FM Variables renamed and duplicated after save to XML

Question

Hello again,
I am also encountering an issue where saving structured docs as XML results in duplication and renaming of variables.  For example, in a particular document I have the name of the web service inserted as a variable 4 times throughout the piece. After I save to XML, the variable is renamed fmvar1, fmvar2, fmvar3, and fmvar4.  So, when I open the doc again, instead of having 1 variable in 4 locations, I now have 4 variables in 4 locations.
Is this something I should expect, as there is no legitimate way to tell the XML doc (or for FM to pass that information on) that it is the same variable, used in 4 places?
Regards,
Hannah

Answer 1

Hannah,
  You don't mention the name of your FrameMaker variable. I suspect that it contains a space or other special character that is not permitted in an XML name.
  FrameMaker writes variables to XML as general entity references. If a variable name is a valid MXL name, by default it uses the variable name as the entity name. Multiple references to such an entity can occur. If not, it names the variable fmvar# where # is an integer. In this case, you are correct that it generates a different entity for each occurrence of the variable. I also consider this proliferation of general entities to be a bug.
  You can change the default behavior with a r/w rule in the form:
    entity "twowords" is fm variable "two words";
  In your case, thus, you have at least 3 choices:
1) Live with the multiple entities
2) Rename the variable to something that can be used as an entity name
3) Add a r/w rule for each variable in any document that causes this problem
        --Lynne