Is there a way to convert a FOSI to XSL-FO ?

Answered by: Paul Grosso (PTC) Last Updated: 2006-08-23

There is no simple, automated path from FOSI to XSL-FO.

The basic paradigms of FOSIs and XSL-FO are too different for an automated conversion. (Think especially of the fact that FOSIs use what are effectively global variables to do things such as generated text while XSL-FO relies on XSLT which is a language without typical variables but that has enormous power to reach anywhere in the document and completely transform the instance.)

However, one can use Styler's capability to do a partial import of a FOSI to generate a starter stylersheet. Then one can use Styler to complete the styling process. Arbortext recommends the use of Styler to manage all ones styling needs for multiple outputs. Styler includes the ability to use Arbortext's XSL-FO engine to compose ones documents. But if you really want to get your hands on it, you can export an XSL-FO version of the style sheet from Styler.

Several caveats apply. The conversion from FOSI to stylersheet does not capture most use of generated text in the FOSI (ref. first paragraph above). And the XSL-FO exported by Styler, while it does generally produce a valid XSL-FO stylesheet, does take advantage of some extensions that might require some hand editing to work properly in an XSL-FO engine other than Arbortext's.