Confluence + Scroll Versions [was: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...]

[Robert Lauriston]

K15t now has a Confluence plug-in that adds document-level versioning
and content reuse:

http://www.k15t.com/software/scroll-versions/overview

http://blog.k15t.com/2012/08/scroll-versions%3A-wiki-based-documentation-that-works

I still haven't found a way to migrate large quantities of FrameMaker
source to Confluence efficiently.

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Robert Lauriston rob...@lauriston.com wrote:
 Version control is the other huge sticking point. Except for a few
 unusable prototypes, I have found no wiki with document-level version
 control a la branching in Subversion or Perforce. The Confluence docs
 team just makes a static copy of the current release for the next
 release. I'd really prefer to have a dynamic system where unchanged
 pages were shared across multiple versions of a document and branched
 as necessary.
___


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Confluence + Scroll Versions [was: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...]

[Robert Lauriston]

K15t now has a Confluence plug-in that adds document-level versioning
and content reuse:

http://www.k15t.com/software/scroll-versions/overview

http://blog.k15t.com/2012/08/scroll-versions%3A-wiki-based-documentation-that-works

I still haven't found a way to migrate large quantities of FrameMaker
source to Confluence efficiently.

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Robert Lauriston  
wrote:
> Version control is the other huge sticking point. Except for a few
> unusable prototypes, I have found no wiki with document-level version
> control a la branching in Subversion or Perforce. The Confluence docs
> team just makes a static copy of the current release for the next
> release. I'd really prefer to have a dynamic system where unchanged
> pages were shared across multiple versions of a document and branched
> as necessary.

Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[rebecca officer]

I just want to say thank you to everyone who's replied, both on and off-list. 
I'll get back to people individually, and I'll write up a summary of the 
options for the list, once I've got them more sorted out!

Cheers
Rebecca

NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential
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named above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.
If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the
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authority to issue and specifically states them to
be the views of Allied Telesis Labs.
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Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[rebecca officer]

I just want to say thank you to everyone who's replied, both on and off-list. 
I'll get back to people individually, and I'll write up a summary of the 
options for the list, once I've got them more sorted out!
 
Cheers
Rebecca

NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential
information intended only for the use of the addressee
named above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.
If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the
individual sender, except where the sender has the
authority to issue and specifically states them to
be the views of Allied Telesis Labs.
___


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RE: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[John Sgammato]

I am working with MindTouch and their enterprise MindTouch TCS system (a step 
up from MindTouch Core). 
They still have some issues with my imports from (unstruct) FM10, although they 
have successfully imported other content from FM. Whatever they discover to 
solve my issues may trickle down to the Core product as well. In any event, I 
will post here what we find out. A reliable means of publishing from FM10 to a 
knowledgebase would be a Very Good Thing. 
john

-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:02 PM
To: rebecca officer; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

I've spent much of the past year trying to figure out a similar transition. 
Short answer, the tools aren't mature enough for a $20K budget. Long answer:

Confluence 4.x and MindTouch Core are the two wikis I've found that seem 
workable.

Migrating large amounts of existing FrameMaker content to either is 
problematic. Here's my most recent status report on my lack of success in bulk 
migration from FrameMaker to Confluence (my status with MindTouch is almost 
exactly the same):
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4+further+discussion?focusedCommentId=294486511#comment-294486511

Version control is the other huge sticking point. Except for a few unusable 
prototypes, I have found no wiki with document-level version control a la 
branching in Subversion or Perforce. The Confluence docs team just makes a 
static copy of the current release for the next release. I'd really prefer to 
have a dynamic system where unchanged pages were shared across multiple 
versions of a document and branched as necessary.

status tagging (e.g. draft/final): can be easily accomplished with native 
features

read-only access: native feature, but note license terms (MindTouch allows 
unlicensed read-only community users to post comments and rate pages, 
Confluence does not)

delivery as PDF: Confluence, if the native feature doesn't cut it you can use 
K15t Scroll (which also sells an ePub utility); MindTouch Core (which is itself 
free) uses Prince, which is excellent but not cheap.


AutoDesk has a hybrid system that does more or less everything you're talking 
about and more, but they spent a lot of money on it. The DITA XML source is 
stored in SDL Trisoft, which handles versioning and topic reuse. The tech 
writers author in XMetal. They use various tools to generate standard online 
help formats and PDFs. Those portions of the system were in place before they 
added the wiki.

MindTouch built them a connector that populates the MindTouch TCS wiki from 
Trisoft. They also have a connector that can pull user-contributed content back 
into Trisoft from MindTouch, though that requires some cleanup. The wiki can 
generate PDFs on the fly.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 11:02 PM, rebecca officer 
rebecca.offi...@alliedtelesis.co.nz wrote:
 Hi everyone

 Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter 
 user manual in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. 
 Conditional text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a 
 couple of times a year, delivered online.

