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A
aleslie1-Visitor
1-Visitor
December 14, 2010
Question

Building TOC for multiple individual files

  • December 14, 2010
  • 9 replies
  • 1656 views

I have a customer who wants a TOC created using content from seperate SGML files.

It is possible to generate one large SGML file manually from each of the individual files within a chapter element and easily create the TOC this way but the customer wishes to keep all the filesseperate.

Other than writing loads of ACL to open each of these files in turn, search for the section, extract it, and copy into current document, and then extract the necessary content, Is there a quick and easy alternative method for doing this ?

Regards,

    9 replies

    S
    steve.thompson41-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    If you're using a FOSI, try help 13023. Should do the job, with just a tiny bit of tweaking.

    Steve Thompson
    +1(316)977-0515
    S
    steve.thompson41-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    Sorry. Should have said, that's the help number in 5.2. Did a search for "external file" to find it again, so if you're in a different version, you might need to do the same search.

    Steve Thompson
    +1(316)977-0515
    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    December 14, 2010
    Hi Andy-



    Could file entities be of use here? Maybe you could create a single
    "master" document that contains nothing but file entity references to
    include the individual files and then generate the TOC from that. It
    wouldn't require any manual work, just open the master doc and generate
    the TOC.



    If there are context issues that prevent you from doing this in the
    "natural" doctype your customer is using, you might be able to make a
    new master document DTD that can handle the chunks as they exist. For
    example, if each chunk is a <document> element (which is also the root
    element of your primary DTD), you could have a masterdoc DTD with a root
    container that allows multiple <document> elements in it, something like
    this:







    structure info -->



    Then you just create a masterdoc document, add file entity references to
    point to your chunks, and Bob's your uncle.



    --Clay


    L
    LynnHales1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    Andy,



    Yes you can do this, at least with FOSI, I won't swear (cuss maybe) as to
    whether FO can. I have done it with FOSI for the US Army's 40051 long time
    ago.



    I can send you a copy of the FOSI if you would like it. Do a search for
    'chap.toc' (if you have an ASCII editor that supports regular expression
    searches, use 'chap.*toc').



    To make one larger file, I'd use file entity references.



    Lynn


    G
    GregoryMackenzi1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    This is not quite what your looking for but I learned this useful tip
    here at the group which may be of some use to you eventually if you are
    working with entities.


    E
    ebenton1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    One caveat on the entity_flatten command (I think it might be doc_flatten now). It cannot be undone via the Edit-Undo menu or shortcut hotkeys, etc. In order to undo it you must exit the document without saving and then re-open it. At least that was the way it was back in 4.3.1 when I last looked at it.
    S
    steve.thompson41-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    No, you can't 'undo' in 5.2, either. And, yes, that's now 'doc_flatten'. See help 7789 in 5.2.

    Steve Thompson
    +1(316)977-0515
    A
    aleslie1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010

    Hi Lynn,

    If you could send me the FOSI you did that would be great.

    Regards,

    Andy

    D
    DavidS.Taylor1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 14, 2010
    In 5.2.M040 we use the write command with the '-flatten both' option to create a new copy of the document in flat form. This is safer as it has no effect on any source document files.

    The flat documents are almost always used as input to some other process or to extract information for support purposes. We simply delete them once they've served their purpose. We can always re-create them if needed again.

    David

    David S. Taylor

    Project Manager, Structured Information
    Institute for Research in Construction
    National Research Council Canada
    Bldg. M-23A, Room 239
    1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
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