Just an update to this mail: FrameMaker version 8 integrates Structured and
non-structured FrameMaker, so you don't have to restart. Also, FM8 comes
with a DocBook application, which includes an EDD. Unfortunately, it is
based on DocBook 4.1.2, which is rather old, but can still work if you can
get your DocBook files to validate with 4.1.2.
I agree that trying to round-trip XML in and out of FrameMaker does not work
that well. But with proper setup FrameMaker can successfully import DocBook
XML and publish it. If you are looking for a publishing tool and not an
editing tool for your XML files, that is, if you keep it one-way, it can
work.
Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barton Wright" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Remko Tronçon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "docbook-apps"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 9:06 AM
Subject: RE: [docbook-apps] Docbook to FrameMaker
I'm looking for a way to get DocBook documents into FrameMaker (7)
somehow. I read that FrameMaker is supposed to be able to open
DocBook directly, but when I open my .xml file, it prompts me
for a file type, and DocBook doesn't seem to be in there. I have
looked for ways to go from DocBook to MIF, but it seems the
only tool capable of this is OpenJade, which I'm having a hard
time getting to work. Are there other ways to get my DocBook
document into FrameMaker?
Yikes.
At a previous job, we tried using Frame as a DocBook editor and quickly
gave up. Here's a summary of what you need to know:
1. There are two versions of Frame 7 in one package. Only Structured
FrameMaker has any understanding of XML. You must switch to Structured
Frame and restart.
2. Frame has some knowledge of DITA but no native knowledge of the DocBook
grammar. Adobe provides a Frame-DocBook conversion toolkit, which is just
that -- a set of tools and guidelines for how you can create an EDD that
will read and write DocBook files. An EDD is a Frame-proprietary version
of a DTD.
3. Frame just can't keep its hands off your document structure. No matter
what you do, even if you get past the daunting EDD stage and manage to get
Frame to write out DocBook XML, you'll find that it contains non-standard
usages and proprietary extension elements. Unless you add custom
post-processing to XML writes, you'll find that Frame generates invalid
DocBook XML that will make other tools complain.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not against Frame, and I used it professionally
almost every day from 1991 to 2007. What Frame does well, it does very
well. But being a DocBook editor is not something Frame does well.
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