Re: [docbook-apps] Madcap Flare to Docbook conversion

[Frank Arensmeier <farensmeier@gmail.com>]

Hi Peter!

Thank you for your reply! I was afraid that my question was little bit unclear. I am working on a XSLT transformation from Flare to Docbook – at least I am thinking about it. I’m not a tech writer, so I haven’t used Flare for content creation and therefor I am still a novice when it comes to Flare. I’m a system developer with a broad knowledge in a number of programming languages (e.g. XSLT). Right now, I try to understand the structure and inner concept of a Flare project. 

Looking at the source code for a Flare project, a good candidate for the initial transformation would be the Flare Toc file. I’m aware of the fact that there is no equivalent to a Flare Toc file (or Ditamap for that matter) in Docbook. However, it seems that the Toc file already contains some vital information for the transformation: the content structure and links to the actual content. The HTML content could very well be transformed with Herold, as you already pointed out.

I was hoping for someone who already has done something similar before and who could share some insights.

Frank Arensmeier

Paligo - The truly user-friendly CMS for technical documentation
www.paligo.se

9 dec 2015 kl. 16:51 skrev Peter Lavin <lavin.peter@gmail.com>:

I’m not sure if I understand exactly what you are asking but here goes.

Use herold from dbdoclet.org to convert HTML to DocBook. [sales pitch] You might find "DocBook for Writers" useful when doing this kind of conversion. It's available as an EPUB from Google or as a MOBI from Amazon.

Do you have access to Flare HTML output files? If so, use these files rather than the "raw" Flare files. The raw files will probably contain proprietary tags such as "<MadCap:xref>" but the output files will have converted these to standard HTML that herold can process.

There is no DocBook equivalent to a Flare TOC file. The structure of a DocBook document is used to create a table of contents. How are your programming skills? Assuming that your Flare TOC entries point only at files (rather than other TOC files or Flare bookmarks) you could transform the Flare TOC to a DocBook file with Xincludes referencing each file created by herold. The root element of your main DocBook file will depend upon what parameter you use with the herold option, "--docbook-root-element".

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Excuse brevity. Sent from a mobile device.

Hi List!

I am wondering, does anyone have any experience with transforming Madcap Flare to Docbook? I mean not within Flare – rather a transformation that takes a Madcap flare Toc file as input. The only reference I could find to Madcap on this list was a short conversation from 2006 (http://markmail.org/search/?q=madcap+flare&q=list%3Aorg.oasis-open.lists.docbook#query:madcap%20flare%20list%3Aorg.oasis-open.lists.docbook+page:1+mid:a5szwhwjtaaeoo6j+state:results). The interview referenced there seems not available anymore.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

/frank

Frank Arensmeier

Paligo - The truly user-friendly CMS for technical documentation
www.paligo.se