Frank Peters wrote:
First step is to map Docbook elements to ODF elements or ODF styles.
This can be a tedious task, since Docbook knows so many elements that
need to be mapped to ODF (mostly using styles).
Then create two xsl transformation stylesheets that do the mapping
on import and export.
Then create a template that assigns visual formats to the element
styles.
Although you can be sure to output well-formed xml (otherwise
the transformation would break) you cannot be sure that the
output is also valid Docbook (following the syntactical rules
of Docbook).
You could, however, implement validation using the OOo API but
that can be complicated and would essentially be programming
a Docbook DTD parser in Basic...
So since Docbook is so profuse, using OOo for this XML DTD would
be an ultimate challenge. If you can restrict usage to a limited
subset that would make things easier.
For the application help, the DTD is *much* simpler than Docbook
so the implementation of OOo as XML editor is much more straightforward.
Finally, complexity depends on whether you want round-tripping
or are fine with Docbook export only.
It seems that the OOo XML project(s) is/are low activity. Just what is
expected to be developed wrt XML and any probable timeline?
--
Gary Schnabl
2775 Honorah
Detroit MI 48209
(734) 245-3324
