Re: [docbook-apps] Re: One TOC and one glossary for multiple docbook XML files

[Bob Stayton <bobs at sco dot com>]

On Fri, Apr 11, 2003 at 09:07:56AM +0200, Yan Bilik wrote:
> > From : Bob Stayton [mailto:bobs at sco dot com] 
> >
> > Since you are using olinks, you could use the olink targets
> > database to create a master table of contents.  One could
> > write an XSL stylesheet that generates a DocBook <toc>
> > with <tocentry> elements from the database, following the DocBook DTD
> > for <toc>.
> 
> Yes. The only problem is that the master target database does not have
> any information related to order of documents. It only describes the
> directories structure.

That's correct.

> Thus, without this knowledge of how documents must be chained (I mean:
> which XML should be the preface, which one the first chapter, etc...),
> the main TOC would have a structure that follows the directory
> structures, and not the chapters order...
> I miss something: a document that contains both information (which XML
> to proceed, their identifier, where to create the HTML, and how HTML
> should be ordered in the main TOC).
> Hum...

Yes, that structure doesn't exist in any of the documents,
nor in the olink database.  It is in your head, and must
be expressed somehow for a process to work with.  8^)

> I also thought about a main document which would include the other ones.
> A book, for example, with a structure like this one:
> 
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
> <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
> "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.0/docbookx.dtd";>
> <book id="onlyone" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude";>
>   <title>The main doc</title>
>   <xi:include href="xmldocs/doc1.xml" />
>   <xi:include href="xmldocs/doc2.xml" />
>   <xi:include href="xmldocs/doc3.xml" />
> </book>
> 
> But in such a case, I have two problems:
> - my original XML docs have sections with identifiers, and I do not know
> if this identifier is unique once merged into my main document. In fact,
> as many of my XML documents share the same internal structure, they do
> use the same sections identifiers.
> - the olinks would not work anymore.

Yes, those are real problems when trying to merge
independent documents.

One approach you might consider is authoring a skeleton
<toc> document that can be used to drive the generation
of the full <toc>.  The skeleton toc would capture the
structure you want for your separate documents, and use the
targetdoc attribute as the identifier for each document.
A stylesheet would open both the skeleton toc and the
target database.  It would process the skeleton toc as
the main document, and for each targetdoc it encounters,
it would extract the <div> element structure from the
correct <document> element in the target database, and
make tocentry elements for them.  That way you could
still use olinks in each tocentry.

I'm interested in helping develop such a stylesheet.
Could you send me (offlist) an example of 
your target database and a basic outline of how
you want the documents structured?

> I do not have any idea about the master glossary document. Should I
> write glossary entries directly inside it, with olinks ? Or should I
> collect local glossaries among my XML docs in order to build the master
> glossary ??

For the glossary, I can see lots of problems trying to
merge glossary entries.  What about repeated entries?
Or similar entries?  You should consider instead using
the glossary collection feature of DocBook.  That lets
you keep a central glossary database that your individual
documents can draw upon for terms.  Then you just need
to have a link to a rendered version of your glossary
collection file.  See the "Glossary database" section in:
http://www.sagehill.net/xml/docbookxsl/SolveProblems.html

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
The SCO Group                               fax:   (831) 429-1887
                                            email: bobs at sco dot com

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