Has anyone used an XHTML Target to genericize Flare output?

[Phlawm53]

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For Flare 10 (and presumably beyond), XHTML Target type.

Has anyone made use of Flare's XHTML Target to produce output that was then readily converted into / assimilated into / exchanged with a standards-compliant XHTML Web site or the like?

Flare's authoring capabilities include features that are useful when developing content in a rapidly changing product development environment. But if one wants to then in essence export Flare content for re-use in a standards-compliant / non-proprietary Web site or the like, Flare's cool features become proprietary "stuff" embedded in the HTM files.

I imagine that one could perform certain steps within Flare to, among other things, convert variables and snippets to text, replace x-refs with hyperlinks, and so on. By so doing one would presumably be removing at least of some of Flare's proprietary hooks from the XHTML Target's output.

Has anyone attempted this? If yes, how well or poorly did it work?

If not XHTML, was there some other clever way to "genericize" Flare output such that the output could then be readily processed by non-proprietary processes or tools?

Cheers & thanks for your help,
Riley
SFO

[kwag_myers]

I'm not that familiar with XHTML, but I'm currently doing something like this with the DITA output, which is essentially XML. The downside is that I have to run a post-output VB Script to change the file extensions. Plus, Snippet files also have a .dita extension which cannot be changed without breaking their topic links. It's as close as I can get to a generic version.

[Phlawm53]

I'm not that familiar with XHTML, but I'm currently doing something like this with the DITA output…

Thanks for that thought — I'd forgotten about Flare's DITA Target. Perhaps because as an output parts of it are so un-DITA like.

I wish Flare had a better DITA story. But that's a conversation for another day. In the meantime a DITA Target may be the best choice. To be continued…

Cheers & thanks 'gain,
Riley