New User, DoD DTD Implementation Help Needed

[BillMartin]

I have been out of the XML authoring arena for a few years and, to say the least, I am struggling to get back up to speed. Your patience and any assistance are greatly appreciated!!

I am using Windows XP Pro and evaluating/using Oxygen Editor 12.1.

We received a technical manual XML file from a Department of Defense customer, based on a DoD (-2361) DTD and our task is to incorporate a change (revision). Along with the .xml file I received an FO (.fo) file, a .dss file, and a plethora of general entity (.gent) and graphic files. We are planning on using Oxygen as our XML Editor moving forward.
I am having difficulties understanding which style sheet to use, if the FO or DSS file needs to be converted and then how to apply it to the top-level document.

Also, there is a cascading string of entity declarations and I cannot figure out how to get them to “roll-up” into the top-level document. Can the XML file “pull in” the referenced entity and graphic files to expand them as one hierarchical, editable document? In the sample below the entity declarations contain more declarations themselves.

Having these instances supplied by another company, is it possible they are using a content management system that is pulling all of this data together?

This is a sample of what I have in the top-level document:

<!DOCTYPE production PUBLIC "-//USA-DOD//DTD MIL-STD-2361 TM Assembly REV D.10 20101110//EN" "../DTD/production.dtd">

<production>
<xml.manual>

<!--Front Matter-->
&FRNT-11-5820-890-13NP-9;
<!--INTRO
&R00001-INTRO-11-5820-890-13NP-9;-->
<!--PIM-->
&PIM-11-5820-890-13NP-9;
<!--PIM2-->
&PIM2-11-5820-890-13NP-9;
<!--PIM3-->
&PIM3-11-5820-890-13NP-9;
<!--Rear Matter-->

&REAR-11-5820-890-13NP-9;
</xml.manual>
</production>

Yes, I am way behind the power-curve regarding our saavy of XML techniques, but we are on a quick turn to get this back to the customer. I’ve been trying a crash course using the Oxygen supplied help files, but any additional guidance or references to lessons along these topics is truly appreciated!

[Radu]

Hi Bill,

It's probably best to ask for more details the DoD, but if you want my opinion as well:

.fo files usually are a type of XML called XSL-FO. This type of file can be understood by a PDF FO Processor which can output PDF based on it. Usually such files are output by applying XSLT stylsheets on the input XML files. So they are an output and not a file in which you would usually edit. If you open the .fo in Oxygen and choose to apply a FO to PDF transformation scenario to it you should obtain the PDF for example.

Their XML files seem to rely heavily on entity references and entity declaration.
Usually entity references are resolved by the XML parser and if you apply an XSLT stylesheet over the XML for example the stylesheet would see the XML file as resolved (with entity references expanded).
Is the XML file considered valid by Oxygen? If so, then the entity references can be correctly solved.
If you make a CSS file to style the XML, attach it to the XML document and switch to the Author page you should see all entity references expanded there. They will be not editable but you will be able to open the individual files where the entities have been declared.

Regards,
Radu

[BillMartin]

Hello, Radu,

Thank you so much for your reply and guidance! The DTD I am using was successfully parsed with Oxygen 11.

There is a style sheet reference as line 1 in the file. I suspect I should reqeust they send that file to me, correct?
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='../../stylesheets/2361-wp-body.xsl' ?>

The file is not valid in Oxygen, as there are many elements and entity references that have not been declared. I believe the element declaration erros are a result of the "parent" entity reference being missing, but I'm not sure how to properly declare them. I've tried a couple options in Oxygen, but am not having any luck.

Error Example:

&notices;
<a.requirement requirementident="1" requirementdatetime="2010-03-15T00:00Z" id="idRZ-TM-11-5820-890-13NP-9" idtoken="idtokenRQ-TM-11-5820-890-13NP-9" name="TB Development Requirement(s)"/>

Could you provide some guidance while I refer back to the help files and try to aquire the above style sheet?

You're help is so greatly appreciated! I feel like I've been spinning my wheels the last week.

Thank you again, Bill

[Radu]

Hi Bill,

The missing referenced XSLT stylesheet would only help you when transforming the XML to some other format (maybe FO?).

The referenced entities should definitely be declared someplace in the XML file like:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE production PUBLIC "-//USA-DOD//DTD MIL-STD-2361 TM Assembly REV D.10 20101110//EN" "../DTD/production.dtd"[

    <!ENTITY FRNT-11-5820-890-13NP-9 SYSTEM "path/to/entityDecl.mod">

]>

<production>

....................

Regards,
Radu