Hi Alan,
This customization pretty much does what you want. It turns out I didn't have
to change the book template, only the way the chapters were handled. I copied
match="chapter" template from fo/component.xsl, and changed the match on it to
only match on the first chapter in a sequence: "chapter[1]". That chapter
forms the page-sequence, formats its content, and then processes the
following-sibling chapters within the same page sequence, but in a new
mode="chapter.merge".
The chapter.merge template skips all the page-sequence stuff and just processes
the chapter content. I had to define an empty template to match on these other
chapters in the default mode so that they were not processed twice.
The result should be a single-page sequence containing all the chapter content.
<xsl:template match="chapter[1]" priority="1">
<xsl:variable name="id">
<xsl:call-template name="object.id"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="master-reference">
<xsl:call-template name="select.pagemaster"/>
</xsl:variable>
<fo:page-sequence hyphenate="{$hyphenate}"
master-reference="{$master-reference}">
<xsl:attribute name="language">
<xsl:call-template name="l10n.language"/>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="format">
<xsl:call-template name="page.number.format">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference" select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="initial-page-number">
<xsl:call-template name="initial.page.number">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference" select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="force-page-count">
<xsl:call-template name="force.page.count">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference" select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="hyphenation-character">
<xsl:call-template name="gentext">
<xsl:with-param name="key" select="'hyphenation-character'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="hyphenation-push-character-count">
<xsl:call-template name="gentext">
<xsl:with-param name="key" select="'hyphenation-push-character-count'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute name="hyphenation-remain-character-count">
<xsl:call-template name="gentext">
<xsl:with-param name="key"
select="'hyphenation-remain-character-count'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="running.head.mode">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference" select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
<xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="running.foot.mode">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference" select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
<fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
<xsl:call-template name="set.flow.properties">
<xsl:with-param name="element" select="local-name(.)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference" select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<fo:block id="{$id}"
xsl:use-attribute-sets="component.titlepage.properties">
<xsl:call-template name="chapter.titlepage"/>
</fo:block>
<xsl:variable name="toc.params">
<xsl:call-template name="find.path.params">
<xsl:with-param name="table" select="normalize-space($generate.toc)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:if test="contains($toc.params, 'toc')">
<xsl:call-template name="component.toc">
<xsl:with-param name="toc.title.p"
select="contains($toc.params, 'title')"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template name="component.toc.separator"/>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::chapter"
mode="chapter.merge"/>
</fo:flow>
</fo:page-sequence>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="chapter" />
<xsl:template match="chapter" mode="chapter.merge">
<xsl:variable name="id">
<xsl:call-template name="object.id"/>
</xsl:variable>
<fo:block id="{$id}"
xsl:use-attribute-sets="component.titlepage.properties">
<xsl:call-template name="chapter.titlepage"/>
</fo:block>
<xsl:variable name="toc.params">
<xsl:call-template name="find.path.params">
<xsl:with-param name="table" select="normalize-space($generate.toc)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:if test="contains($toc.params, 'toc')">
<xsl:call-template name="component.toc">
<xsl:with-param name="toc.title.p"
select="contains($toc.params, 'title')"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template name="component.toc.separator"/>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Oehler
To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:47 AM
Subject: [docbook-apps] Page breaks at chapters
I've been trying to get a book to have no page breaks before chapters in the
PDF output. Bob Stayton offered the advice that "a chapter element generates a
page-sequence in FO output, and a page sequence always starts on a new page.
If you want to use book and chapter, you'll need to customize both templates so
that book generates a page-sequence for all your content, and chapter does not."
I took a look at the book and chapter templates but it was a bit murky to me
how they generate page sequences and how to accomplish what Bob suggests. Does
anyone have any further clarification that they can offer?
Thanks in advance,
Alan
Alan C. Oehler
Sr. Technical Writer
Citrix Systems, Inc.
Virtualization & Management Division
