Re: [docbook-apps] table vertical spans and page breaks

[Vincent Hennebert <vhennebert@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Marcel Tromp wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am using fop 0.95. I am using code similar to this example:
> 
> I've tried using this dbfo at different location as well (row, start of 
> table) and I don't see any difference: fop breaks the table in the 
> middle of a cell that straddles multiple rows.
> 
>       <tbody>
>         <row>
>           <entry>
>             <para>foo</para>
>           </entry>
>           <entry>
>             <para>foo</para>
>           </entry>
>           <entry morerows="19">
>             <?dbfo keep-together="always"?>
>             <para></para>
>           </entry>

This processing instruction only applies to formal object (table,
example, figure, equation), not to other elements [1].
[1] http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/doc/pi/dbfo_keep-together.html

You will have to customize the template matching <entry> and add
a keep-together.within-column="always" to the produced fo:table-cell
element. As to how to do that...


> What I am trying to do is to have a long (500 row) narrow, sorted table 
> be printed three columns per page. I want to use the straddled cell to 
> control page breaks:
> 
> page 1:
> 1 6 11
> 2 7 12
> 3 8 13
> 4 9 14
> 5 10 15
> 
> page 2:
> 16 21 26
> 17 22 27
> 18 23 28
> 19 24 29
> 20 25 30
> 
> page 3:
> etc.

I’m not sure this is the best way to achieve that. The source DocBook
file should remain output-agnostic; by adding a row-spanning entry
element you’re somehow abusing its semantics.
A more proper way would be to customize the XSLT stylesheets so as to
put a keep-together.within-column plus keep-with-next.within-column on
every row, except every n-th row. Of course that requires some XSLT
knowledge.


HTH,
Vincent