Re: Using Frame to create HTML

Andrew O'Gorman (aog@frame.ie)
Tue, 26 Jul 94 09:23:53 BST


Hello Shane,

You write

> I have a substantial number of Frame documents That I would like to make
> available in HTML format. Is there a commercial quality tool that will
> assist in converting these files? Or better yet, does Frame Technologies
> offer some sort of an add-on that will allow me to maintain the documents
> in Frame, but automatically generate HTML as needed?
>
> --
> Shane P. McCarron Work: +1 201 691-2228
> Testing Research Manager Inet: ahby@naps.com
> PGP Public Key available on all public key servers

There are several filters now available, and many more coming soon in
this rapidly developing area. The filters known by Frame Technology
at this time (in no alphabetical order) are:


fm2html by Norwegian Telecom Research available at:

ftp://bang.nta.no/pub/fm2html*.tar.Z

Mif2html by Quadralay Corp. Info available at:

Quadralay Corporation
8920 Business Park Drive
Austin, Texas 78759
Tel: 512-346-9199
Fax: 512-346-8990
E-mail: info@quadralay.com
FTP Server: ftp.quadralay.com

http://www.quadralay.com/products/products.html

Miftran by Jim BcBeath available at:

ftp://ftp.alumni.caltech.edu/pub/mcbeath/web/miftran/miftran.tgz

WebMaker by CERN Switzerland. Info available at:

http://www.cern.ch/WebMaker

Following (to the end of this technical note) are excerpts from the
authors/distributors about the above-named filters. Frame Technology
neither endorses, markets, tests nor supports any of the software named
here. Contact the program authors for more information.


miftran
==================================

> From www-talk@www0.cern.ch Tue Feb 15 03:50:35 1994
> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 1994 12:47:37 --100
> Subject: A new MIF to HTML converter, written in C
> X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
> Content-Length: 3551
>
> For those of you who have been frustrated by MIF converters written
> in perl, lisp, or other advanced languages, here's one written entirely
> in C. OK, to be honest, there are also two 20 line sh scripts.
>
> It comes with a preliminary manual which you can run through miftran
> to make HTML pages. This serves as a test to make sure miftran
> compiled correctly on your system, as an example, and as the actual
> documentation for miftran.
>
> This is version 0.1, with all the caveats that a version number like
> that implies. You can pick it up (40K) from
>
> ftp://ftp.alumni.caltech.edu/pub/mcbeath/web/miftran/miftran.tgz
>
>
> -Jim McBeath
> jimmc@eskimo.com



fm2html
================================
Norwegian Telecom Research has a filter that is available via ftp. All
rights to the filter belong to Norwegian Telecom Research. The filter
can be modified as long as the top lines of each source file indicating
the original source of the filter is kept. The would also appreciate
being sent information about bugs, bug fixes, etc.

The filter can be found at the following ftp site.

ftp bang.nta.no

Login as anonymous and cd to the pub directory the tar file is named
fm2html*.tar.Z.

This filter has not been tested by Frame Technology Corporation and we
in no way support it.


This is an excerpt from a README file, provided by the author:

Frame 2 Html filter, version 0.8.1, 24th November 19993
====================================================

This filter has been made as part of my work at Norwegian Telecom
Research. All rights to the filter belong to Norwegian Telecom
Research. The filter can be modified as long as the top lines of each
source file indicating the original source of the filter is kept. We
would also appriciate being sent information about bugs, bug fixes,
etc.

The current version of the filter:

o Handles frame files and books.
o Is customable, through a tags file mapping frame tags to logical tags
used by the filter.
o All frame X-refs become html links.
o An index is automatically generated based on chapter headings in the frame documents.
o The file structure of the frame document is kept in the html
document. Single frame files become single html files. Frame books

become multiple html files, one html file for each frame file.
FrameMaker generated files are removed.
o Graphics and maths are separated to files, which are then translated
to postscript and ultimately gif.
o Tables are handled through the <pre> html tag.
o Italics and bold parts of paragraphs are handled.

Problems and bugs:

o Characters in frame not in html, including Greek character.
o Documents that are divided into sections using the FrameMaker 'frame'.
o FrameMaker documents which do not use tags and operate on text directly.
o Very large pictures are not handled well (bigger than an A4).
o Only anchored frames are handled well. Other graphics may be lost.

This program was made for internal use only. I will try to make it portable,
but it is not unlikely that a few paths have to be changed.

Availability:

ftp bang.nta.no:pub/fm2html.tar.v.0.n.m.Z.


Disclaimer:

Use this program at your own risk.

End of README

This program requires additional executable software, not provided nor supported
by Frame Technology.


MIF2HTML
================================

MIF2HTML, the MIF to HTML Converter, was designed to provide users with an
easy to use interface for converting existing Frame documents to HTML documents
suitable for use with the World Wide Web (WWW) and GWHIS, Quadralay's
online, context-sensitive help system. It allows developers to create
documentation within Frame's Maker application and then simply convert those
files for use on WWW servers. This allows for a single set of documentation to
be maintained for both printed and hypertext usage.

In order to make use of the MIF to HTML Converter, you will need to have Frame's
fmbatch program in your execution path or you will need to have already
converted existing Frame documents to MIF documents (Maker Interchange Format).

If you have GWHIS Viewer already installed on your system, double-clicking on
an HTML document will automatically launch the GWHIS Viewer if it is not
already loaded and display the selected HTML file. Future versions of
MIF2HTML will support a similar method for displaying Frame and MIF
documents from within Frame's Maker application.


Currently, MIF2HTML supports conversion of Frame paragraph and character
formats, graphics files embedded by reference, and Frame marker tags. Any Frame
tags not explicitly mapped will be translated as regular HTML text.

Frame paragraph and character formats are mapped by the user to equivalent HTML
constructs.

The converter automatically translates graphics files imported by reference to
the <img src="???.gif"> constuct used by GWHIS Viewer and Mosaic.
Quite simply, it removes any extension on the existing reference filename and
appends .gif to the end. You will still need to create the corresponding GIF
files yourself using either a graphics editor or file translation software.

Frame marker tags are supported for translation, but only to HTML's
<a>...</a> construct. By supporting markers in this way, users can specify
HyperText links in Frame that span multiple words or lines when translated to
HTML. The first marker inserted can be either a standard Frame marker or a user
defined marker, but it must include the href information needed by HTML. An
example appears below...


A second marker would be inserted into the Frame document where the hypertext
link is to end. During translation, you would assign the first marker to map to
<a> and the second to </a>. The href information is automatically inserted.

support@quadralay.com

Last modified: 04/04/94

Copyright (c) 1994 Quadralay Corporation. All rights reserved.

Thanks for your inquiry. If you have further questions about this
specific issue, please reply to intltechsup@frame.ie, or to the
address below.

Regards,

Andrew O'Gorman
Technical Support
Frame Dublin.

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