How do I pull in content from separate files to generate one RTF doc?

[mgoradia]

Hi,
I recently started working on Documentum with XMetal. We're trying to figure out if XMetal can help us create RTF documents with custom templates. Also, if it has the ability to pull content from several different content files (DITA topic XML chunks) to create one RTF file.

I understand that we can create our own XSL templates but I don't know how to reference content that resides in a seperate file.

So for example, we need to create an Article, but the header, body, images and abstract are stored in separate files (XML content chunks). While in the Article template I want the ability to pull in each of the content chunks and generate a one final RTF document.

Does XMetal support this type of referening or functionality?

Thanks in advance for your help and responses,
Mehul

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[Derek Read]

I'm not sure, but it sounds to me like the missing piece here is that you do not have a DITA Map. That is the primary method DITA uses for this, though the model you are looking for would not really be covered by that. To support what you describe will probably require the use of DITA conref.

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[mgoradia]

I'm not sure, but it sounds to me like the missing piece here is that you do not have a DITA Map. That is the primary method DITA uses for this, though the model you are looking for would not really be covered by that. To support what you describe will probably require the use of DITA conref.

Derek,
Thanks for responding. I have also created a DITA Map which references 4 topics, but when I generate a RTF document from the map, it outputs the topics in a linear fashion starting with Topic1 to Topic 4.

What I am looking for is a way to customize the output so that Topic1 is the header, Topic2 and Topic3 are part of the body and Topic4 is the footer. Does XMetal provide such customization? If so, where can I find information on how to go about customizing similar templates?

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[Derek Read]

XMetaL does not support this because it uses the DITA Open Toolkit to generate output from DITA topics and maps and the DITA OT does not support this (in any direct way that I can think of).

What you are looking for would require making modifications to the DITA OT. You may wish to raise this topic on the following board which is frequented by heavy users (and customizers) of the DITA OT: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/

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