Set Initial URL For Choose File Filter Button from DITA Context Dialog

[dreifsnider]

Hi,

My team would like to start using the DITAVAL/filter options added to Web Author in version 26.1.

However, our DITAVALs are not stored in the same repository as our topics and ditamaps and many of our users are not even aware of where our DITAVAL files are stored.

Therefore, we would like to be able to set the initial URL for the Choose file dialog that displays when clicking on the

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button.dita-map-view__file-picker-button.filter-button

folder icon so that users won't even need to navigate to a different repository and folder.

Is this possible to do?

Thanks!

Daniel

[mihaela]

Hello,

When a ditaval is already set, the file chooser will be opened in that location. A ditaval can be specified using the dita.val.url parameter in the URL of the editor (or by setting it as a loading option. We also have a sample plugin available for setting a loading option: https://github.com/oxygenxml/web-author ... ons-setter .

So, a possibility would be to set an initial ditaval, or to indicate a fake one in the folder you want the file chooser to be opened in the filters repository.
I hope this solution is suitable for your use case.
Please let us know if you need more information.

Best Regards,
Mihaela

[dreifsnider]

Hi Mihaela,

Thank you for this suggestion of using the loading options! We're already using the loading option sample plugin so thankfully we can just update that to also load a ditaval.

Does the GitHub folder path need to be URL encoded in the loading options plugin, or will Web Author automatically convert the path to be URL encoded?

Thanks!

Daniel

[cosminef]

Hello,

The URL does not need to be encoded when using loading option to set the filter.

Best,
Cosmin

[dreifsnider]

Hi Cosmin,

Thanks for the reply and for that information!

I don't see a loading option specifically for the dita.val.url or anything else related to loading a ditaval. I'm looking at this documentation: https://www.oxygenxml.com/maven/com/oxy ... ingOptions

Do I need to instead update the url as part of the loading options? Something like:

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goog.events.listen(workspace, sync.api.Workspace.EventType.BEFORE_EDITOR_LOADED, function(e) {
  if (!e.options.url.includes('.ditaval')) {
    e.options.url.concat('&dita.val.url=gitgh%3A%2F%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fgithub.com%252Fdreifsnider%252Foxy-frameworks%2Fmain%2Fweb-author%2Fditavals%2Fdefault.ditaval&show.excluded.content=true');
  }
});
 }

Or is there a simpler way to load the ditaval into the DITA Context?

Thanks!

Daniel

[cosminef]

Hello,

URL parameters can also be used in loading options. Here [1] you can find an example of customizing the Editor using loading options.

[1] https://www.oxygenxml.com/maven/com/oxy ... tions.html

Best,
Cosmin

[dreifsnider]

Hi,

Since we're using the Impose Ditamap sample plugin to automatically impose a DITAMAP, I realized that I had to update this plugin to impose a DITAVAL as well.

Unfortunately, imposing a DITAVAL does not make the Filter Choose file dialog open in the correct location.

I believe this is because the DITAVAL is being loaded from a different repository than where the DITA file is located. Our repositories have the following structure:

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product-one-content <- unique repository
   en
      _toc.ditamap
      topicA.dita
   ja
      _toc.ditamap
      topicA.dita

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product-two-content <- unique repository
   en
      _toc.ditamap
      topicA.dita
   ja
      _toc.ditamap
      topicA.dita

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dita-frameworks <- unique repository
   css
   dita-ot
   ditavals
      default.ditaval
      productA.ditaval
      productB.ditaval

When the Filter Choose file button is clicked, we're presented with the message "You cannot go above the root of the file repository", and the dialog still shows the repository that the topic and ditamap are loaded from (product-one-content) instead of the repository that the ditaval is loaded from (dita-frameworks):

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image.png (24.93 KiB) Viewed 1861 times

image.png (36.37 KiB) Viewed 1861 times

Is there any other way we can control where the Filter Choose file dialog initially opens?

For what it's worth, if we manually navigate to and select a DITAVAL file using the the Filter Choose file dialog, it does remember the folder when subsequently opened. It's just when a DITAVAL is initially loaded the dialog does not seem to be aware of where the DITAVAL is located.

Thanks,
Daniel

[cosminef]

Hello,

You are right, it seems that URL parameter doesn't handle the case you mentioned (with the ditavals being in a different repository than the ditamap).
As a workaround, you can use the DITA Projects [1] option. There is such a sample in the Web Author kit from which you can draw inspiration (oxygen-xml-web-author\tomcat\work\Catalina\localhost\oxygen-xml-web-author\samples\dita\mobile-phone). You can easily switch profiling conditions using a convenient drop-down control instead of having to browse for DITAVAL files.

