XML Parser Message: Element series is not valid for the content model

Question

Hello,
I work with FrameMaker 8 and DITA.
I change the element prodinfo in the topic.edd from:
General rule: (prodname), (vrmlist), (brand | series | platform | prognum | featnum | component)*
to:
General rule: (brand | series | platform | component)*
When I import the element definition to the template everything is okay.
When I insert the elements metadata, prodinfo, brand, series, platform and component into a topic I get the XML Parser Message that the element brand is not valid for the content model (prodname,vrmlist, ((brand|series|platform|prognum|featnum|component))*).
When I delete the element brand in the topic I get the XML Parser Message that the element series is not valid for the content model (prodname,vrmlist, ((brand|series|platform|prognum|featnum|component))*).
I change the element prodinfo in the topic.edd to:
General rule: (brand)?, (series)?, (platform)?, (component)?
...and get the same Parser Message.
I do not understand that. Is not it allowed to change the EDD this way without changing the DTD?
With kind regards
Nina

Answer 1

Hi Nina...<br /><br />In general, the EDD and DTD need to sync up. You can remove elements from an EDD element definition's general rule, as long as the resulting elements are still valid to the DTD. But if changing a general rule creates an invalid structure, you'll need to also change the DTD to allow the revised structure.<br /><br />With DITA, it is common to remove inline elements from block-level elements. For example, you might want to remove the <msgblock>, <msgnum>, and <msgph> elements from the general rule of the <p> element .. this can be done easily in the EDD and the resulting structure remains valid with the DTD.<br /><br />However, what you're doing leaves the <brand> element as a child of <prodinfo> .. which is invalid. You'll get these errors when saving a file, since this is when the file is validated against the DTD.<br /><br />I do not recommend modifying the structure in such a way that requires you to modify the DTD. If you really need to do this, then you should consider making a specialization to support your revised model.<br /><br />I hope this helps.<br /><br />Cheers and Happy New Year!<br /><br />...scott