Re: [docbook] ONIX 3 <-> Docbook 5 Mapping

[Thomas Schraitle <tom_schr@web.de>]

Hi Peter,

Am Freitag, 16. Mai 2014, 10:58:11 schrieb Peter Fleck:
> 
> May be I'm tackling the issue wrongly and would value advise if so:
> 
>  1. When we receive a proposal for a book, whether print or eBook, the
>     preliminary metadata is entered into a database.
>  2. After a review process a decision is made to publish or reject the work.
> 3. If the work goes ahead I was hoping to create the Docbook <info> out of
> the database automatically and a separate ONIX file for
>     distribution channels.
>  4. The production staff would then take the Docbook file and follow
>     through to completion.
> 
> That was why I was wonder if there was mapping so the database could
> drive the XML files for both production and marketing.
> Is there a better way of doing it?

If I understand your tool chain correctly, it seems to me of double work: 
creating all metadata from your database, wrap it into DocBook elements and 
create a separate ONIX file.

One possible solution could be: create only the ONIX file. Why?

Well, first of all, I'm pretty sure ONIX offers much more elements in regards 
to meta and publishing information than DocBook. Trying to replicate the ONIX 
semantic in DocBook will make your markup much more cumbersome and 
complicated. 

ONIX's business is meta and publishing information and DocBook's business is 
documentation. I would leave both in their respective domains. 

However, that doesn't mean you can't "mix" them. If you created a separate 
ONIX file from your tool chain, it can be referenced by <xi:include/> inside 
<info>. You need two things:

1. Customize the DocBook schema and allow ONIX elements inside <info>. You
   need the original ONIX RELAX NG schema.

2. Customize the DocBook XSL stylesheets, if you want to extract metadata 
   from that domain and add it to the titlepage, for example.

There might be one issue: It *could* happen that an element from DocBook and 
an element from ONIX overlap in their semantics. In that case you have to 
decide in your stylesheets if this is allowed, ignored, or which one is 
prefered over the other.

Not sure if this is what you're searching for.


-- 
Gruß/Regards
  Thomas Schraitle