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Re: Multiple versions of a document (another JSP tangent from me)
Subject:Re: Multiple versions of a document (another JSP tangent from me) From:David Castro <thetechwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:47:23 -0800 (PST)
> > > Is it possible to generate several versions of a document
> > > using only one copy each of the source files?
> > You ought to be able to do this with the RD fields in Word.
> Or, you could use FrameMaker.
Or, if you want to put it online, and be able to have the person reading the
page determine which versions they want to see, you can develop the page in
HTML, and using JavaServer Page technology.
I created a JSP version of our online help at my last company (an application
service provider...which meant that the online help resided on our servers). I
made it so that the documentation was customized based on which modules the
customer purchased, what department the user worked in, what security level the
user had, what hospital she worked in, and so on.
I created a tag library to make the markup easier. Once I created the taglib,
the source looked something like this:
<p>For example:</p>
<custom:Dept name="Radiology">
<p>Example for Radiology workers goes here. </p>
</custom:Dept>
<custom:Dept name="Pediatrics">
<p>Example for Pediatric workers goes here. </p>
</custom:Dept>
Then, when users viewed the page, if they worked in Pediatrics, they would only
get the example contained in the Pediatrics markup, and if they worked in
Radiology, they would only get the example contained in the Radiology markup.
It allows for customization much more intricate than I have shown here. You can
make it so that something displays *unless* a condition is met (the inverse of
above), or you can make something appear only when a set of conditions is met.
All sorts of stuff. It's really cool technology.
You can do things outside of just showing or not showing text. I created a JSP
tag library component that would parse each HTML page to see if it had any
words in the page that were in the glossary. The first occurrence of each
glossary word, it would create a hyperlink to the word. That way, I was able to
create glossary terms at will, and they would automatically be linked
throughout the entire documentation set! I'd just add the word to a text file,
upload the text file to the server, and that was it.
My next project (with my current employer) is to figure out how to get JSP
markup directly into the WebWorks Publisher output. If I can get that to work,
it'll be a real feather in my cap. :-)
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