xml2rfc

Mar '08 release

After seven months, version 1.33 is now available. (This version is equivalent to pre-release 8 of 1.33 with a few last minute changes.) Here's the README file.

Living on the edge?

Conversion

1. Download xml2rfc as a zip or tgz file, or
2. Try your results in this handy converter form:

Citation Libraries

Helpful Hints

Normative References

If you need to have multiple references sections, try something like this:

    <back>
    <references title='Normative References'>
    ...
    </references>
    <references title='Informative References'>
    ...
    </references>
    </back>

That's right: the <references/> element may occur more than once in the back section, and has an optional 'title' attribute.

Including files

Use the XML external entity mechanism, e.g.,

    <?xml version='1.0'?>
    <!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM 'rfc2629.dtd' [

      <!ENTITY rfc2629 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2629.xml'>

    ]>

    ...

    <t>This document was constructed using the <xref target="RFC2629" /> DTD.</t>

    ...

    <references>
    ...
    &rfc2629;
    ...
    </references>

Note that this syntax is rather pedantic, i.e., you declare the entity toward the top of your file and then you invoke it exactly once (using an "&") in the <references/> element to include it.

Take a look at this file, provided by Dan Kohn. In addition to showing a complete example, it also works with the XSL transformation written by Julian Reschke and the DTD. (Depending on the capabilities of your browser, instead of clicking on these links directly, you may want to download these three files using "Save Target As...")

To try out this sample, you'll need to put all three files in the same directory. Also, note that some XSLT processors disable the use of external entities, you may need to check "Preferences" to see if there's an option to enable their use.

Notes for Authors

Templates

The IETF Tools Team maintains a library of templates you can use for different kinds of drafts.

Using your source file

When submitting an Internet-Draft using the IETF Internet-Draft Submission Tool, you can upload the XML source file in addition to the text file. If your draft is approved for publication as an RFC, the RFC Editor will retrieve the XML file from the I-D repository, or you can submit it directly to the RFC Editor.

When published

To improve the quality of the citation library, send a copy of the updated XML file here. Thanks!