Kate,
One option is to customize the DocBook DTD or schema. I happen to have
this handy because I did this already for our version of DocBook. In
this case, you'd create your own sybasebook.dtd variant of the DocBook
DTD containing the following:
<!ENTITY % docbook PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"path_to/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
%docbook;
<!ELEMENT formalpara (title, (%ndxterm.class;)*, para+ )>
<!-- End -->
The current DocBook xslts will probably render the formalparas with
multiple paras just fine, however you could also have a preprocessing
step that terms them back into legal DocBook formalparas before passing
the doc on to the DocBook xsls.
Longer term, you could submit an RFE or look at the topic element that
Scott mentioned (I'm not current on that discussion).
David
________________________________
From: kate.wri...@sybase.com [mailto:kate.wri...@sybase.com]
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 8:17 AM
To: Dave Pawson
Cc: David Cramer; docbook@lists.oasis-open.org; Jirka Kosek;
Scott Hudson
Subject: Re: [docbook] Why do formalparas only allow one para?
What we need is a free-floating container element that takes a
title and allows other block elements (e.g, indexterms, paras, lists,
etc.,) within it.
We want a container element because it is useful for reuse and
relocation of content. We want the element to be free-floating because
we need to be able
to put the element anywhere and have other content elements
follow it (including itself).
The problem with bridgeheads is that they are just titles and
you can't show the relationship between the title and the content that
follows it. To xinclude you'd have
xinclude the bridgehead as well as each element that follows. We
would prefer to have one container element that you could put an ID on
and be able to conditionalize it and/or xinclude it.
We actually have two cases where we need free-floating container
elements with titles:
1) One where the title is not inline -- this element would be
akin to simplesect if simplesect was not non-floating.
2) One where the title is inline -- this element would be akin
to formalpara if formalpara allowed you to have more than one para and
allowed other block elements.
Currently for 1) we use sidebars instead of bridgeheads because
we needed a sub-section-level container element with a title, that
could be used anywhere and multiple times within a section.
Simplesect, because it is non-floating, did not meet our
requirements.
We are looking for a solution for 2) because formalparas do not
meet our needs, but they are the best alternative we have right now.
Thanks again,
Kate
Dave Pawson <da...@dpawson.co.uk>
07/24/2009 12:25 AM
To
David Cramer <dcra...@motive.com>
cc
Scott Hudson <scott.hud...@flatironssolutions.com>,
kate.wri...@sybase.com, Jirka Kosek <ji...@kosek.cz>,
docbook@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject
Re: [docbook] Why do formalparas only allow one para?
Why not use a bridgehead and multiple paras?
formalpara is singular? Hence one para?
regards
--
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk
