RE: Is this feasible with web, XML and Frame7?

[Matthew Horn <mhorn -at- macromedia -dot- com>]

John,

Sounds like a fun project, with a lower-case P. Only one question, why not use a database to store the forms? You said there are 200 or so of them, and it appears as thought there is lots of overlapping, regular information. 

You can still build a web-based front end, but instead of generating an email, have it add a record to the database. You can use this same front end to edit the content yourself.

When all is said and done, do your queries against the database and have the output be XML, MIF or whatever is easiest for you to then insert into the Frame file. This way you can also use the db to generate as-yet-unknown formats -- say for web delivery, or PDF, or images, whatever.

If the engineers make late-cycle changes that affect a bunch of forms, you can do multiple updates with some simple SQL.

I guess my personal take is that I would avoid the one-off nature of copy/pasting email content into Frame.

Matthew J. Horn
Sr. Technical Writer
< m a c r o m e d i a >

-----Original Message-----
From: John Posada [mailto:JPosada -at- book -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 9:27 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Is this feasible with web, XML and Frame7?



Original message--------------------------

Hi, guys...before I do the research and digging, I want to make sure that
I'm not opening a beehive which I'll be sorry for. Following is a high level
overview of what I'd like to accomplish. I'm new to XML, but I think it
offers a solution to a problem.

I use Frame 7. I'm the only one in the group who does, but that isn't a
problem. The problem is that I have 4 developers who are filling in a
profile form of about 3 pages, in Word, for something that would resembles
APIs. I then bring the content into a similar form in FrameMaker. I do this
through cut and paste and while I do this, I correct or rewrite the
information..

What I'm interested in doing is to have a web page where they enter the
information, with maybe a total of 50 fields. I chose web because I can make
certain fields dropdown fields to cut down errors and I can make certain
fields mandatory, avoiding incomplete submission.

When they hit submit,  I would receive an email and the content of the email
would be XML content (or a file attached to the email). Then using that XML,
I would populate the form in Frame 7. At this point, I'd review and change
the information if needed.

My question...does this sound reasonable? is this a project or a PROJECT? By
the time I'm done, I'd have created about 200 instances of the form.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656
 "Be accurate...the 4am wakeup call you prevent could be your manager's"


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