Publishing and Linking Thumbnail Graphics

The Publishing Committee created an action item to create thumbnail-large diagram capability in publishing documents. This method is above and beyond the implementation of thumbnails for publishing RMIMs. This has been accomplished, and is documented here.

It turned out that this capability was already there. It simply needed documenting, so here goes. The steps are straightforward, and assume that the committee has a large diagram that they wish to include by "thumbnail":

Creating the thumbnail and Identifying the graphics

1. Assuming that you are starting with a gif file, give it an arifact name in your domain. An example id in another domain might be "REAL_NA000020.gif".
2. Use a graphics editor to create a "thumbnail". Any editor that reduces the number of pixels in the gif file will do. The author uses Visio. Starting with the large diagram:
   1. scale the diagram down to about 3-inches wide;
   2. select the Visio File...Save as capabilty;
   3. select to output as gif;
   4. select a name that is the same as assigned above, but with "T-" prepended, such as "T-REAL_NA000020.gif"
   5. Under "Resolution" on the final panel, select "Screen" which is 96 pixels/in.
   6. save the thumbnail
3. Note that 300 pixels wide is what HL7 is using for RMIM designer graphics, but there is no hard and fast rule on width. They should not exceed 500 pixels, but anything smaller is OK.
4. Submit both files when you send your material to HQ for publishing.

Using the thumbnail in PubDb

Place both the original file and the thumbnail in the "outputgraphics" folder under the "C:\Program Files\HL7\PubDb\LocalPub\" for desk-top publishing of your material.

In your PubDb document, the thumbnail is used as the attribute value of the "source" attribute in a <graphic/> element. Be sure to use the thumbnail identifier in this reference, such as "T-REAL_NA000020.gif". The value of the "alt" attribute of this element will not be rendered and can be left empty.

Note that the <graphic/> must be inside a paragraph

element. You can either make this the only content of the paragraph, or add text. See the example provided for the impact of text upon the left-to-right positioning of the thumbnail.

Example

An example of this use can be downloaded as Media:PubsGraphicsTestExample.zip. It contains:

• a large image
• its corresponding thumbnail
• the code fragment from the PubDb that will render this, and
• A screenshot of the same content rendered in html by the HL7 publishing transforms.

The code fragment is

<div id="tst1" title="Graphics Thumbnail Test">
  <p>This paragraph uses RIM graphics to test whether the inclusion
     of thumbnails may be "automatic" in the publishing paradigm.  
     It is. There are two examples.  In this one, the thumbnail is 
     a <graphic/> element stuck in the middle of the text of 
     a paragraph.  The element "alt" tag does <b>not </b>seem to be 
     rendered, although it should be a caption. 
     <graphic source="T-REAL_NA000001.gif"/> Note that the text that 
     immediately precedes and follows the graphic element ends up 
     aligned (somewhat clumsily) with the bottom of the thumbnail.  
     The second example follows. </p>
  <p>
    <graphic source="T-REAL_NA000001.gif"/>
  </p>
  <p>This example uses a paragraph with only the the <graphic/> 
     element in it (the preceding <p/> element and this following 
     text is in a separate paragraph, leaving a thumbnail that stands 
     alone and is cleaner.</p>
</div>

Woody 13:59, 1 November 2006 (CST)