 And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of 
 internal feature development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.

 I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the 
 same source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to 
 work collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to 
 real-time updates.

 I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g.
 draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While 
 I'm at it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.

 The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want 
 to stay with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) 
 but only if we have to.

 As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an 
 FM licence per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling 
 a site licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not 
 seeing a happy ending there.

 I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a 
 programmer or two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.

 So ...

 Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki?

 Should I be looking at XML?

 Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?
___


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Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[John Sgammato]

I am working with MindTouch and their enterprise MindTouch TCS system (a step 
up from MindTouch Core). 
They still have some issues with my imports from (unstruct) FM10, although they 
have successfully imported other content from FM. Whatever they discover to 
solve my issues may trickle down to the Core product as well. In any event, I 
will post here what we find out. A reliable means of publishing from FM10 to a 
knowledgebase would be a Very Good Thing. 
john

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:02 PM
To: rebecca officer; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

I've spent much of the past year trying to figure out a similar transition. 
Short answer, the tools aren't mature enough for a $20K budget. Long answer:

Confluence 4.x and MindTouch Core are the two wikis I've found that seem 
workable.

Migrating large amounts of existing FrameMaker content to either is 
problematic. Here's my most recent status report on my lack of success in bulk 
migration from FrameMaker to Confluence (my status with MindTouch is almost 
exactly the same):
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4+further+discussion?focusedCommentId=294486511#comment-294486511

Version control is the other huge sticking point. Except for a few unusable 
prototypes, I have found no wiki with document-level version control a la 
branching in Subversion or Perforce. The Confluence docs team just makes a 
static copy of the current release for the next release. I'd really prefer to 
have a dynamic system where unchanged pages were shared across multiple 
versions of a document and branched as necessary.

"status tagging (e.g.> draft/final)": can be easily accomplished with native 
features

read-only access: native feature, but note license terms (MindTouch allows 
unlicensed read-only "community" users to post comments and rate pages, 
Confluence does not)

delivery as PDF: Confluence, if the native feature doesn't cut it you can use 
K15t Scroll (which also sells an ePub utility); MindTouch Core (which is itself 
free) uses Prince, which is excellent but not cheap.


AutoDesk has a hybrid system that does more or less everything you're talking 
about and more, but they spent a lot of money on it. The DITA XML source is 
stored in SDL Trisoft, which handles versioning and topic reuse. The tech 
writers author in XMetal. They use various tools to generate standard online 
help formats and PDFs. Those portions of the system were in place before they 
added the wiki.

MindTouch built them a connector that populates the MindTouch TCS wiki from 
Trisoft. They also have a connector that can pull user-contributed content back 
into Trisoft from MindTouch, though that requires some cleanup. The wiki can 
generate PDFs on the fly.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 11:02 PM, rebecca officer  wrote:
> Hi everyone
>
> Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter 
> user manual in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. 
> Conditional text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a 
> couple of times a year, delivered online.
>
> And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of 
> internal feature development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.
>
> I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the 
> same source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to 
> work collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to 
> real-time updates.
>
> I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g.
> draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While 
> I'm at it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.
>
> The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want 
> to stay with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) 
> but only if we have to.
>
> As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an 
> FM licence per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling 
> a site licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not 
> seeing a happy ending there.
>
> I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a 
> programmer or two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.
>
> So ...
>
> Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki?
>
> Should I be looking at XML?
>
> Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?
___


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Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Robert Lauriston]

Something I didn't make clear in my earlier post: MindTouch Core is
free and supported only through a user forum. MindTouch TCS is a
commercial hosted version with support and some extra features.

TCS was what I was referring to when I said that MindTouch has
unlimited free "community" users who can post comments and rate pages.
The annual hosting fee is based on the number of "pro" users who can
create and edit pages, use the admin interface, and so on.

One sticking point I encountered with MindTouch was trying to create
the equivalent of Confluence "spaces." By default, it displays the
entire wiki in a single page tree / table of contents, so if you have
versions 2.1, 2.2, 3.0, and 3.1 of a document, each will have its own
branch of the tree (e.g. /product_name/2.1/user_guide).

I don't think it's particularly difficult to make a branch of the tree
appear as a separate entity (lots of MindTouch sites do that), it's
just not documented and when I asked how to do it on the MindTouch
Core forum nobody posted an example. If you go with TCS, they'd
typically include setting up that sort of thing in the initial setup
fee.

