473,467 Members | 1,587 Online
Bytes | Software Development & Data Engineering Community
Create Post

Home Posts Topics Members FAQ

Docbook: generic technical document published for multiple clients

Hi,

Our company provides ASP services to multiple government agencies. These
agencies in turn provide our ASP services to the general public through
their web portals. As part of our service we need to provide end-user
documentation for the general public to use our ASP tools, providing
really simple to understand step-by-step instruction with lots and lots
of picture examples.

As part of my project to create this documentation, I managed to stumble
across Docbook, and it looks like a great way for us to maintain our end-
user docs.

My last remaining obstacle to overcome however is this:

We have several different government agencies as clients. Each agency
would like to have the end-user documentation customized to refer to
their agency specifically. Example: if both the City of Anaheim City
Clerk's office is our client and the Santa Clara County Registrar of
Voters is also our client, then my documentation would need to change
from this

"For more information, contact the City Clerk's office at 909-555-1212
during our normal business hours from 8AM to 5PM"

to

"For more information, contact the Registrar of Voter's office at 408-
555-1212 during our normal business hours from 9AM to 5PM"

For the vast majority of the documentation, the content of the document
will be identical, but for small sections, I will need to substitute
content specific to a particular government agency.

I have considered building a XSL stylesheet that does nothing more than
taking a single "master" docbook instance, and producing subsidiary
output docbook instances, one for each of our agency clients, then using
the "normal Docbook" html and PDF output stylesheets to generate the
final output(s) for each agency.

Does this sound reasonable? Is there some other more obvious way to
customize docbook documents? Is there a way to use replaceable
"parameters" within a docbook instance? This is where my lack of XSL
knowledge really hurts...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Best Regards,

David Montgomery
Jul 20 '05 #1
1 1704
David Montgomery wrote:
Hi,

Our company provides ASP services to multiple government agencies. These
agencies in turn provide our ASP services to the general public through
their web portals. As part of our service we need to provide end-user
documentation for the general public to use our ASP tools, providing
really simple to understand step-by-step instruction with lots and lots
of picture examples.

As part of my project to create this documentation, I managed to stumble
across Docbook, and it looks like a great way for us to maintain our end-
user docs.

My last remaining obstacle to overcome however is this:

We have several different government agencies as clients. Each agency
would like to have the end-user documentation customized to refer to
their agency specifically. Example: if both the City of Anaheim City
Clerk's office is our client and the Santa Clara County Registrar of
Voters is also our client, then my documentation would need to change
from this

"For more information, contact the City Clerk's office at 909-555-1212
during our normal business hours from 8AM to 5PM"

to

"For more information, contact the Registrar of Voter's office at 408-
555-1212 during our normal business hours from 9AM to 5PM"

For the vast majority of the documentation, the content of the document
will be identical, but for small sections, I will need to substitute
content specific to a particular government agency.
These are known as "effectivities", and are usually handled in DocBook
with the attributes arch, condition, conformance, os, revision, security,
userlevel, and vendor. You can add your own if you need, making a
declaration in the local.effectivity.attrib parameter entity, eg

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE article SYSTEM "/dtds/docbook/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % local.effectivity.attrib "agency ENTITIES #IMPLIED">
<!NOTATION text SYSTEM "plaintext">
<!ENTITY anaheim SYSTEM "ana.txt" NDATA text>
<!ENTITY santa-clara SYSTEM "sc.txt" NDATA text>
]>
<article>
<para agency="anaheim santa-clara"></para>
</article>

Making the values ENTITIES ensures (by validation) that only predefined
values can be used.

Your XSLT stylesheet can now access these values in processing, and
make suitable variations to the output.
I have considered building a XSL stylesheet that does nothing more than
taking a single "master" docbook instance, and producing subsidiary
output docbook instances, one for each of our agency clients, then using
the "normal Docbook" html and PDF output stylesheets to generate the
final output(s) for each agency.


