XML First Workflow Development Services

XML First Workflow Book Publishing

Simply converting data from one format to another is a time-consuming and costly process. This especially poses a huge challenge, in industries like aerospace, where regulations are stringent and there is a need for a high degree of data accuracy. On top of it, the data conversion process must ensure zero data loss, output in several formats, and well-structured output. This is where XML First Workflow Development Services comes into picture.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used in technical information communications to mainly author and manage structured data. The data follows a hierarchy and the data components are described using XML elements and attributes. Although XML is plain text, you can lay emphasis on the content with underline, bold or italic characteristics. XML can be stored in a CMS or used on a file system.

Besides using XML for technical content, it can be used to distribute news feeds, communicate with web services, report stock market prices & financial trends, describe graphic formats like Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), etc. XML book publishing workflow makes it easy for publishers to output content quickly in multiple digital formats like PDF, HTML, EPUB, etc., automate processes, repurpose content in other channels like websites, databases, catalogs, etc., scale the services and publications and preserve the content for future.

Preserve Your Digital Content Using XML-first Workflow Publishing

With our XML-First workflow, we help publishers extend their market leadership and drive efficiency in the production process, eliminating the need to re-create content across different products. We validate the content early and build interactive features right from the beginning, enabling content administrators to upload, store, manage, access, and deliver content across all channels while meeting their quality standards.

XML-First Workflow Publishing: Case in Point

Client

A multinational publishing company, offering a wide spectrum of full text and bibliographic databases designed for research.

Project Details

The client wanted to convert journals, research papers, and books into various XML formats to facilitate the reusing and repurposing of content.

Solutions Offered

We followed our proprietary XML-First Workflow to convert the files into prescribed XML formats:

RTF/ DOCX: Once the document was received, we applied customized character and paragraph styles to the DOCX / RTF files to identify elements like author’s name, article/ chapter’s title, paragraphs, footnotes, section headings and block quotes, etc.
Conversion Script: After giving a basic structure to the document, a conversion script was written in a programming language like Python or Perl to identify and convert elements into their corresponding XML elements. For instance: Blockquotes to <p type=’’blockquote’’> tag, and paragraphs to <p> tag.
XML: We used proprietary software for command line RTF to XML conversion, which supported conversion to customized document types.

XSLT: After identifying the content in XML, XSLT was applied to convert the content into other markup languages like IDTT (InDesign Tagged Text) for import in InDesign or HTML for display on the Web. [XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation) stylesheets are used to convert the single source file into multiple output formats like PDF, EPUB, etc.]
InDesign to PDF: Some of the content was in InDesign, which we efficiently typeset and created a print-ready PDF.
HTML to EPUB: Once the content was in HTML format, it was converted into EPUB or any other eBook format.

The TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) community has developed a collection of XSL stylesheets to support the transformation of TEI XML into other formats like EPUB, EPUB3, HTML, and HTML5.

Contact Us!

The XML First Workflow helps in easing the potentially higher workload that occurs in the latter stages of eBook production, minimizing the need to convert content from one format to another every time as well as making the overall workflow more efficient. For more information about our proprietary XML first workflow development services, kindly get in touch with us today!