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 8:16 AM, John Sgammato  
wrote:
> I am working with MindTouch and their enterprise MindTouch TCS system (a step 
> up from MindTouch Core).
> They still have some issues with my imports from (unstruct) FM10, although 
> they have successfully imported other content from FM. Whatever they discover 
> to solve my issues may trickle down to the Core product as well. In any 
> event, I will post here what we find out. A reliable means of publishing from 
> FM10 to a knowledgebase would be a Very Good Thing.

Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Robert Lauriston]

I've spent much of the past year trying to figure out a similar
transition. Short answer, the tools aren't mature enough for a $20K
budget. Long answer:

Confluence 4.x and MindTouch Core are the two wikis I've found that
seem workable.

Migrating large amounts of existing FrameMaker content to either is
problematic. Here's my most recent status report on my lack of success
in bulk migration from FrameMaker to Confluence (my status with
MindTouch is almost exactly the same):
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4+further+discussion?focusedCommentId=294486511#comment-294486511

Version control is the other huge sticking point. Except for a few
unusable prototypes, I have found no wiki with document-level version
control a la branching in Subversion or Perforce. The Confluence docs
team just makes a static copy of the current release for the next
release. I'd really prefer to have a dynamic system where unchanged
pages were shared across multiple versions of a document and branched
as necessary.

status tagging (e.g. draft/final): can be easily accomplished with
native features

read-only access: native feature, but note license terms (MindTouch
allows unlicensed read-only community users to post comments and
rate pages, Confluence does not)

delivery as PDF: Confluence, if the native feature doesn't cut it you
can use K15t Scroll (which also sells an ePub utility); MindTouch Core
(which is itself free) uses Prince, which is excellent but not cheap.


AutoDesk has a hybrid system that does more or less everything you're
talking about and more, but they spent a lot of money on it. The DITA
XML source is stored in SDL Trisoft, which handles versioning and
topic reuse. The tech writers author in XMetal. They use various tools
to generate standard online help formats and PDFs. Those portions of
the system were in place before they added the wiki.

MindTouch built them a connector that populates the MindTouch TCS wiki
from Trisoft. They also have a connector that can pull
user-contributed content back into Trisoft from MindTouch, though that
requires some cleanup. The wiki can generate PDFs on the fly.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 11:02 PM, rebecca officer
rebecca.offi...@alliedtelesis.co.nz wrote:
 Hi everyone

 Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user
 manual in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional
 text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a
 year, delivered online.

 And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal
 feature development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.

 I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same
 source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work
 collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time
 updates.

 I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g.
 draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at
 it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.

 The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay
 with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we
 have to.

 As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM
 licence per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site
 licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a
 happy ending there.

 I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer
 or two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.

 So ...

 Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki?

 Should I be looking at XML?

 Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?
___


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Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Robert Lauriston]

So far as I have been able to tell, the switch from wiki markup to
XHTML source in Confluence 4 broke all the tools for getting content
in and out, and I'm not aware of any work going on to remedy that.

Confluence 4 has a MS Word import feature, but it has some showstopper
bugs: the TOC is scrambled, cross-references are not converted, and
numbered lists (SEQ fields) are converted to plain text. I reported
those bugs over six months ago, Atlassian has no current plans to fix
them (they remain unassigned in Jira).

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/OFFCONN-53
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/OFFCONN-54
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/OFFCONN-56

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 6:22 AM, Roger Shuttleworth
rshuttlewo...@avbasesystems.com wrote:
 ... a plugin for Confluence wiki (DITA2Confluence) that will publish a
 ditamap and all its referenced content to wiki pages. But it is only a
 one-way transfer; you can't capture changes made on the wiki back to your
 FrameMaker source. And in the meantime Confluence 4 has switched from using
 wiki markup to using XHTML, so the plugin may not work with the current
 version of Confluence. (I'm sure there is work going on to remedy that.). ...
___


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Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Robert Lauriston]

I've spent much of the past year trying to figure out a similar
transition. Short answer, the tools aren't mature enough for a $20K
budget. Long answer:

Confluence 4.x and MindTouch Core are the two wikis I've found that
seem workable.

Migrating large amounts of existing FrameMaker content to either is
problematic. Here's my most recent status report on my lack of success
in bulk migration from FrameMaker to Confluence (my status with
MindTouch is almost exactly the same):
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4+further+discussion?focusedCommentId=294486511#comment-294486511

Version control is the other huge sticking point. Except for a few
unusable prototypes, I have found no wiki with document-level version
control a la branching in Subversion or Perforce. The Confluence docs
team just makes a static copy of the current release for the next
release. I'd really prefer to have a dynamic system where unchanged
pages were shared across multiple versions of a document and branched
as necessary.

