teiJournal

One of the major tasks in this post is to figure out how to link <cit>, <q>, <quote> and <bibl> tags to the xml:id attributes of <biblStruct> elements containing details of the cited work. The key attribute is not available on these tags, so we're left with three options:

1. ana: indicates one or more elements containing interpretations of the element on which the ana attribute appears.
2. corresp points to elements that correspond to the current element in some way.
3. n gives a number (or other label) for an element, which is not necessarily unique within the document.

The first smacks of tag-abuse, because it's really meant to point to an analytical interpretation. The third is a multi-purpose attribute which is available almost everywhere. corresp seems most appropriate, especially for <bibl> tags (it's less suitable for the other tags, but it would do at a pinch).

Adding this as a task, because I need to search the TEI-L archives for any discussion of this before, then lay out my proposed solution (corresp and get comments.

One key aspect of teiJournal will be the ability of the editor to configure as much as possible of the presentation information through a user-friendly interface. There is so much to configure that the key problem is going to be organization and storage of this information. One way to think of this is as "style blocks", each of which controls a particular aspect of a particular presentation format.

Typical blocks would be: the default format of bibliographical info (Chicago?), layout of each format (e.g. running titles), the content of each format, and the abstracted and user-configurable aspects of each output type (font, style, page size and other choices, especially for PDF).

Style block code will find its way into two kinds of output: XSL:FO (for PDF), in which it will be inserted inline, and CSS, where it will control the display of predefined XHTML classes. The most convenient way to store this information will be as XSL Attribute Sets. Since these are XML, they can be stored directly into the database, and read easily. The data itself is going to be a combination of CSS and XSL:FO attributes and values; we need to come up with a template-based GUI for editing it.

Finally, there will be some types of style choice that do not translate into CSS or XSL attributes. For instance, the choice of MLA or Chicago formatting for bibliographies or references will be a choice between two blocks of rendering code. There may not be many of these.

Including time spent working this out so far.

We have a set of sample documents ready for use in the teiJournal project here. However, a number of issues remain to be resolved with regard to the exact details of the markup practice:

1. There is too much duplication, especially of author and title information. It should be possible to limit this, perhaps by eliminating some elements, or (better, perhaps) by using XInclude to automatically include information from the formally-structured <biblStruct> element in the header into the main header <titleStmt> and into the document's <front> tag.
2. There are some unresolved issues with regard to marking up quotations. Where a quote is followed immediately by a reference, they can be enclosed neatly in a <cit> tag, but when the reference information is introduced discursively in the text, it's harder to tie the quote to its reference. We need to investigate ways to do this, using attributes and ids, then write formal instructions for it.
3. There should also be a way to tie a <bibl> tag to the full <biblStruct> tag in the bibliography.
4. We need to look at how to formalize the classCode system, and then XInclude that information into the header of each document.
5. Running titles must be allowed for, but it's not clear exactly how we should do it. The best approach might be to use the type attribute to supply other title types in the <biblStruct>.

The first part of this task (enumeration and description of output formats) was completed on March 6. The second part has been spun off into a new task.

This is part of the detailed project plan process for the proposed teiJournal project.

teiJournal will produce a range of different output formats, including P5 XML (individual documents), P5 teiCorpus docs (volumes and the entire collection), PDFs (individual articles and volumes), and XHTML (abstracts, articles, TOCs, indexes, search interfaces etc.).

This task is to enumerate and describe in detail each of these formats, including (for instance) the default format of bibliographical info (Chicago?), layout of each format (e.g. running titles), the content of each format, and the abstracted and user-configurable aspects of each output type (font, style, page size and other choices, especially for PDF).

For each document type identified in this task, create a sample document. In at least one of the documents, include all the document features we want to cover, in mock-up form.

For the teiJournal project, make lists of:

• Major document types we need to cover (preface, article, review, review article, etc.)
• Document features we need to cover (lists, images, tables, notes, etc.)
• Major document divisions (header, front, body, back) and what will be included in each.
• Components of a journal volume (title page, publication info, toc, index, etc.)

Use ACH, ScanCan and also the DHQ Tag Zoo document as source material.

This task has been set back a bit by other priorities, but I'm also breaking it down into a series of individual, more specific tasks.

Much back-and-forth by phone and email with Peter and Scott, culminating in a cautious decision that I should go ahead and write a formal project plan, including estimated timelines, with no final decision yet on whether the project will go ahead in the end. I'll build into the plan at least two or more stages where, if we should stop the project, we'd still have something useful.

Entering this as a task with a deadline next month.