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I'm using Oxygen XML Author plugin for Eclipse (fully functional 30 day trial), and I want to convert (transform) sample Eclipse help file plugin to epub or PDF, to be able to view in on my ereader.

Eclipse help plugin is actually in DITA format (it's stored in ZIP archive with accompanied helper files for identification on Eclipse platform) and hopefully Oxygen XML Author is able to easily transform it in various formats with right instructions.

However all this XML artillery seems very advanced and hard to comprehend from first try. I tried various things, like validation scenarios, transformation scenarios, applying schemas (all from provided Oxygen framework) but I always get nil result and errors in console

Does anyone have experience with Eclipse help plugin concept and provide assistance as how to do this transformation? I understand that usually users look for a easy way to author Eclipse help plugin and not the other way around - to transform Eclipse help plugin to other format

Screenshot of Eclipse Help plugin archive file passed to Oxygene Eclipse plugin:

Screenshot

Update

This article explains what to do and provides XSL for automatic ditamap creation (from existing TOC file): http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-ecldita/

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Actually it's not true that Eclipse help is in docbook, it's just plain HTML. There is an XML file that provides a table of contents that refers to the HTML files, but each topic just HTML. I don't know what epub is, but your question has nothing to do with docbook. (You might have been confused in your googling because you can create Eclipse help from docbook, but that's a different topic). – Francis Upton Dec 16 '11 at 3:44
As you can see from screenshot it's not just plain html, but it seems it's not DocBook but DITA. Thanks for your insight, I changed the question tag and title – zetah Dec 16 '11 at 4:20
Well Eclipse help is not DITA either, look here for a description of it: help.eclipse.org/indigo/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/… And if you look in an Eclipse kit and at some of the "doc" plugins you will see that they are HTML with this XML content file. It looks like what you are showing might be some source that's used to generate the Eclipse help (which could well be Docbook or DITA), but it's not the Eclipse help itself. The XML file you have the open editor for appears to be in the Eclipse help TOC format. – Francis Upton Dec 16 '11 at 4:54
Example on screenshot is from Intel's MKL Eclipse help plugin file. It's in DITA format. Thanks for your time, but I'm not interested in Eclipse help files documentation, but in converting this Eclipse Help plugin to EPUB – zetah Dec 16 '11 at 5:17
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1 Answer

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Eclipse Help is an output format obtained in your case from an XML source (DITA). There is no Eclipse Help to EPUB conversion that I know of but Oxygen allows you to convert the DITA Map directly to EPUB.

This video demonstration might help:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/demo/Epub.html

Regards, Radu

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