How to Convert as XML from SGML using FrameMaker

Question

I have SGML files created by FM Structured App. I wanted to convert all these SGML files to XML files and save into Oracle XMLDB database.Any idea,like using FDK or any other way.
Please let me know.
Thanks in advance!!!
Saket

Answer 1

Saket, Russ,
You may not need the FDK at all. You can put the SGML documents into one directory and then use File > Utilities > Convert Structured Documents (in FM 7) or File > Structure Tools > Utilities > Convert Structured Documents (in FM 8) to import them all into FM. Then use Convert Documents to Structured Format to export the FM versions to XML.
Do all the SGML documents use the same application? Is there an XML version of the DTD available? If you need to create an XML DTD, you can generate it from the EDD, but you may need to change some of the general rules. I often use exclusions in my EDDs as well as general rules with expressions that are not permitted in XML. For example, I may have the general rule:
title?, (#PCDATA | emphasizedphrase | xref)*
in the EDD but
(#PCDATA | title | emphasizedphrase | xref)*
in XML. Thus, the EDD restricts a title to the beginning of the defined element, where the DTD allows titles throughout the content. All content that is valid in FM will be valid in XML. The reverse is not true, but doesn't matter if the editing is being done in FM. I put both expressions in the EDD as general rules but use conditional text to distinguish them. I also make the exclusions conditional. Then I show or hide one set of conditions to import element definitions into FM documents and reverse the show/hide settings to create a DTD from the EDD.
--Lynne