[1] https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... jects.html

Best,
Cosmin

[dreifsnider]

Hi Cosmin,

Thank you for your reply and suggestion of using the DITA Projects functionality to predefine the profiling conditions. As you mention, this is a much better user experience as users can simply select a predefined profile condition without having to navigate to and select a DITAVAL file.

I will investigate building a DITA project file and loading it into our custom Web Author frameworks.

Thanks again!

Daniel

[cristi_talau]

Hello,

We analyzed more the warning that you get when you specify the DITAVAL url. It is a limitation that we plan to address in an upcoming release.
The DITA Project approach provides a better UX, but comes with its own challenges:

• If you put the DITA Project file in the product repository, it will have to reference a file outside that repository and that might not work. One workaround is to use Git submodules to "mount" the frameworks repo inside the product repo.

• If you put the DITA Project in the frameworks repo, you will need to add information about various products in the frameworks repo.

An alternative approach is to register your own UrlChooser that uses a better UI for choosing DITAVAL files. Below is some code that you can run after the editor loads to provide a different UI for users to choose a DITAVAL, while using the default UI for other file choosers:

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let chooser = workspace.getUrlChooser();
chooser._defaultChooseUrl = chooser.chooseUrl;
chooser.chooseUrl = (context, chosen, purpose) => {
    if (context.getInitialUrl() && context.getInitialUrl().endsWith('.ditaval')) {
        let ditaval = window.prompt('Choose dita val');
        chosen(ditaval);
    } else {
        chooser._defaultChooseUrl(context, chosen, purpose);
    }
}

This code uses window.prompt, but you can replace it with your own dialog.

Best,
Cristian

[dreifsnider]

Hi Cristian,

I explored the possibility of using a DITA-OT project, but unfortunately and as you alluded to, this isn't feasible for us as we have over 200 ditamaps that would need to be accounted for each with their own context. Plus the maintenance involved in keeping this up-to-date is extremely high.

Thank you for these details and for providing this alternative solution of implementing our own custom UrlChoser dialog! I'm afraid that we most likely won't be able to implement this though because of the work involved in creating our own UI and dialog. Plus, we'd like to make the Web Author UI as seamless as possible to avoid confusing our users.

Would it be possible to use the setInitialUrl method specifically for the choose filter button? We want to avoid affecting any of the other UrlChooser functionality, for example, inserting images or xrefs.

I'm wondering if this would let us use the existing UrlChooser dialog UI and set the URL to the correct repository location in which the DITAVALs are stored?

If this would be possible, could you provide an example of how we could use the setInitialUrl() method for the choose filter button?

Thanks!

Daniel

[dreifsnider]

Hi Cristian,

I created a new plugin to test your code, but I'm getting the following error: "Cannot read properties of null (reading 'chooseUrl')" on the following line:

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chooser._defaultChooseUrl = chooser.chooseUrl;

For what it's worth, here's the plugin.js I'm using:

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(function () {
    workspace.listen(sync.api.Workspace.EventType.BEFORE_EDITOR_LOADED, function({editor}) {
        let chooser = workspace.getUrlChooser();
        chooser._defaultChooseUrl = chooser.chooseUrl;
        chooser.chooseUrl = (context, chosen, purpose) => {
            if (context.getInitialUrl() && context.getInitialUrl().endsWith('.ditaval')) {
                let ditaval = window.prompt('Choose dita val');
                chosen(ditaval);
            } else {
                chooser._defaultChooseUrl(context, chosen, purpose);
            }
        }
    });
})();

I also tried to use the setInitialUrl method to set the context, as follows but this doesn't seem to work either:

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(function () {
    workspace.listen(sync.api.Workspace.EventType.BEFORE_EDITOR_LOADED, function({editor}) {
        let ditaValDir = 'oxy-url-to-ditaval-directory'
        let chooser = workspace.getUrlChooser();
        chooser._defaultChooseUrl = chooser.chooseUrl;
        chooser.chooseUrl = (context, chosen, purpose) => {
            if (context.getInitialUrl() && context.getInitialUrl().endsWith('.ditaval')) {
                context.setInitialUrl(ditaValDir);
            } else {
                chooser._defaultChooseUrl(context, chosen, purpose);
            }
        }
    });
})();

Thank you for any help you can provide!

Daniel

[cristi_talau]

Hello,
Can you try to execute this code EDITOR_LOADED instead of BEFORE_EDITOR_LOADED?
Best,
Cristian

[dreifsnider]

Hi Cristian,

Apologies for missing your previous comment; I did not see it until now.

Yes, I will try to execute this code on the EDITOR_LOADED listener and will report back.

Thank you!

Daniel