The above method automates the process and lets you use a single XSL[T]
stylesheet for any of the document types.

///Peter
--
"The cat in the box is both a wave and a particle"
-- Terry Pratchett, introducing quantum physics in _The Authentic Cat_
Jul 20 '05 #2

This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion.

Similar topics

1
by: David Winter | last post by:
(Sorry - couldn't find a generic DocBook NG - I hope this is close enough.) I'm considering moving my documentation and translation business - which is currently done in proprietary formats such...
3
by: Dr. Laurence Leff | last post by:
I am having trouble doing the basics with xmlto on Redhat to convert DocBook XML into the various files. I believe the problem is the first line on the files: Here is starter file (notes.xml):...
3
by: ZJT | last post by:
What are the ways and corresponding tools to transform a docbook document to a pdf document? Thanks a lot!
0
by: b | last post by:
When I create chm with docbook I have most of the pages on one file. So, when I search for "Linux" page begins with "Sample HTML" .... I get the page with several pages in one. Can this be...
2
by: Yarco | last post by:
I'm learning for docbook under win32. I download: openjade-1_3_1-2-bin docbook-xml-4.4 docbook-dsssl-1.79 ldp.dsl And then copy all openjade bin\ to win32 system\, and then create a directory...
7
by: mike p. | last post by:
I have a docbook xml file, and am using standard docbook 1.61.3 xsl stylesheets to do xhtml transform. Transform works fine when using MSXML. When I try to do the following using asp.net 1.1: ...
3
by: Otmar Ganahl | last post by:
Hi! In my application I transform a docbook file to a html view using the webcontrol "Xml" (with a xsl).It works fine, except the using of the tag "fileref" in the docbook-file will cause an...
1
by: Will Parsons | last post by:
I am trying to get started with using Docbook/xml using free tools and am stymied in generating printable documentation from even the simplest source. I have attempted to generate a PDF using...
2
by: Joseph Kesselman | last post by:
Since the recent "Docbook on Windows" question brought this up... I did a bit of checking on the current status of these schemas, what they're intended for and how they interrelate. IBM's Robert...
0
by: Hystou | last post by:
There are some requirements for setting up RAID: 1. The motherboard and BIOS support RAID configuration. 2. The motherboard has 2 or more available SATA protocol SSD/HDD slots (including MSATA, M.2...
0
marktang
by: marktang | last post by:
ONU (Optical Network Unit) is one of the key components for providing high-speed Internet services. Its primary function is to act as an endpoint device located at the user's premises. However,...
0
by: Hystou | last post by:
Most computers default to English, but sometimes we require a different language, especially when relocating. Forgot to request a specific language before your computer shipped? No problem! You can...
0
Oralloy
by: Oralloy | last post by:
Hello folks, I am unable to find appropriate documentation on the type promotion of bit-fields when using the generalised comparison operator "<=>". The problem is that using the GNU compilers,...
0
jinu1996
by: jinu1996 | last post by:
In today's digital age, having a compelling online presence is paramount for businesses aiming to thrive in a competitive landscape. At the heart of this digital strategy lies an intricately woven...
1
by: Hystou | last post by:
Overview: Windows 11 and 10 have less user interface control over operating system update behaviour than previous versions of Windows. In Windows 11 and 10, there is no way to turn off the Windows...
0
tracyyun
by: tracyyun | last post by:
Dear forum friends, With the development of smart home technology, a variety of wireless communication protocols have appeared on the market, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Each...
0
by: conductexam | last post by:
I have .net C# application in which I am extracting data from word file and save it in database particularly. To store word all data as it is I am converting the whole word file firstly in HTML and...
0
by: 6302768590 | last post by:
Hai team i want code for transfer the data from one system to another through IP address by using C# our system has to for every 5mins then we have to update the data what the data is updated ...

By using Bytes.com and it's services, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

To disable or enable advertisements and analytics tracking please visit the manage ads & tracking page.