Re: [docbook-apps] Docbook to FrameMaker

["Bob Stayton" <bobs@sagehill.net>]

Just an update to this mail: FrameMaker  version 8 integrates Structured and 
non-structured FrameMaker, so you don't have to restart.  Also, FM8 comes 
with a DocBook application, which includes an EDD. Unfortunately, it is 
based on DocBook 4.1.2, which is rather old, but can still work if you can 
get your DocBook files to validate with 4.1.2.

I agree that trying to round-trip XML in and out of FrameMaker does not work 
that well. But with proper setup FrameMaker can successfully import DocBook 
XML and publish it. If you are looking for a publishing tool and not an 
editing tool for your XML files, that is, if you keep it one-way, it can 
work.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barton Wright" <barton.wright@streambase.com>
To: "Remko Tronçon" <remko@el-tramo.be>; "docbook-apps" 
<docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 9:06 AM
Subject: RE: [docbook-apps] Docbook to FrameMaker


>> I'm looking for a way to get DocBook documents into FrameMaker (7)
>> somehow. I read that FrameMaker is supposed to be able to open
>> DocBook directly, but when I open my .xml file, it prompts me
>> for a file type, and DocBook doesn't seem to be in there. I have
>> looked for ways to go from DocBook to MIF, but it seems the
>> only tool capable of this is OpenJade, which I'm having a hard
>> time getting to work. Are there other ways to get my DocBook
>> document into FrameMaker?
>
> Yikes.
>
> At a previous job, we tried using Frame as a DocBook editor and quickly 
> gave up. Here's a summary of what you need to know:
>
> 1. There are two versions of Frame 7 in one package. Only Structured 
> FrameMaker has any understanding of XML. You must switch to Structured 
> Frame and restart.
>
> 2. Frame has some knowledge of DITA but no native knowledge of the DocBook 
> grammar. Adobe  provides a Frame-DocBook conversion toolkit, which is just 
> that -- a set of tools and guidelines for how you can create an EDD that 
> will read and write DocBook files. An EDD is a Frame-proprietary version 
> of a DTD.
>
> 3. Frame just can't keep its hands off your document structure. No matter 
> what you do, even if you get past the daunting EDD stage and manage to get 
> Frame to write out DocBook XML, you'll find that it contains non-standard 
> usages and proprietary extension elements. Unless you add custom 
> post-processing to XML writes, you'll find that Frame generates invalid 
> DocBook XML that will make other tools complain.
>
> Don't misunderstand, I'm not against Frame, and I used it professionally 
> almost every day from 1991 to 2007. What Frame does well, it does very 
> well. But being a DocBook editor is not something Frame does well.
>
>
>