"status tagging (e.g.> draft/final)": can be easily accomplished with
native features

read-only access: native feature, but note license terms (MindTouch
allows unlicensed read-only "community" users to post comments and
rate pages, Confluence does not)

delivery as PDF: Confluence, if the native feature doesn't cut it you
can use K15t Scroll (which also sells an ePub utility); MindTouch Core
(which is itself free) uses Prince, which is excellent but not cheap.


AutoDesk has a hybrid system that does more or less everything you're
talking about and more, but they spent a lot of money on it. The DITA
XML source is stored in SDL Trisoft, which handles versioning and
topic reuse. The tech writers author in XMetal. They use various tools
to generate standard online help formats and PDFs. Those portions of
the system were in place before they added the wiki.

MindTouch built them a connector that populates the MindTouch TCS wiki
from Trisoft. They also have a connector that can pull
user-contributed content back into Trisoft from MindTouch, though that
requires some cleanup. The wiki can generate PDFs on the fly.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 11:02 PM, rebecca officer
 wrote:
> Hi everyone
>
> Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user
> manual in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional
> text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a
> year, delivered online.
>
> And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal
> feature development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.
>
> I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same
> source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work
> collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time
> updates.
>
> I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g.
> draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at
> it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.
>
> The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay
> with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we
> have to.
>
> As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM
> licence per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site
> licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a
> happy ending there.
>
> I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer
> or two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.
>
> So ...
>
> Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki?
>
> Should I be looking at XML?
>
> Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?

Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Robert Lauriston]

So far as I have been able to tell, the switch from wiki markup to
XHTML source in Confluence 4 broke all the tools for getting content
in and out, and I'm not aware of any work going on to remedy that.

Confluence 4 has a MS Word import feature, but it has some showstopper
bugs: the TOC is scrambled, cross-references are not converted, and
numbered lists (SEQ fields) are converted to plain text. I reported
those bugs over six months ago, Atlassian has no current plans to fix
them (they remain unassigned in Jira).

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/OFFCONN-53
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/OFFCONN-54
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/OFFCONN-56

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 6:22 AM, Roger Shuttleworth
 wrote:
> ... a plugin for Confluence wiki (DITA2Confluence) that will publish a
> ditamap and all its referenced content to wiki pages. But it is only a
> one-way transfer; you can't capture changes made on the wiki back to your
> FrameMaker source. And in the meantime Confluence 4 has switched from using
> wiki markup to using XHTML, so the plugin may not work with the current
> version of Confluence. (I'm sure there is work going on to remedy that.). ...

RE: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Keith Soltys]

You may want to look at the Confluence wiki. I know that there is a DITA  
Confluence tool (Dita2Wiki?) and WebWorks ePublisher will also convert FM to 
Confluence. However, I don't know if it's possible to go the other way, or to 
round-trip content between FM DITA and Confluence.  According to Sarah Maddox's 
book on wikis, Confluence will import and export DocBook XML so that might be 
another option.
I'm sure others will comment on this.
Regards,
Keith

From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of rebecca officer
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 2:03 AM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

Hi everyone

Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional text used to 
publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a year, delivered 
online.

And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.

I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work 
collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time 
updates.

I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at it, 
I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.

The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we 
have to.

As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site licence???), 
and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a happy ending there.

I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.

So ...

Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki?

Should I be looking at XML?

Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?

Many thanks
Rebecca





NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential
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If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the
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this email in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail or otherwise 
and ensure that it is permanently deleted from your systems, and do not print, 
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AVIS DE CONFIDENTIALIT? Le pr?sent courriel, y compris tous les documents qu'il 
contient ou qui y sont joints, renferme des renseignements exclusifs et 
confidentiels destin?s uniquement ? l'usage interne du destinataire pr?vu. Si 
vous avez re?u le pr?sent courriel par erreur, veuillez nous aviser 
imm?diatement, notamment par retour de courriel, et vous assurer qu'il est 
supprim? de fa?on permanente de vos syst?mes; veuillez ?galement vous abstenir 
d'imprimer, de copier, de distribuer ou de lire son contenu.
___


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RE: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[mathieu jacquet]

Unfortunately I can only reply that we have the same problem, and that I ended 
up writing docs straight in the wiki (and banging my head on walls). One of ou 
dev did a nice job to produce neat HTMLs from the Wiki, but it is still very 
frech (we're currently profreading the first user's guide written this way). 
For PDF export, nothing matching PDF produced from FM has been done yet.

What I can say is that I am not happy with that, but devs are, because now I'm 
using THEIR tool, and them not MINE. But I'm the sole writer and they're 
stronger than me... :).

