Hi Alan,
This customization pretty much does what you
want. It turns out I didn't have to change the book template, only the way
the chapters were handled. I copied match="chapter" template from
fo/component.xsl, and changed the match on it to only match on the first chapter
in a sequence: "chapter[1]". That chapter forms the page-sequence, formats
its content, and then processes the following-sibling chapters within the same
page sequence, but in a new mode="chapter.merge".
The chapter.merge template skips all the
page-sequence stuff and just processes the chapter content. I had to
define an empty template to match on these other chapters in the default mode so
that they were not processed twice.
The result should be a single-page sequence
containing all the chapter content.
<xsl:template match="chapter[1]"
priority="1">
<xsl:variable name="id">
<xsl:call-template name="object.id"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable
name="master-reference">
<xsl:call-template
name="select.pagemaster"/>
</xsl:variable>
<fo:page-sequence
hyphenate="{$hyphenate}"
master-reference="{$master-reference}">
<xsl:attribute name="language">
<xsl:call-template name="l10n.language"/>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute
name="format">
<xsl:call-template
name="page.number.format">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference"
select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute
name="initial-page-number">
<xsl:call-template
name="initial.page.number">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference"
select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute
name="force-page-count">
<xsl:call-template
name="force.page.count">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference"
select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute
name="hyphenation-character">
<xsl:call-template
name="gentext">
<xsl:with-param name="key"
select="'hyphenation-character'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute
name="hyphenation-push-character-count">
<xsl:call-template
name="gentext">
<xsl:with-param name="key"
select="'hyphenation-push-character-count'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:attribute
name="hyphenation-remain-character-count">
<xsl:call-template
name="gentext">
<xsl:with-param name="key"
select="'hyphenation-remain-character-count'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:apply-templates
select="." mode="running.head.mode">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference"
select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
<xsl:apply-templates
select="." mode="running.foot.mode">
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference"
select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
<fo:flow
flow-name="xsl-region-body">
<xsl:call-template
name="set.flow.properties">
<xsl:with-param name="element"
select="local-name(.)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="master-reference"
select="$master-reference"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<fo:block
id="{$id}"
xsl:use-attribute-sets="component.titlepage.properties">
<xsl:call-template
name="chapter.titlepage"/>
</fo:block>
<xsl:variable
name="toc.params">
<xsl:call-template
name="find.path.params">
<xsl:with-param name="table"
select="normalize-space($generate.toc)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:if
test="contains($toc.params,
'toc')">
<xsl:call-template
name="component.toc">
<xsl:with-param name="toc.title.p"
select="contains($toc.params,
'title')"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template
name="component.toc.separator"/>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::chapter"
mode="chapter.merge"/>
</fo:flow>
</fo:page-sequence>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="chapter" />
<xsl:template match="chapter"
mode="chapter.merge">
<xsl:variable
name="id">
<xsl:call-template
name="object.id"/>
</xsl:variable>
<fo:block
id="{$id}"
xsl:use-attribute-sets="component.titlepage.properties">
<xsl:call-template
name="chapter.titlepage"/>
</fo:block>
<xsl:variable
name="toc.params">
<xsl:call-template
name="find.path.params">
<xsl:with-param name="table"
select="normalize-space($generate.toc)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:if
test="contains($toc.params,
'toc')">
<xsl:call-template
name="component.toc">
<xsl:with-param name="toc.title.p"
select="contains($toc.params,
'title')"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template
name="component.toc.separator"/>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
----- Original Message -----
From:
Alan
Oehler
To:
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:47
AM
Subject: [docbook-apps] Page breaks at
chapters
I’ve been trying to get a book to have no page breaks
before chapters in the PDF output. Bob Stayton offered the advice that “a chapter element
generates a page-sequence in FO output, and a page sequence always starts on a
new page. If you want to use book and chapter, you'll need to customize
both templates so that book generates a page-sequence for all your content,
and chapter does not.”
I took a look at
the book and chapter templates but it was a bit murky to me how they generate
page sequences and how to accomplish what Bob suggests. Does anyone have any
further clarification that they can offer?
Thanks in
advance,
Alan
Alan C.
Oehler
Sr. Technical
Writer
Citrix Systems,
Inc.
Virtualization & Management
Division
