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Can OxygenXML be a solution for Research and Testing Reports?

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 5:06 pm
by DavidRogers8
I am the senior software developer at a company that tests electronic circuit boards and electronic components.
From my test software application I want to pro-grammatically be able to create a MarkDown file that would be a raw test report.
Note: Currently thousands of test reports pro-grammatically generated per month.

The raw test reports needs to contain individual data tables and has links to JPEG images.
If possible I want to be able to import this file into oxygenXML so I can produce PDF's, HTML and some type of file that is editable in Word.

I would like to use markdown syntax because the average person can easily understand it and the file can be easily be archived in a database.

I am exploring what mixture of Open source software (DITA Open Source) and inexpensive off the shelf solutions that is easy to learn.

Is oxygenXML a viable solution and what would be the process flow to accomplish my goals?
Note: I currently can pro-grammatically create AsciiDoc files but I don't see this as a solution that will be around in the future.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated, Thank You Much
Dave Rogers

Re: Can OxygenXML be a solution for Research and Testing Reports?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:36 am
by Radu
Hi Dave,

One option is to batch convert your Markdown files to other formats like HTML or DITA. We have a free add-on for Oxygen which does that:

https://github.com/oxygenxml/oxygen-resources-converter

Once you convert a Markdown file to a DITA topic you can use the predefined support in Oxygen to publish the topic to PDF or RTF (which can be later opened in MS Word).

Another approach is to create a DITA Map (a file called for example "test.ditamap") which has references to your Markdown file (or files). It's contents would look like this:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd">
<map>
<title>All My Markdown files</title>
<topicref href="topics/test1.md" format="markdown"/>
<topicref href="topics/test2.md" format="markdown"/>
.....
</map>
Once you open such a DITA Map in Oxygen in the "DITA Maps Manager" view, there is a "Configure Transformation Scenario(s)" button which will allow you to publish to PDF or HTML-based outputs. The publishing engine (DITA Open Toolkit) will automatically convert the Markdown files to DITA during the publishing process using some temporary folders).

Regards,
Radu

Re: Can OxygenXML be a solution for Research and Testing Reports?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:32 pm
by DavidRogers8
Radu, thank you for the good information.

How do I include JPEG files in an automated fashion.

I think I saw that oXygen uses CommonMark as one of the types of import files.
I am not familiar with that flavor of markdown.
I know many of the simple MD's do not support the ability to import images like AsciiDoc does.

Please show an example on how I can import a large number of JPEG files with your suggested work flow.

Secondary Question:
I looked through the urls you suggested, thank you much.
Since I use both Linux and Windows, I use MySQL database server for data storage, I might have overlooked it but didn't see MySQL mentioned as one of the types of databases oXygen can connect to, can it?

Dave Rogers

Re: Can OxygenXML be a solution for Research and Testing Reports?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:58 pm
by DavidRogers8
Thank You Radu,

How do I include JPEG files?
Not familiar with CommonMark does that flavor of markdown allow inclusion of image files?

Second Question:
I see oXygen list several databases it can talk to but I did see MySQL, does it?

Note: I replied earlier and edited it but don't see the reply so I am sending it a second time.

Thank You for your time and answers

Dave Rogers
Native Language: C
Software Engineer 41+yrs

Re: Can OxygenXML be a solution for Research and Testing Reports?

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 9:07 am
by Radu
Hello Dave,

Please see some answers below:
How do I include JPEG files?
Not familiar with CommonMark does that flavor of markdown allow inclusion of image files?
You can refer to images inside the Markdown content like this:

Code: Select all

![../flowers/images/Gardeniaflower.jpg](../flowers/images/Gardeniaflower.jpg)
https://commonmark.org/help/tutorial/08-images.html
Second Question:
I see oXygen list several databases it can talk to but I did see MySQL, does it?
Yes, Oxygen can connect to a MySQL server:

https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... mysql.html

Depending on the version of database you are using the JDBC drivers for MySQL listed on our page might be a little bit old though, but you can download MySQL JDBC drivers directly from them.

After configuring such a connection you should be able to view all tables in the "Datasource Explorer" view and also to import database tables as XML:

https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... o-xml.html
Note: I replied earlier and edited it but don't see the reply so I am sending it a second time.
As you are new to our forum, your user account is in a state in which it needs manual approval. But after a few more posts you'll probably be automatically marked as a verified user.

Regards,
Radu