Any help on that question would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Mathieu

From: keith.sol...@tmx.com
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:02:40 +








You may want to look at the Confluence wiki. I know that there is a DITA  
Confluence tool (Dita2Wiki?) and WebWorks ePublisher will also convert FM to 
Confluence.
 However, I don’t know if it’s possible to go the other way, or to round-trip 
content between FM DITA and Confluence.  According to Sarah Maddox’s book on 
wikis, Confluence will import and export DocBook XML so that might be another 
option.

I’m sure others will comment on this.
Regards,
Keith







From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com]
On Behalf Of rebecca officer

Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 2:03 AM

To: framers@lists.frameusers.com

Subject: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...


 

Hi everyone


 


Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs.
 Conditional text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple 
of times a year, delivered online.



 


And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user
 manual.


 


I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write.
 We want to work collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer 
to real-time updates.


 


I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and
 HTML. While I'm at it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.


 


The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools
 (*grin*) but only if we have to.


 


As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about
 selling a site licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not 
seeing a happy ending there.


 


I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.


 


So ...


 


Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki?



 


Should I be looking at XML?


 


Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?


 


Many thanks

Rebecca


 


 


 


 



NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential

information intended only for the use of the addressee

named above. If you are not the intended recipient of

this message you are hereby notified that you must not

disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.

If you have received this message in error please

notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.

Any views expressed in this message are those of the

individual sender, except where the sender has the

authority to issue and specifically states them to

be the views of Allied Telesis Labs. 




NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY This e-mail, including all materials contained in or 
attached to this e-mail, contains proprietary and confidential information 
solely for the internal use of the intended recipient. If you have received 
this email in error, please
 notify us immediately by return e-mail or otherwise and ensure that it is 
permanently deleted from your systems, and do not print, copy, distribute or 
read its contents.




AVIS DE CONFIDENTIALITÉ Le présent courriel, y compris tous les documents qu'il 
contient ou qui y sont joints, renferme des renseignements exclusifs et 
confidentiels destinés uniquement à l'usage interne du destinataire prévu. Si 
vous avez reçu le présent courriel
 par erreur, veuillez nous aviser immédiatement, notamment par retour de 
courriel, et vous assurer qu'il est supprimé de façon permanente de vos 
systèmes; veuillez également vous abstenir d'imprimer, de copier, de distribuer 
ou de lire son contenu.




___


You are currently subscribed to framers as bobi...@hotmail.com.

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To unsubscribe send a blank email to
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or visit

Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Writer]

You may want to look at the Confluence wiki. I know that there is a DITA  
Confluence tool (Dita2Wiki?) and WebWorks ePublisher will also convert FM to 
Confluence. However, I don’t know if it’s possible to go the other way, or to 
round-trip content between FM DITA and Confluence.  According to Sarah 
Maddox’s book on wikis, Confluence will import and export DocBook XML so that 
might be another option. 

I’m sure others will comment on this.
Regards,
Keith


I was also going to suggest WebWorks ePublisher. It can ingest FM, Word, and 
DITA files (if you have all of the appropriate adapters). In fact, you can 
combine all three input formats in the same project.

Can the developers author in Word? Or can you export Word files from the wiki?

Nadine

___


You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com.

Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com
or visit 
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Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit
http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.

AW: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Georg Eck]

Hi Rebecca,

there is WebWorks ePublisher (Trial:
http://www.webworks.com/Tour/Try_ePublisher) with 
several output formats like: CHM, REVERB, Eclipse Help, ... and Wiki
like Media Wiki, MoinMoin and Confluence.

Input formats could be MS-Word, Adobe FrameMaker and DITA.

We are also SW-Vendor and the authors write in FrameMaker (DITA),
generate content in a Wiki 
(sample:
http://www.make-a-muffin.de/wiki/index.php/SQUIDDS-TB_de-Sonderzeichen.x
ml - here in German)
and after released we generate an online-help format with WebWorks
ePublisher too 
(sample:
http://www.finalyser.com/help/#page/Finalyser%2520Online-Help/special_ch
aracters.xml.26.1.html - here in English)

Note: There are different results from WebWorks ePublisher for the
different wiki formats.

-  Georg

 

 

Your question: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something
...

Hi everyone

 

Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user
manual in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional
text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of
times a year, delivered online. 

 

And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal
feature development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.

 

I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the
same source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to
work collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to
real-time updates.

 

I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging
(e.g. draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML.
While I'm at it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.

 

The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to
stay with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but
only if we have to.

 

As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM
licence per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a
site licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not
seeing a happy ending there.

