Re: [doc] DITA files PDF output

Thanks Jean!  Here's my post from December 8 outlining
the process for creating a PDF of the Getting Started
Guide, using saxon, FOP, and the getting started guide
dita files.  I'll send Jean a copy of the PDF result
of this process to make available to everyone...

1.  Transform the dita files to one merged dita file
using the wacky topicmerge.xsl file.  The command I
used is:

saxon -o getstartmerge.ditamap -w1
"gettingstartedguide/getstartderby.ditamap"
"xsl/topicmerge.xsl"

Remember to have the xsl files from the dita package
available to saxon.

2.  Take the resulting merged dita file
(getstartmerge.ditamap) and move it to your FOP
install directory.  Make sure to also have the xsl
directory from the dita package in your FOP install
directory.  Finally, copy the gsconrefs.dita file to
the FOP install directory as well, as FOP will need to
refer to it to grab the names within it.

3.  Run the following command in FOP:

fop -xml getstartmerge.ditamap -xsl
xsl/dita2fo_shell.xsl -pdf getstart.pdf

This creates your PDF!  An ugly PDF, but a PDF
nonetheless.  I'd recommend creating batch files for
these commands as well to make things easy.

OK, so on to the issues.  Besides the issues I
mentioned previously in the html transforms, we have
additional issues in the PDF transform (note that the
parent-child linking issue is not as important in a
PDF, but would be nice to have, and will probably be
more crucial in the longer books).

1.  Cover page:  There is none.
2.  No Table of Contents
3.  None of the links work.  Links display topic id's
instead of the title of the linked topic.
4.  No index

--- "Jean T. Anderson" <jta-N3a1/uIFnjIFraO2wh7vUA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> For anyone who is inclined to fiddle, can you
> include some basic 
> instructions on how to produce a pdf, let's say for
> just the Getting 
> Started guide, using saxon and the default DITA xslt
> stylesheets as a 
> starting point? Are these style sheets included in
> any of the downloads 
> from http://incubator.apache.org/derby/manuals? 
> Also, maybe it would 
> help to post a pdf that exhibits the issues you and
> Scott discussed.
> 
>  -jean
> 
> 
> Jeff Levitt wrote:
> 
> >Another issue I was hoping to discuss is the PDF
> >output of the DITA files.  Scott Hutinger and I
> spent
> >some time using saxon and fop to create pdf's from
> the
> >dita, and we found that some of the issues we are
> >having with it can be worked around (for example, a
> >solution Scott found for the lack of a generated
> >index), but also some that we need more knowledge
> of
> >XSL to fix.  For example, when one page links to
> >another page, the link doesnt show the title of the
> >new page, it instead displays an id for the page,
> >which is jibberish.  Is there anyone out there that
> >knows XSL enough to be able to modify the DITA XSL
> >files so that they display information correctly? 
> >There are currently three books available on the
> Derby
> >Manuals page that are already in DITA, so if anyone
> >wants to work with them, they are already
> available.
> >  
> >
> 
> 
> 
>