Profiling condition sets in Author view don't match OT outpu

[pmackey]

I defined profile attribute values and profile condition sets in a project file. When applying the condition sets in Author view I noticed that elements aren't correctly displayed (e.g. greyed out content indicating exclusion wasn't always accurate). Simple cases work correctly when only one attribute is used (e.g. product), but when more than one attribute is used (e.g. product and otherprops) elements are only removed based on one attribute's values, not both.

A simple test: a 2x2 table with each cell conditioned as a matrix of
rows: product1, product2
columns: prop1, prop2
(DITA simpletable source implementation below)

Create a profiling condition set including product1 and prop2 and apply it to the table in Author view mode.

<simpletable frame="all">
<strow>
<stentry/>
<stentry>prop1</stentry>
<stentry>prop2</stentry>
</strow>
<strow>
<stentry>product1</stentry>
<stentry otherprops="prop1" product="product1"/>
<stentry otherprops="prop2" product="product1"/>
</strow>
<strow>
<stentry>product2</stentry>
<stentry otherprops="prop1" product="product2"/>
<stentry otherprops="prop2" product="product2"/>
</strow>
</simpletable>

[Radu]

Hi,

Tough one because in the end it all depends on how the DITA VAL file is constructed.
For example in Oxygen if you decide to construct a condition set checking the product1 and prop2 checkboxes and you use it for transformation Oxygen will create for this a DITAVAL file like:

Code: Select all

<val>

    <prop action="exclude" att="otherprops"/>

    <prop action="include" att="otherprops" val="prop2"/>

    <prop action="exclude" att="product"/>

    <prop action="include" att="product" val="product1"/>

</val>

When transformed to XHTML, the table renders only cell product1 + prop2.
When applied in Oxygen the Author page also shows the product2 + prop2 cell as appearing in the output, behavior which I consider as incorrect and which we should probably fix.

You seem to want something like: if an XML element has two filtering attributes, one which says <include_me> and the other which says <exclude_me> you would like the element to appear in the output.

How would you build your DITAVAL filter file to allow for this? I'm having trouble constructing such a filter. From what I think, this cannot be done using DITAVAL processing.

Regards,
Radu

[pmackey]

Radu,
Thanks for the prompt response. I probably should have been more specific about the mismatch in my prior post. All I'm looking for is the screen view in Author mode to match the OT profiling behavior: "If any one attribute (product, platform, audience, rev, or otherprops) has all values set to exclude then exclude the element."

The following from your previous post confirms my belief the author view is in error relative to the expected OT output:

When transformed to XHTML, the table renders only cell product1 + prop2.
When applied in Oxygen the Author page also shows the product2 + prop2 cell as appearing in the output, behavior which I consider as incorrect and which we should probably fix.

Do I need to formally file this elsewhere as a bug? If not, you've answered my question and I look forward to an update. Thanks.

[Radu]

Hi,

The bug is already filed in.
We'll try to fix this in time for Oxygen 12.1 (in a couple of weeks) and I'll update the post when the fix is done.

Regards,
Radu

[pmackey]

One note on a related find, table rows aren't indicated as having select attribute values applied or affected by profile condition sets applied in the author view.

Code: Select all

<simpletable>

        <strow product="prod1">

          <stentry>stuff1</stentry>

          <stentry>stuff2</stentry>

        </strow>

</simpletable>

The row isn't indicated with product[prod1] and isn't grayed out when it should be excluded via a profile condition set. This works with both the table/simpletable and entry/stentry elements, but not with the row/strow elements.

[Radu]

Hi,

I'll add a new issue for the table row filtering issue.
Indeed the cells should be grayed out in this case.
But we need additional architecture changes to also render the profiling attributes at the row start. We'll also consider this one.

Thanks for the valuable feedback.

Regards,
Radu

[Radu]

Hi,

So in Oxygen 12.1 (available in a couple of weeks) you should find almost all the issues fixed. The only thing which was not addressed in 12.1 is the ability to render/show profiling conditions which are applied to table rows. Maybe we'll be able to achieve this in a future version.

Regards,
Radu

[pmackey]

Thanks Radu,
Very quick turnaround! I did notice that the tgroup element (only available in tables not simpletables) does gray out appropriately according to the profiling set chosen, but it does not indicate the applied select attribute values in the green background.

Sorry these are trickling in, but maybe this can also be addressed at the same time as the row item. I'm in the process of converting content to DITA so I'm just discovering these as I come across them. I believe this new functionality will greatly ease the transition for authors from FrameMaker to DITA because it provides real-time capability to see filtered output like Frame with conditional text and show/hide settings.

[Radu]

Hi Paul,

I also added this improvement on our TODO list.
Conditional processing is new in Oxygen and it definitely helps having valuable feedback for it.

Regards,
Radu