 

I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a
programmer or two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.

 

So ...

 

Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki?


 

Should I be looking at XML?

 

Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?

 

Many thanks
Rebecca

 

  

___


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Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
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Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit
http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.

Re: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Roger Shuttleworth]

Hi Rebecca

While reading your post I was thinking, XML - and then you asked the question 
right at the end.

You don't say which wiki the engineers are using; that would be an important 
factor.

Some of what you are looking for can be done using FrameMaker and DITA. The 
engineers would soon learn the DTD (I'm told that engineers like learning stuff 
like that). You and your writers would have a significant learning curve too, 
and it would take several months to implement.

There is a plugin for Confluence wiki (DITA2Confluence) that will publish a 
ditamap and all its referenced content to wiki pages. But it is only a one-way 
transfer; you can't capture changes made on the wiki back to your FrameMaker 
source. And in the meantime Confluence 4 has switched from using wiki markup to 
using XHTML, so the plugin may not work with the current version of Confluence. 
(I'm sure there is work going on to remedy that.). The pathway from FrameMaker 
to wiki is not too difficult; it is the other direction (your engineer source) 
that will be the problem.

In your situation I would be looking at more radical solutions. What about 
publishing your user manual through the wiki? Most wikis can output PDF too, 
though it will not be as pretty as that provided by FrameMaker. Instead of 
sticking with FrameMaker, I'd be thinking in terms of a text-based source 
(XHTML or XML), and tools that can convert from wiki to XML. One such is the 
Mylyn Project at http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn. 
Seehttp://greensopinion.blogspot.com/2008/11/mylyn-wikitext-targets-oasis-dita.html.

Of course, if the XML ends up being DITA or DocBook, you can publish that 
through FrameMaker (or lots of other tools).

I hope other list members will be able to add to these thoughts... You could 
also try asking the question on the Yahoo dita-users group at 
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/. There are people there with all 
kinds of experience, and I'm sure someone will have some suggestions.

Roger

Roger Shuttleworth
Technical Documentation
AV-BASE Systems Inc.
1000 Air Ontario Drive, Suite 200
London, Ontario
N5V 3S4
Tel. 519 691-0919 ext. 330
  _  

From: rebecca officer [mailto:rebecca.offi...@alliedtelesis.co.nz]
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 02:02:53 -0400
Subject: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...


Hi everyone  
   
Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional text used to 
publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a year, delivered 
online.   
   
And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.  
   
I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work 
collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time 
updates.  
   
I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at it, 
I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.  
   
The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we 
have to.  
   
As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site licence???), 
and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a happy ending there.  
   
I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.  
   
So ...  
   
Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki?   
   
Should I be looking at XML?  
   
Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?  
   
Many thanks
Rebecca  
   
   
   
   
NOTICE: This message contains privileged and   confidential
information intended only for the use of the addressee
named   above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby   notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance   on it.
If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied   Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are   those of the
individual sender, except where the sender has the
authority   to issue and specifically states them to
be the views of Allied Telesis   Labs.  ___


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Send administrative questions to listad

Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[mathieu jacquet]

Unfortunately I can only reply that we have the same problem, and that I ended 
up writing docs straight in the wiki (and banging my head on walls). One of ou 
dev did a nice job to produce neat HTMLs from the Wiki, but it is still very 
frech (we're currently profreading the first user's guide written this way). 
For PDF export, nothing matching PDF produced from FM has been done yet.

What I can say is that I am not happy with that, but devs are, because now I'm 
using THEIR tool, and them not MINE. But I'm the sole writer and they're 
stronger than me... :).

Any help on that question would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Mathieu

From: keith.sol...@tmx.com
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:02:40 +








You may want to look at the Confluence wiki. I know that there is a DITA > 
Confluence tool (Dita2Wiki?) and WebWorks ePublisher will also convert FM to 
Confluence.
 However, I don?t know if it?s possible to go the other way, or to round-trip 
content between FM DITA and Confluence.  According to Sarah Maddox?s book on 
wikis, Confluence will import and export DocBook XML so that might be another 
option.

I?m sure others will comment on this.
Regards,
Keith







From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com]
On Behalf Of rebecca officer

Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 2:03 AM

To: framers at lists.frameusers.com

Subject: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...




Hi everyone





Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs.
 Conditional text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple 
of times a year, delivered online.






And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user
 manual.





I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write.
 We want to work collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer 
to real-time updates.





I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and
 HTML. While I'm at it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.





The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools
 (*grin*) but only if we have to.





As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about
 selling a site licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not 
seeing a happy ending there.





I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.





So ...





Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki?






Should I be looking at XML?





Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?





