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FrameMaker’s Handling of XML
By Matt Sullivan

Matt Sullivan is the
training director for
GRAFIX Training, Inc.,
an Adobe-certified training provider
with offices in San Diego and Tustin.

Among his Adobe certifications are Acrobat, FrameMaker, FrameMaker+SGML, and Photoshop.

Direct questions on
technical issues to
matt@grafixtraining.com

Find previous "Tech Issues" columns at www.grafixtraining.com/
stc/stc.html.

I’m not sure if it has anything to do with school starting again, but it seems that everyone is done with summer vacation and ready to get back to work.

For the last few weeks, that has meant tons of inquiries for us at GRAFIX about FrameMaker 7.0 and its handling of XML. Consequently, we’ve been answering lots of questions regarding Frame’s ability to export XML from both unstructured (normal Frame docs) and structured (previously FrameMaker+SGML docs) FrameMaker files. Considering we had Scott Hamlow from Adobe present Frame 7.0 at our September 11 meeting, I didn’t see how this month’s article could be about anything else.

Here are a few of the topics we’ve been fielding questions on.

• Can we output our existing (unstructured) documents to XML?
  
• Should we switch to a structured workflow?
  
• Should we use Frame’s built-in HTML and XML conversion or use the standard version of Quadralay WebWorks Publisher, which ships with Frame?
  
• Do we need WebWorks Publisher Pro?

Obviously, these questions don’t have clear-cut answers, but we can at least discuss some of the issues involved with each of them.

Can we output our existing (unstructured) documents to XML?

Yes, existing docs can be output as XML, just as they could be output to HTML from Frame. This does usually require some manual tweaking of the conversion tables as well as an adherence to the template used to create the conversion table. (Translation: adding to or changing the names of the tags and formats used in the template will result in more editing of the conversion table.)

The good news is that your information is now in XML. The bad news is that most of your stuff is mapped into generic elements not much more helpful than HTML.

Should we switch to a structured workflow?

This really depends on why you want your info in XML. If you heard XML is cool and you want to add it as a delivery format along with print, PDF, and HTML, then you don’t need to author structured documents.

However, if you plan on sharing this information laterally with clients or vendors and need to have a common file format to enable this, then structured documents might be for you. Keep in mind that structured and unstructured Frame documents have little in common when it comes to creating the content that makes up your files. Plan on three days of training for any of your authors as well as an additional two days of training for the person(s) responsible for template development.

Should we use Frame’s built-in HTML and XML conversion or use the standard version of Quadralay WebWorks Publisher, and do we needWebWorks Publisher Pro?

Using any of the three XML output options will be dictated by the complexity your output requires.

Again, if you need to just get your stuff on the Web and don’t care too much about how it looks, whether you’ve got navigation buttons on your pages, or what format your graphics will convert to, then stick with Frame’s default conversion. You can wade through the conversion on your own and not have to invest a lot of time in the process.

If you find the converted XML material lacking in its ability to describe your data and to translate your graphics appropriately, then you may want to investigate the WebWorks Publisher products. They will give you more options for outputting pages that fit in a sophisticated Web project.

Where to go from here?

Unfortunately, in this small article, I can’t do more than simply raise the questions about whether XML is right for your organization. Be ready, though, because XML is coming, and it will likely be the format you use to transfer information in the near future. Not only will you use it to create Web content, but it may also become the universal information-transfer format, smoothly linking your database, text editing, and Web-content systems.

With any luck, next month’s article will discuss tools for authoring and editing XML using MS Word.