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Re: Hyperlinking Text and Graphics in XMetal
Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 2
Re: Hyperlinking Text and Graphics in XMetal
Hi - I have been trying to hyperlink step tags
within an XML document to other step tags (Link) within
the same document. I have also been using ULink tags to
hyperlink to external figures on the server. I am using
a Navy XML DTD. When I preview the document in the browser,
the internal links (Link tag) do not appear. The DTD is
validated and these elements have been declared. I must be
missing something really obvious. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Blake
Joined: 13 Jun 2003
Posts: 10
Re: Hyperlinking Text and Graphics in XMetal
At 2005-10-11 20:22 +0000, watertank_twin wrote:
>Hi - I have been trying to hyperlink step tags
>within an XML document to other step tags (Link) within
>the same document. I have also been using ULink tags to
>hyperlink to external figures on the server. I am using
>a Navy XML DTD.
That`s all fine ... XML documents are passive, they do not *do*
anything until you interpret the information in the markup for a
particular use.
The Navy DTD describes how to label the information you have
structured in a tree, using a bunch of labels that don`t mean
anything until you interpret what they mean. These labels for
elements and attributes make up a vocabulary, but that`s all they
do: label the information. They say nothing about how to interpret
the information.
If you are using the <Link> elements to point to other constructs,
you are only doing that in the labeling of the information, you are
not implying any kind of action or browser link just by doing so.
>When I preview the document in the browser,
>the internal links (Link tag) do not appear.
You mention XMetal, but I`m guessing when you are saying "browser"
you are just viewing the XML document in Internet Explorer or another
XML-aware browser. All you are doing is exposing the information in
its markup. You are not interpreting the <Link> construct to be a
browser hyperlink, you are merely exposing the <Link> construct as a
labeled piece of information in the Navy vocabulary.
If you are not using a stylesheet, then you are not interpreting your
information, you are merely exposing your information.
I don`t know the operation of XMetal to know how you tell it to
associate your markup with a particular stylesheet. Unless XMetal
has been preset to interpret the Navy DTD labels, then it, too, will
just passively handle your information in those labels.
>The DTD is validated and these elements have been declared.
That only tells you that your information is self-consistent, not yet
that it means anything or should be presented in any fashion.
>I must be missing something really obvious. Any thoughts?
I`m guessing you are missing a stylesheet ... which implements a
process by which your labeled information is interpreted by the
stylesheet and presented using HTML and CSS where <Link> elements are
translated by the stylesheet into HTML anchor <a> elements.
A browser only knows how to hyperlink <a> anchors ... browsers know
nothing of an instance of the Navy DTD or an instance of any other
DTD. Browsers do know how to apply XSLT stylesheets to XML wherein
you can interpret information labeled using the Navy <Link> label as
meaning a hyperlink and, thus, presented to the browser using <a>
anchor labels ... because that`s all the browser recognizes.
XML in and of itself doesn`t do anything, and labels in and of
themselves don`t mean anything at all (except for the handful of
labels that begin "xml:" that are standardized). The meaning of
marked-up information is, in my opinion, entirely the realm of the
recipient of that information. Hopefully for the sender that
recipient`s understanding is the same as the sender`s, but the
recipient can choose to interpret the sender`s information any way they wish.
The <a name="sales"> element to a browser is a named HTML anchor but
to a general ledger system could easily be interpreted as an account
designation.
Now the element <a name="sales" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
uses a much richer two-part label and is more of a clue that the
intent of the information thus labeled is an HTML hyperlink ... more
so than <a name="sales" xmlns="http://mycompany.com/accounts"> does
... but it is still just a label.
I hope this helps ... it is a fundamental understanding. And I hope
I interpreted your question properly and didn`t get off on a tangent
unnecessarily. Look around for a stylesheet with which to render
instances of your Navy XML DTD and you should, then, get your hyperlinks.
. . . . . . . Ken
--
World-wide on-site corporate, govt. & user group XML/XSL training.
G. Ken Holman mailto:gkholman@...
Crane Softwrights Ltd. http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/x/
Box 266, Kars, Ontario CANADA K0A-2E0 +1(613)489-0999 (F:-0995)
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