By: Erik Vlietinck
Thu, March 06, 2008 - 10:27:00
Pros: Fast, powerful XML capabilities, easy rules editing, rich structure at export time
Contras: Needs a DTD and won't convert that by itself from an InDesign XML file

http://www.easypress.com
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Atomik Xport for InDesign CS3 is Easypress’ best-seller. Atomik Xport enables InDesign users to export their layout documents to richly structured XML files for re-purposing of content on the web, for mobile, etc.

Atomik Xport lets you export XML from a regular InDesign file with a minimum of preparation. Atomik Xport for InDesign will create a XML document using the same styles-to-tags mapping approach as InDesign does natively. However, as you may expect from a product that makes cross-media publishing a breeze, it creates rich XML structures, complete with attributes. The only difficult part about Atomik Xport is that you definitely need a DTD to make it work.

Just as with every Easypress product, Atomik Xport comes with a dozen or so tutorials that start at the beginner’s level, and quickly steps up to the more powerful — and therefore complex — features of the system.

Atomik Xport creates XML from any type of layout, including design that has tables and illustrations. The plug-in has a box order tab so you can set the order in which the InDesign document has to be read for the XML structure. Most of Atomik Xport revolves around Rule sets. Rule sets tell the XML parser what to do, and what is allowed with regards to structuring. In order to automate a layout workflow across different media, the software that places the layout boxes with content onto the various output channels must know how the layout has to be built.

Valid XML Needs a Schema

For example, when an article has a byline, and it always has to be followed by a title or a heading, a rule set could be created that tells the XML parser just that: to expect a title coming after a byline. If that order of “styles” or structure elements has not been met, the parser will stop and generate an error. Rule sets check for this order and when everything goes well, allow the system to create a structured content flow in seconds.

Atomik Xport literally works in seconds --if you take InDesign’s native XML capabilities, you could achieve the same results, but it would take hours to get to the same structure as with Atomik Xport. The problem with Indesign’s XML capabilities is that it creates a relatively flat XML document where elements have no attributes. Additionally, InDesign can’t convert the XML structure into a Document Type Definition (DTD). You need a DTD in order to create rules for the content flow (the rule sets we discussed).

With Atomik Xport, you can’t start exporting the document’s XML if you don’t start out with a DTD, because it doesn’t make much sense having a well-formed XML file with which you can’t do much else in terms of pouring its contents in another content container such as a web page.

The DTD serves to create the rules in Atomik Xport. This process is entirely GUI-driven, meaning you can do it, even if you don’t really understand XML. The hardest part of this process is matching InDesign’s styles to XML tags, and determining which elements must abide to which rules. Rules can have five properties ranging from font size over font style, to font face and colour. Atomik Xport can automate the layout of an entire document in a different channel based on those rules, using its Automated Matching System. 

The only proviso to make it work smoothly is that you avoid creating mappings from one style to multiple DTD elements. But if you do, the rewards are pretty enormous: without any server technology at all, you will be able to output a valid XML file in seconds, no matter how large the file is. In that respect, Atmik Xport is much like a car’s gear box where the different output channels --print, web, PDA, mobile-- make out the gear shifts.