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m18791-Visitor
1-Visitor
September 1, 2011
Question

Compose for Web, looking for config info

  • September 1, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 1111 views
I'm using Arbortext Editor with Styler 5.3 M130. I am looking for info
on configuring the tri-pane HTML output from Arbortext Editor (File >
COmpose > for Web), and I'm not finding much. Where would be a good
place to find out how to do things like the following:

- Split up XML topics into HTML pages
- Getting the left-pane TOC to work (it's blank except for a non-working
search box)

Are these Styler items? DCF config items? Something else?

Thanks,
Mark

    3 replies

    P
    pchateil7-Bedrock
    7-Bedrock
    September 2, 2011
    We had to customize web export from a DITA environnement.
    We were using Arbortext 5.4 M090, but basics should be the same.

    Chunking (splitting into HTML files) was set in a styler stylesheet.
    Most of the resulting output (TOC, frames) was set in custom framesets

    To set a custom path for css and graphics, we modified comp_web.acl
    found in packages/tools
    You will need to copy it to custom/scripts

    We wanted an onload attribute on the body tag and never found
    where to create it, so we added acl code in comp_web.acl to open
    each HTML file after composition and set the onload attribute.

    Pierre

    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    September 2, 2011
    Hi Mark & Pierre--

    Actually, there are significant differences between 5.3 and 5.4 in how
    you configure HTML chunking.

    In 5.3, you can also customize HTML chunking using the dbchunk.xml file.
    The original version of this lives in $ARBORTEXT/Editor/composer. Copy
    it into $CUSTOM/composer, and then you can edit it.

    In this file you can specify which elements define chunk boundaries,
    content of the HTML header for each chunk, body attributes, etc. Using
    the file is described in the online help, see "help 1290" (at Arbortext
    command line).

    In 5.4+, everything is controlled via Styler. For each element that
    defines chunks, go to the Breaks tab in Styler, click the HTML
    Chunking... button, and set Chunk Boundary to Yes. You can also specify
    how the HTML filename is derived, and insert metadata on a per-chunk
    basis. However, I also didn't find an easy way to specify body
    attributes via Styler. (I think an upcoming release of 6.0 is going to
    add a lot more flexibility in terms of how HTML elements are generated
    from Styler, so keep an eye on those updates and check the release notes
    if that's something you'd want to use.)

    The TOC is also controlled by these two mechanisms (dbchunk.xml in 5.3,
    Styler config in 5.4).

    Customization of the look-and-feel of the resulting frameset is
    controlled by customizing the frameset. Start by copying the default
    frameset you want to modify (found in $ARBORTEXT/framesets) into your
    custom directory in $CUSTOM/framesets. Give it a new name, and then
    modify the frames, CSS, etc as you like.

    Good luck, Mark, and happy customizing!

    --Clay

    Clay Helberg
    Senior Consultant
    TerraXML

    M
    m18791-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    September 3, 2011
    Thanks Clay and Pierre for the information. You got me moving again on this.

    Mark

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