Change Bars Show in Single Topic Output but not in Map Output

[bzebian]

I added code to the xm_commons_mod.xsl file that, when it encounters a processing-instruction('xm-insertion_mark_start'), generates change bars in the topic's PDF output. This works fine when I generate PDF3 for a topic, but not when I generate PDF3 for a map.  I'm thinking of two possibilities:

– Does topicmerge (or some other map processing) strip out PIs from topics?
– Does map generation use a different file than xm_commons_mod.xsl?

This is with XMetaL 5.1, PDF3 output.

Thanks.

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[Derek Read]

I believe the DITA OT does remove processing instructions during the topicmerge step, and that would be the issue here. We had a request previously (it may have been a Professional Services engagement) to implement the feature you want and found that it was impossible to do so for this reason.

If I remember correctly, there is a bug filed with the OT at SourceForge for this (can't remember if it was by me or if I just read it).

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[bzebian]

I found several related bugs @ SourceForge.

[url=http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1647950&group_id=132728&atid=725074]http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1647950&group_id=132728&atid=725074[/url]. Fixed in Branch:B_REL1-4 in June 07.

[url=http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1893234&group_id=132728&atid=725074]http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1893234&group_id=132728&atid=725074[/url]. Fixed in 2008-02-18.

[url=http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1864247&group_id=132728&atid=725074]http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1864247&group_id=132728&atid=725074[/url]. Fixed B_MT1-4-2 branch 04/09.

Assuming that the last two would not be in OT version released with 5.1. Maybe an OT upgrade will fix?  Thanks.

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[Derek Read]

The version of the DITA OT we include with XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0 (DITA OT version 1.4.2.1) still has this limitation (as does the version we included with 5.1 and 5.5 which was 1.4.1).

Processing Instructions (all PIs in general, not just those used for XMetaL's Change Tracking) are inside the *_MERGED_intermed.xml file but gone by the time *_MERGED.xml has been created. The *_MERGED.xml file is created by the DITA OT and used by it as input to generate the FO and it the FO creation part of the process you are altering when you change the XSLT files (ie: it's too late by then as the PIs are already gone).

I assume this means these fix(es) must be included in one of the 1.5.x releases of the DITA OT, for which we currently do not have an integration yet.

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