VRM element without modification number

Post here questions and problems related to editing and publishing DITA content.
ZertFlo
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:51 pm

VRM element without modification number

Post by ZertFlo »

Hi there,
In our product manual we use VRM to display the product version. In the future we would like to change it and display only version and release number. Is there a possibility to adjust the VRM element and „cut“ off the modification number?

The result should be to displayed in PDF and webhelp.
VRM_oxygen.png
VRM_oxygen.png (16.18 KiB) Viewed 1102 times
version_pdf.png
version_pdf.png (4.86 KiB) Viewed 1102 times
version_webhelp.png
version_webhelp.png (8.13 KiB) Viewed 1102 times

Enter [Empty] in the modification attribute is not an option.
Customize HTML and XSL files to hide the modification number is not an option

Any help or idea is appreciated!

Regards
Flo
Costin
Posts: 829
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:04 pm

Re: VRM element without modification number

Post by Costin »

Hi,

Do you need to remove the form control that presents the "modification" versioning element from editing (while working on the document in the visual Author editing mode from Oxygen)?

Out of the box, neither the WebHelp Responsive, nor the PDF based on HTML and CSS transformation scenarios do not process those versioning elements so it is not transferred into the resulted output.
Most probably, that could be achieved through a customization of your own.
If you already have that content in the output, probably you are already have a customization and, as we do not have access to the customization details, unfortunately we could not help much with it, so we suggest addressing this request to the person that performed the customization that you are using.

Regards,
Costin
Costin Sandoi
oXygen XML Editor and Author Support
ZertFlo
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:51 pm

Re: VRM element without modification number

Post by ZertFlo »

Hi Costin,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I´m only as interim responsible for our documentation. Our technical writer left the company. So I´m not able to contact the person that performed the customization. I only had a short introduction to oxygen and our processes. I can change text, generate a new doc version and add new chapters.

Now the requirement is to display only version and release number. And I´m looking for a solution, I´m open to any approach. To adjust the VRM element was my first intension. But it´s not that simple I guess.

At the moment I use the following workaround:
main element of my ditamap file -> switch from Author view to Text view -> remove the modification part in XML structure
vrm_xml.png
vrm_xml.png (65.49 KiB) Viewed 1022 times
AND
in the file front-matter.xsl -> comment out the modification value and the dot (between release and modification number)
front_matter.png
front_matter.png (82.41 KiB) Viewed 1022 times


I think there should be a smarter solution.
julien_lacour
Posts: 495
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:47 pm

Re: VRM element without modification number

Post by julien_lacour »

Hello,

The best solution in these cases in to create a custom PDF plugin for DITA-OT, you can find some details here: https://www.dita-ot.org/3.6/topics/pdf- ... ugins.html together with an example (https://www.dita-ot.org/3.6/topics/pdf- ... ample.html).

The plugin will contains an XSL style-sheet with the "createFrontMatter_1.0" template copied from front-matter.xsl. The only difference will be that you will remove the <xsl:text> and $productModification from "theParameters" declaration as you did.

The advantage of this method is that you did not modify the original file, so if you upgrade Oxygen or DITA-OT you will be sure the transformation will still work.

If you still have problems to create the plugin, you can address your questions to the different DITA Users Groups listed here: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/dita ... urces.html

Regards,
Julien
ZertFlo
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:51 pm

Re: VRM element without modification number

Post by ZertFlo »

Hi Julien,

Thanks for your suggestion! This sounds good to me. I will try it in the next days.


Regrads,
Flo
Post Reply