience with Framemaker 7.o anyone?

[Michael Smith <smith at xml-doc dot org>]

Bob Stayton <bobs@caldera.com> writes:

[...]

> However, I can't say I would recommend FM7 as an XML
> *editor* for DocBook yet, because the round trip experience
> is not what you would expect.  I'm investigating using it
> as a final format engine for PDF or print output, where
> it only imports the final XML for printing.

[...]

> I did a test by opening a Docbook chapter file and
> immediately doing Save As XML to another filename,
> to compare the results.
> This revealed a number of issues:

[...]

> 4.  When Saving As XML, I got a long error report
> about the xml:space attribute not being declared
> for <literallayout> and other elements.  Turns out
> that the export rules add that attribute.  It appears
> the left hand is complaining about the right hand.

I get an error for any footnotes I insert within Frame 7. It exports
them as invalid <Footnote> elements -- uppercase, instead of the
lowercase they should be. Also, it doesn't display real lowercase
DocBook <footnote> content as footnotes -- only the invalid uppercase
<Footnote> content is displayed correctly.

It also seems to add invalid 'align = "acenter"' attributes/values on
inserted <graphic> and <imagedata> elements.

[...]

> 5.  My <ulink> elements inside my <literallayout>
> elements disappeared.  

I found that all of my <ulink> elements disappeared on import into
Frame 7 -- not just the ones inside <literallayout>.

It does allow you to insert <ulink> content into documents, but
doesn't actually turn that content into hyperlinks (it doesn't turn
<link> content into hyperlinks either).

So as far as I can tell, the only mechanism for inserting URL
hyperlinks is to use the native non-XML FrameMaker hyperlink markup
(i.e., type "message URL http://foo"; in the Special>Hypertext dialog,
just as you would in Frame 6). On export to XML, these native Frame
hyperlinks show up as processing instructions:

  <?FM MARKER [Hypertext] message URL http://foo?>

that aren't going to be useful to any applications other than Frame.

There is an Element Tag submenu under Special>Hypertext, but <ulink>
and <link> are not on it.

On the upside, it does let you use the native DocBook <xref> element
for inserting cross references, and exports those to XML correctly.

  --Mike