Organizing multiple interlinked documents

[aschechtman]

I have several iSilo docs that link together with external links. For iSilo for Palm, if these files are in the same folder, they find each other without problems. In iSilo for Windows, if they're both on the computer's desktop, they don't find each other.

What is the best way to place/arrange interlinking iSilo docs on a desktop (where, what folder) if they're to be accessed with iSilo for Windows?

Andrew

[iSilo]

How are you specifying your document names?

In iSiloX, when you add external document specifications, you enter into the "Document name" field the relative path of the external document file. Note that this has no dependency on how your source HTML files are organized. The way the document name field works is similar to how links work with HTML files in a browser. The URL of a link specifies exactly where the target is located. The same holds for iSilo with the specified "Document name". The "Document name" field specifies exactly where the file will be.

If you go to the "external document linking example 1" in the tutorial, you'll see that the three output documents named "DocumentA", "DocumentB", and "DocumentC" are intended to go into the same directory and the document named "Sub-Document" is intended to go into a subdirectory named SubDoc. So if all your interlinked files will go into the same directory, then you just enter the name of the file in the document name field without anything else. If an external document will be in a different directory, then you need to enter the relative path leading to the file.

On Palm OS, if the files are located in the internal database storage memory, then "iSilo for Palm OS" ignores any leading relative path parts of the file name since the internal database storage memory does not have a directory structure, but is instead a flat structure.

[aschechtman]

I am not including paths in the Document Names because I will expect both of the interlinking iSilo docs to be kept in the same folder. This works on iSilo for Palm OS.

But these same two iSilo docs do not see each other in iSilo for Windows when I have both in the same folder (on the Desktop) and drag and drop both into iSilo for Windows.

Andrew

[aschechtman]

I think I just answered my own question.

In iSilo for Palm OS or PocketPC, the file name (ie. DocumentA.pdb) can be different from the Document name as it is designated in iSiloX and as it shows up on the iSilo for Palm OS or PocketPC document list. The external links look for the file based on its document name without regard to the file name.

In iSilo for Windows, this seems not to be the case. While cross-linking of two iSilo docs was not working for me before, when I changed the file names to match the Document Name (as set in the External Link tab), then these two iSilo files found each other without a problem.

It brings up a thought about a possible new feature for iSilo for Windows. In iSilo for Palm/PPC, when one opens iSilo one essentially sees a list of all the iSilo docs on ones PDA by using the various tabs. It would be nice if iSilo for Windows had a parallel feature where it kept track of where previously opened iSilo documents were and offered a pick list to open them rather than needing to locate them in a file directory using the Open option on the File menu. It seems like this feature in iSilo for Windows might also allow it to perform more similarly to iSilo for Palm/PPC when handling external document links.

Andrew

[iSilo]

The behavior is the same between them all in that there is no file name guessing of mangling done aside from the following: For a file located on a file system, iSilo will attempt to open the file name exactly as is first. If that fails, it checks to see whether the name has a .pdb extension. If it does, it tries without the .pdb extension. If it does not, it tries with the .pdb extension.

Note that in "iSilo for Windows", if you categorize your documents, you can use the "Open Categorized" command in the file menu to have quick access to all your categorized documents no matter which directory the individual files are located.

[aschechtman]

Not to beat a dead horse or anything but . . .

Perhaps from a programmer's perspective the behavior is the same. But from a user's perspective I know that for one I need to change the filename to get it to work and for the other I don't.

For instance, I may have three iSilo documents which are different versions of a single document (call them ABC-version1, ABC-version2, ABC-version3). I use the same iSilo Document Name (ABC) for each when creating them in iSiloX because I want only one version to stay on the PDA and if another is installed I want it to overwrite the previous one. To keep the different versions separate on my desktop computer, after iSiloX compiles them as ABC.pdb, I re-assign them a different filename (ie. ABC-version1.pdb) so I can distinguish the files from each version from one another.

In iSilo for Palm, if the document named ABC with filename ABC-version1.pdb is targetted with an external link from another iSilo document, all will work well. It seems to target the file based on its document name not its file name. In iSilo for Windows, it will not work as it does in iSilo for Palm unless I rename ABC-version1.pdb as ABC.pdb.

Andrew

[iSilo]

The following point in the iSiloX documentation deserves emphasis as this seems to be where the confusion is:
Note that on Palm OS that if a file is stored in the internal storage memory that the document title serves as the file name, so when converting external documents, it is best to ensure that the document title and document file name are the same. Also, on Palm OS, when a document is stored in the internal storage memory, any external documents to which it links must also be stored in the internal memory, and in this case, the reader application ignores the directory part of external document paths.
The issue on Palm OS is that databases stored in the internal database storage memory are identified by their internal title, the one that is in the database header. There is no separate file name since the internal database storage memory is not a traditional file system.

This issue is actually the reason why the new feature of being able to specify multiple filenames was added.

[iSilo]

To clarify your situation on iSilo for Palm OS, presumably you have the file installed to the internal database storage memory, or else what you say would actually not work. If you installed all three of ABC-version1, ABC-version2, and ABC-version3 to the internal database storage memory of your Palm OS device, one after another you'll find that you will only have one copy and that copy will have a database name of ABC. Each subsequent file that you installed overwrote the one before it since each of their internal database names is the same. But if you copied all three files to a memory card or any other destination with a traditional file system, you'll have all three copies there, named ABC-version1, ABC-version2, and ABC-version3.

[aschechtman]

Very interesting. Thanks for the clarification. It's a quirk of the Palm OS internal file naming system that has created the phenomenon I've noticed. I'll have to pay more attention to ensure file names and document names are the same so I don't run into trouble with non-Palm OS users or folks storing on expansion cards.

Andrew