Many thanks

Rebecca















NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential

information intended only for the use of the addressee

named above. If you are not the intended recipient of

this message you are hereby notified that you must not

disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.

If you have received this message in error please

notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.

Any views expressed in this message are those of the

individual sender, except where the sender has the

authority to issue and specifically states them to

be the views of Allied Telesis Labs. 




NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY This e-mail, including all materials contained in or 
attached to this e-mail, contains proprietary and confidential information 
solely for the internal use of the intended recipient. If you have received 
this email in error, please
 notify us immediately by return e-mail or otherwise and ensure that it is 
permanently deleted from your systems, and do not print, copy, distribute or 
read its contents.




AVIS DE CONFIDENTIALIT? Le pr?sent courriel, y compris tous les documents qu'il 
contient ou qui y sont joints, renferme des renseignements exclusifs et 
confidentiels destin?s uniquement ? l'usage interne du destinataire pr?vu. Si 
vous avez re?u le pr?sent courriel
 par erreur, veuillez nous aviser imm?diatement, notamment par retour de 
courriel, et vous assurer qu'il est supprim? de fa?on permanente de vos 
syst?mes; veuillez ?galement vous abstenir d'imprimer, de copier, de distribuer 
ou de lire son contenu.




___


You are currently subscribed to framers as bobitch at hotmail.com.

Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com

Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Writer]

>You may want to look at the Confluence wiki. I know that there is a DITA > 
>Confluence tool (Dita2Wiki?) and WebWorks ePublisher will also convert FM to 
>Confluence. However, I don?t know if it?s possible to go the other way, or to 
>round-trip content between FM DITA and Confluence. ?According to Sarah 
>Maddox?s book on wikis, Confluence will import and export DocBook XML so that 
>might be another option. 

>I?m sure others will comment on this.
>Regards,
>Keith


I was also going to suggest WebWorks ePublisher. It can ingest FM, Word, and 
DITA files (if you have all of the appropriate adapters). In fact, you can 
combine all three input formats in the same project.

Can the developers author in Word? Or can you export Word files from the wiki?

Nadine

AW: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Georg Eck]

Hi Rebecca,

there is WebWorks ePublisher (Trial:
http://www.webworks.com/Tour/Try_ePublisher) with 
several output formats like: CHM, REVERB, Eclipse Help, ... and Wiki
like Media Wiki, MoinMoin and Confluence.

Input formats could be MS-Word, Adobe FrameMaker and DITA.

We are also SW-Vendor and the authors write in FrameMaker (DITA),
generate content in a Wiki 
(sample:
http://www.make-a-muffin.de/wiki/index.php/SQUIDDS-TB_de-Sonderzeichen.x
ml - here in German)
and after released we generate an online-help format with WebWorks
ePublisher too 
(sample:
http://www.finalyser.com/help/#page/Finalyser%2520Online-Help/special_ch
aracters.xml.26.1.html - here in English)

Note: There are different results from WebWorks ePublisher for the
different wiki formats.

-  Georg





Your question: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something
...

Hi everyone



Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user
manual in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional
text used to publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of
times a year, delivered online. 



And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal
feature development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.



I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the
same source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to
work collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to
real-time updates.



I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging
(e.g. draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML.
While I'm at it, I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.



The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to
stay with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but
only if we have to.



As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM
licence per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a
site licence???), and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not
seeing a happy ending there.



I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a
programmer or two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.



So ...



Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki?




Should I be looking at XML?



Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?



Many thanks
Rebecca





-- next part --
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: 
<http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/attachments/20120627/11c390ef/attachment.html>

Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Roger Shuttleworth]

Hi Rebecca

While reading your post I was thinking, "XML" - and then you asked the question 
right at the end.

You don't say which wiki the engineers are using; that would be an important 
factor.

Some of what you are looking for can be done using FrameMaker and DITA. The 
engineers would soon learn the DTD (I'm told that engineers like learning stuff 
like that). You and your writers would have a significant learning curve too, 
and it would take several months to implement.

There is a plugin for Confluence wiki (DITA2Confluence) that will publish a 
ditamap and all its referenced content to wiki pages. But it is only a one-way 
transfer; you can't capture changes made on the wiki back to your FrameMaker 
source. And in the meantime Confluence 4 has switched from using wiki markup to 
using XHTML, so the plugin may not work with the current version of Confluence. 
(I'm sure there is work going on to remedy that.). The pathway from FrameMaker 
to wiki is not too difficult; it is the other direction (your engineer source) 
that will be the problem.

