[docbook] Best practices for external entity references?

["Chris Johnson" <cjohnson at capcollege dot bc dot ca>]

Hi,

I am assembling the portions of a modular docBook document, and was
wondering if here are any resources for best practices for using entity
references. 

Each section file (meaning the root element is a <section> element)
will reference one or more outcomes, course lists, and / or general
entities, and I would like to manage these entities as centrally as
possible.

I have Elliotte Harold's XML Bible and have googled this topic, and
have  come up with two possibilities:

1) Use an 'index' file to point to other files that contain the actual
entity references:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE section PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd";
[
<!ENTITY % ENT_INDEX SYSTEM "../entities/entity_index.dtd">
%ENT_INDEX;
]>

2) Refer to each external parameter entity as required:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE section PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd";
[
<!ENTITY % GENERAL SYSTEM "../entities/general.dtd">
%GENERAL;
<!ENTITY % OUTCOMES SYSTEM "../entities/outcomes.dtd">
%OUTCOMES;
<!ENTITY % COURSELISTS SYSTEM "../entities/courselists.dtd">
%COURSELISTS;
]>

Any thoughts on 1) vs. 2), or on this method in general? I'm leaning
towards 1), as I can then add other entity sets if needed to
entity_index.dtd. Also, are there any gotchas regarding addressing
(relative / absolute / fully resolved)? Should I be looking at using
Catalogs?

I have attached copies of the entity files, and I look forward to your
feedback.

TIA,

Chris


Chris Johnson

Web Developer
Capilano College
North Vancouver, Canada

604.986.1911 ext. 3455
cjohnson@capcollege.bc.ca


%GENERAL;

%OUTCOMES;

%COURSELISTS;



To unsubscribe from this list, send a post to docbook-unsubscribe@lists.oasis-open.org, or visit http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/.