DOCBOOK: Re: Which attribute to use for context-sensitive help?

[Tom dot Slee at sybase dot com]

There are a few problems with that approach.

One is that the developers supply the context ID.  We have experimented
before with both (a) the writers writing material first, and supplying the
context ID (element ID attribute) to the developers, and (b) designing
conventions so the writers know what context ID the developers will choose.
In the end, however, the extra level of indirection provides a flexibility
that helps.

I have to admit that I stumbled across another issue that answers your
question, but may also scupper the approach I was going to take. That is,
several context IDs may point to the same topic. So we may go with
maintaining an external text file of mappings in the end.

Tom



                                                                                                                           
                    Norman Walsh                                                                                           
                    <ndw@nwalsh.co       To:     Tom.Slee@sybase.com                                                       
                    m>                   cc:     docbook@lists.oasis-open.org                                              
                                         Subject:     Re: Which attribute to use for context-sensitive help?               
                    01/16/2003                                                                                             
                    06:24 AM                                                                                               
                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                           



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/ Tom.Slee@sybase.com was heard to say:
| The application calls the help system, supplying a context ID, which is
| mapped to an element in the document. I want to store this mapping in the
| document, and then we can write out what the help system needs. I'd like
to
| assign the context ID for an element to an attribute for that element. I
| could use any old attribute, such as "role"
|
| <sect1 id="a-helpful-topic" role="SOME-HELP-CONTEXT-ID">...
|
| My question is, there is no obvious attribute to use for this purpose. Is
| there a conventional choice that I can follow?

What prevents you from using the elements actual ID as it's context ID?

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

- --
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | If today was a fish, I'd throw it
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | back in.
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee |
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