In your situation I would be looking at more radical solutions. What about 
publishing your user manual through the wiki? Most wikis can output PDF too, 
though it will not be as pretty as that provided by FrameMaker. Instead of 
sticking with FrameMaker, I'd be thinking in terms of a text-based source 
(XHTML or XML), and tools that can convert from wiki to XML. One such is the 
Mylyn Project at http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn. 
Seehttp://greensopinion.blogspot.com/2008/11/mylyn-wikitext-targets-oasis-dita.html.

Of course, if the XML ends up being DITA or DocBook, you can publish that 
through FrameMaker (or lots of other tools).

I hope other list members will be able to add to these thoughts... You could 
also try asking the question on the Yahoo dita-users group at 
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/. There are people there with all 
kinds of experience, and I'm sure someone will have some suggestions.

Roger

Roger Shuttleworth
Technical Documentation
AV-BASE Systems Inc.
1000 Air Ontario Drive, Suite 200
London, Ontario
N5V 3S4
Tel. 519 691-0919 ext. 330
  _  

From: rebecca officer [mailto:rebecca.offi...@alliedtelesis.co.nz]
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 02:02:53 -0400
Subject: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...


Hi everyone  

Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional text used to 
publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a year, delivered 
online.   

And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.  

I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work 
collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time 
updates.  

I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at it, 
I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.  

The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we 
have to.  

As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site licence???), 
and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a happy ending there.  

I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.  

So ...  

Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki?   

Should I be looking at XML?  

Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?  

Many thanks
Rebecca  




NOTICE: This message contains privileged and   confidential
information intended only for the use of the addressee
named   above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby   notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance   on it.
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Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[Keith Soltys]

You may want to look at the Confluence wiki. I know that there is a DITA > 
Confluence tool (Dita2Wiki?) and WebWorks ePublisher will also convert FM to 
Confluence. However, I don't know if it's possible to go the other way, or to 
round-trip content between FM DITA and Confluence.  According to Sarah Maddox's 
book on wikis, Confluence will import and export DocBook XML so that might be 
another option.
I'm sure others will comment on this.
Regards,
Keith

From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of rebecca officer
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 2:03 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

Hi everyone

Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional text used to 
publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a year, delivered 
online.

And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.

I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work 
collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time 
updates.

I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at it, 
I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.

The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we 
have to.

As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site licence???), 
and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a happy ending there.

I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.

So ...

Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki?

Should I be looking at XML?

Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?

Many thanks
Rebecca





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Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[rebecca officer]

Hi everyone
 
Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional text used to 
publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a year, delivered 
online. 
 
And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.
 
I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work 
collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time 
updates.
 
I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at it, 
I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.
 
The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we 
have to.
 
As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site licence???), 
and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a happy ending there.
 
I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.
 
So ...
 
Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker -- Wiki? 
 
Should I be looking at XML?
 
Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?
 
Many thanks
Rebecca
 
 
 
 

NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential
information intended only for the use of the addressee
named above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.
If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the
individual sender, except where the sender has the
authority to issue and specifically states them to
be the views of Allied Telesis Labs.
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Single sourcing from Frame and a wiki ... or something ...

[rebecca officer]

Hi everyone

Our docs team (4 of us) creates a many-thousand-page multi-chapter user manual 
in unstructured Frame. Lots of tables and cross-refs. Conditional text used to 
publish several variants. Published as PDFs a couple of times a year, delivered 
online. 

And the engineers (about 80) have a wiki that's a mish-mash of internal feature 
development info, some of which ends up in the user manual.

I've been asked to make the user manual and the internal docs use the same 
source, which both writers and engineers would write. We want to work 
collaboratively, stop duplicating effort and come much closer to real-time 
updates.

I'll need to include version control, content re-use, status tagging (e.g. 
draft/final), read-only access, and delivery as PDF and HTML. While I'm at it, 
I'd like to do automated builds and publish ebooks.

The engineers would like the wiki to be the source. The writers want to stay 
with FM. I'm prepared to make everyone change tools (*grin*) but only if we 
have to.

As a complicating factor, the engineers are all on Linux. Getting an FM licence 
per engineer would blow my budget (Adobe, how about selling a site licence???), 
and they'd have to run it in Virtual Box. I'm not seeing a happy ending there.

I've got plenty of implementation time and can lay my mitts on a programmer or 
two. Budget's not yet set but prob around $20K.

So ...

Does anyone know of a good tool for round-tripping Framemaker <--> Wiki? 

Should I be looking at XML?

Any other thoughts on how I should tackle this?

Many thanks
Rebecca





NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential
information intended only for the use of the addressee
named above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.
If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the
individual sender, except where the sender has the
authority to issue and specifically states them to
be the views of Allied Telesis Labs.
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