Conref a table row

[Verner]

Hi
We are using XMETAL 9.0.0.053 and SDL Publication manager 11.1.1.
I would like to conref table rows. I can only conref a whole table. Our system manager tells me that this does not work with XMETAL.
is this correct? Will it work with a newer version of XMETAL?

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[Derek Read]

Is this in reference to DITA documents? If not, ignore the following (we will then also need more detail).

I'm not sure about the requirements that come from the SDL side, but XMetaL Author Enterprise 9.0.0.053 does allow you to do this. The resulting DITA is valid so if there is some additional requirement coming from the SDL side that would not allow this I'm not sure what that would be. I think SDL has their own non-DITA method of reuse, so that might be in conflict somehow. Hopefully they can give you more detail.

If the row you want to conref to (the target) has an @id set on it you can select “Insert Element with Content Reference” from the Reuse menu and you will see that id value listed. I am attaching a screenshot of what you should see as the end result.
In this case:
a) The first row in the table has an @id set on the row element.
b) The last row in the table has @conref set to point to that id value. This was inserted using “Insert Element with Content Reference” and selecting the @id for the row listed in that dialog. As with any other conref it is displayed with a grey background indicating that its content cannot be modified directly.

In this example both the conref target and source are in the same file. This is only to make a single screenshot possible for this forum post. As with any other DITA conref the target and source can be in different files.

If you update the content in the first row of this table then select “Refresh References” (F11) the last row will update to match. The “Show Local Content” and other options related to conref and reuse are all applicable as well.

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[Verner]

It turns out that I can only do this in plain text mode.

If I use “Insert Element with Content Reference” I can only insert the entire table.
See the attachment. SDL does not seem to support this for XMETAL.

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[Derek Read]

Your screenshot shows something external to the XMetaL Author Enterprise UI that would be provided by SDL. If you must use it to create DITA conrefs you will have to deal with whatever requirements or limitations that system has.

I'm not sure why you would be forced to use Plain Text view but presumably that means SDL is disabling or modifying the built-in functions provided for conrefs (and perhaps other things) on the Reuse menu or that their system has additional requirements or limitations from the standard DITA markup. I can think of no reason that you could not still use the Attribute Inspector however. You can modify @id and @conref values there as well. Perhaps it seems easier to use Plain Text view as you are happy editing XML markup directly.

I would urge you to check with SDL to see if their system has done this for a reason. If these limitations are put there on purpose then bypassing them by creating DITA conref markup via other means (Plain Text or whatever) may not be a good thing for the SDL system. It is also possible that their system can handle DITA conrefs but that if you use them then you cannot take advantage of some other feature that SDL provides that is incompatible.

It would also be good to check with them in case these are limitations so that they are aware of them and can addess them in a future release, or in case they have already addressed them in a version of their software that is compatible with the current release of XMetaL Author Enterprise (currently version 11 and soon to be 12).

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