Single-sourcing with PDF and xml file outputs
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:31 am
I want to single-source error message and corrective actions text for some industrial equipment to ensure they appear identically in:
1. The user manual (PDF)
2. The diagnostics manual (PDF)
3. Online help
4. The on-screen text file (probably xml) which will be given to a software engineer to incorporate into the machine control panel software
No. 4 is where I'm getting stuck. The software engineer expects a text file listing all the errors by code number, title, description, causes list, and corrective actions list, using xml tagging or similar.
I either need to get Flare to manage the text, creating the PDFs and help site as normal but ALSO outputting the text tagged in a custom way that his software can read. OR I can create the xml file using some other xml editor using only tags that the software engineer expects then somehow map those elements to snippets or tables in Flare. It depends which is easier - to consider the software-oriented text file as the master and import/map it onto parts of my Flare documents, or to consider the text in Flare as the master and somehow output it reformatted as a tagged text / xml output.
The structure for the xml file isn't defined, but it would look something like the following. Please pardon that it's not good xml. I'm a complete xml novice (as well as being a relatively new Flare user).
<ecode>E206</ecode>
<etitle>DOODAH INHIBITOR JAMMED ON</etitle>
<edescription>The primary arm of the doodah inhibitor has jammed in the on position</edescription>
<ecause>Primary arm joint seized</ecause>
<ecorrective>Grease the primary arm joint</ecause>
<ecause>Thingimjig trapped in primary arm mechanism</ecause>
<ecorrective>Using a trusty baseball bat, forceably remove any thingimjigs trapped in the primary arm mechanism</ecause>
Any ideas how to proceed?
1. The user manual (PDF)
2. The diagnostics manual (PDF)
3. Online help
4. The on-screen text file (probably xml) which will be given to a software engineer to incorporate into the machine control panel software
No. 4 is where I'm getting stuck. The software engineer expects a text file listing all the errors by code number, title, description, causes list, and corrective actions list, using xml tagging or similar.
I either need to get Flare to manage the text, creating the PDFs and help site as normal but ALSO outputting the text tagged in a custom way that his software can read. OR I can create the xml file using some other xml editor using only tags that the software engineer expects then somehow map those elements to snippets or tables in Flare. It depends which is easier - to consider the software-oriented text file as the master and import/map it onto parts of my Flare documents, or to consider the text in Flare as the master and somehow output it reformatted as a tagged text / xml output.
The structure for the xml file isn't defined, but it would look something like the following. Please pardon that it's not good xml. I'm a complete xml novice (as well as being a relatively new Flare user).
<ecode>E206</ecode>
<etitle>DOODAH INHIBITOR JAMMED ON</etitle>
<edescription>The primary arm of the doodah inhibitor has jammed in the on position</edescription>
<ecause>Primary arm joint seized</ecause>
<ecorrective>Grease the primary arm joint</ecause>
<ecause>Thingimjig trapped in primary arm mechanism</ecause>
<ecorrective>Using a trusty baseball bat, forceably remove any thingimjigs trapped in the primary arm mechanism</ecause>
Any ideas how to proceed?