Integrating XML and FrameMaker

Table of contents

Abstract

FrameMaker overview

Structured and unstructured FrameMaker

Components of a structured FrameMaker solution

Starting points

The FrameMaker document model

FrameMaker customization

Language support

Entities

Building document structures

Structured and unstructured FrameMaker

When you install FrameMaker, you actually install two products—structured FrameMaker and unstructured FrameMaker. Unstructured FrameMaker is the traditional, paragraph-based document processor. Structured FrameMaker was called FrameMaker+SGML and licensed separately in previous versions of FrameMaker. Since version 7, unstructured and structured FrameMaker are covered by a single software license, and you can switch back and forth between the two interfaces by changing a preference setting and restarting FrameMaker (Figure 1).

NOTE:

Figure 1 shows the Prefernces dialog box in FrameMaker 7. That dialog box has changed slightly for FrameMaker 8.

preferences

Figure 1: Changing from unstructured to structured FrameMaker

Your project requirements determine whether you need unstructured or structured FrameMaker. You can produce XML files from unstructured FrameMaker, but for most other XML-related tasks, you must use structured FrameMaker, as shown in the following table:

Task	Requires
Opening XML files in FrameMaker	Structured FrameMaker
Exporting XML files from FrameMaker	Unstructured or structured FrameMaker
Importing and exporting (round-tripping) XML	Structured FrameMaker
Validating content against a predefined structure	Structured FrameMaker
Authoring with elements and attributes	Structured FrameMaker
Creating a hierarchical set of elements	Structured FrameMaker

Unstructured FrameMaker allows you to create XML files from your regular, paragraph-based information. You can use the following methods to create XML files:

FrameMaker’s built-in Save As XML functionality
WebWorks Publisher (Standard or Professional)

In either case, the XML file that’s produced contains a flat sequence of tags with no organization of elements into higher-level elements. The heading and body paragraphs are parallel to each other, and are not grouped into a higher-level element. See Figure 2.

flat XML from unstructured FrameMaker

Figure 2: Flat XML produced from unstructured FrameMaker

To create XML with hierarchical, nested elements, as shown in Figure 3, you need to use structured FrameMaker. (For more information about hierarchy, see Scriptorium Publishing’s Structured authoring and XML white paper.)

hierarchical elements require structured FrameMaker

Figure 3: Hierarchical elements require structured FrameMaker

It’s possible to create attributes in unstructured FrameMaker, but this requires you to set up special constructs, such as conditional text or markers, to embed the attribute information. You would then use special processing in WebWorks Publisher Professional to create the attributes. WebWorks Publisher Standard and the built-in Save As XML conversion cannot support this type of complex transformation.

In structured FrameMaker, however, you can easily assign attribute values to elements and transfer those attributes to XML on conversion (Figure 4).

attribute information in structured FrameMaker and XML

Figure 4: Attribute information in structured FrameMaker and XML

The remainder of this white paper focuses on integration of XML with structured FrameMaker, which enables you to create element-based content. You can automatically assign formatting to elements, and you can transfer information to and from XML.

Next page:
Components of a structured FrameMaker solution