Need to send files from AE 6.1 F000 to Framemaker

[bfriesen]

Looking for guidance as to what I need to send.

Thanks

Bryon

[GarethOakes]

FrameMaker can natively load files in .fm or .mif formats. Neither of these are a native format of Arbortext Editor. If you are wanting to take XML or SGML from Arbortext into FrameMaker then there is nothing you need to do on the Arbortext side. Instead, you need to setup Structured FrameMaker with an EDD file. The EDD will then let you map the XML elements into a FrameMaker document.

[bfriesen]

Thanks Gareth, from what I have read. They need to use my DTD to create a EDD file that they will use in Framemaker. From there how do I supply xml or sgml to them. I have a map and topics. If I save as to "XML" at the ditamp level does that take all the topics with it?

Thanks

Bryon

[GarethOakes]

Hi Bryon,

For details on Framemaker configuration and so on, you are probably best serviced by a Framemaker forum or user group. eg. http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/framemaker-dita/info

BTW, Framemaker since about version 8 has had DITA support built-in so you may find it loads most of your stuff "out of the box". Attention will need to be paid to any specializations you might have in your Arbortext DITA application.

Here's an (old) FM DITA starter guide that Google coughed up on the first page of results, might be enough to get you started:

http://www.scriptorium.com/whitepapers/ditafm8/dita_fm8_tech_ref.pdf

-Gareth

[bfriesen]

Thanks for all the insight Gareth, one last question From there how do I supply xml or sgml to them. In AE I have a map and topics. If I save as to "XML" at the ditamp level does that take all the topics with it? Or do I need to send them my AE files?

Thanks Bryon

[GarethOakes · Accepted solution]

A DITA map is just a map file, generally devoid of content as you are probably well aware the topics of information are linked in. Therefore sending a .ditamap file won't work.

Best bet is to package up your content by zipping up the contents (map + topics). If you are working from a CMS such as Windchill then I believe there is a way to download a map and all its dependent topics as a ZIP but don't know the menu clicks off the top of my head. You would have to do that via the Windchill web interface.

If you are in a CMS environment and thinking to extract everything via Arbortext, there are only two occasions where Arbortext brings everything together. First is when publishing (RDS = Resolved Document for Styling), or, if you use the Edit menu option to switch to the RDE (Resolved Documend for Editing). Not sure if RDE format would load into Framemaker directly, I suspect you would be best to stick with regular DITA maps/topics.

If you are planning to regularly exchange files with Framemaker then might be best to get them to work from the CMS or filesystem directly.

[bfriesen]

That is the info I think I am needing.

Thank you Gareth for your insight into this.

Bryon

[Pushpinder_Toor]

Just to add onto Gareth's answer, the option to zip up the DITA map and all the topics is available when you are using Windchill as the CMS. From within the Editor Browser, there is a menu option called "Export Compound Document". So this can be done Editor side fairly easily. There is currently no re-import mechanism (on our roadmap), bit it doesn't sound like that is part of the use case, only an export of map and topics. Hope this helps.

Regards.

Pushpinder.