Chapter 6. How to Create a New eAIP
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Chapter 6. How to Create a New eAIP

Introduction

This chapter is aimed at people who support eAIP Editors in creating their first eAIP.

Note

In order to publish an eAIP, it is necessary to also write an eAIP description file. Please see the Create eAIP documentation for more information.

Procedure

For the purpose of this example, we will assume that we are creating a new eAIP for Belgium, in French. The ICAO country code is EB and the ISO language code is fr-BE. Also, the eAIP Core Toolbox has been installed in a directory named eAIP-pack and all commands are issued from that directory.

First Method: The Hard (but Clean) Way

In this method, we start a new eAIP from the beginning.

  1. Create a directory named EB-eAIP;

  2. Create a new XML file named EB-eAIP-fr-BE.xml (it is assumed that good XML editor software is being used from now on);

  3. Assign the DTD: the system path should be "../dtd/eAIP.dtd" or the official URL of the DTD (for example: (http://www.eurocontrol.int/ais/ahead/eAIP/dtd/1.0.3/eAIP.dtd"); note that setting a complete path such as "C:\eAIP-pack\dtd\eAIP.dtd" is wrong because the system path must be a valid URL, not a Windows path;

  4. At this point, your software should have automatically generated the mandatory structure of an eAIP in your XML file. However, the eAIP will not be valid yet;

  5. Edit MakeAIP-core.bat to change the default parameters and add references to the new aerodromes and heliports;

  6. Edit EB-eAIP-fr-BE.xml to update all attributes on the "e:eAIP" element;

  7. Edit the other XML files to replace text from the Specimen AIP with your AIP text. At this point, you may require further assistance. Visit EUROCONTROL's website and read the eAIP Manuals for more information;

  8. When your eAIP is valid, it may be split by using the eAIP Splitter (see below for an example).

Alternative Method Using the Specimen eAIP as a Foundation

This method has the advantage of having complete eAIP content from the beginning. The inconvenience is that this content will eventually need to be replaced or removed.

  1. Copy eAIP-pack/eAIP to a new directory named eAIP-pack/EB-eAIP; from now on, we will only work in this new directory;

  2. Rename all EC-*-en-GB.xml files, replacing "EC" by "EB" and "en-GB" by "fr-BE";

  3. Copy EB-AD-2.EADD-fr-BE.xml for each of your airports, renaming the files with the relevant ICAO airport code;

  4. Repeat previous step with EB-AD-3.EADH-fr-BE.xml for each heliport;

  5. Edit EB-eAIP-fr-BE.xml to add references to your new airports and heliports files (based on the example with EADD and EADH), in two places:

    • At the end of the DOCTYPE section;

    • At the end of the file, within e:AD-2 and e:AD-3 elements.

  6. Edit MakeAIP-core.bat to change the default parameters and add references to the new aerodromes and heliports;

  7. Edit EB-eAIP-fr-BE.xml to update all attributes on the "e:eAIP" element;

  8. Edit the other XML files to replace text from the Specimen AIP with your AIP text. At this point, you may require further assistance. Visit EUROCONTROL's website and read the eAIP Manuals for more information.

Alternative Method Using XSLT

This method makes use of the XSLT identity transformation provided within the eAIP Core Toolbox, in the tools/Splitter directory.

  1. Create a new directory named eAIP-split in the eAIP "package" directory;

  2. From within the eAIP "package" directory, run an identity transformation on the Specimen eAIP: "java -jar tools/saxon/saxon.jar -o eAIP-split/eAIP-full.xml eAIP/EC-eAIP-en-GB.xml tools/Splitter/ns-identity-dtd.xslt". Note: the new eAIP will declare the official eAIP DTD on EUROCONTROL's website in its DOCTYPE section; if you don't have direct access to the internet, you should change it to "../dtd/eAIP.dtd";

  3. Edit eAIP-full.xml:

    1. update the e:eAIP element (root element): set ICAO-country-code and xml:lang attributes to your country code and AIP language;

    2. update the content of the e:GEN-2.4 element: remove all existing Location-definition elements and add new ones for all your aerodromes and heliports;

    3. copy the e:Aerodrome and e:Heliport elements of EADZ and EADH as many times as required for all your aerodromes and heliports. Remove the redundant ones (EADD, EAZZ). You do not need to have real content in these elements: only two things are important: (1) the Ref attribute must refer to the id attribute of the corresponding Location-definition element, and (2) eAIP-full.xml must be valid.

  4. Split eAIP-full.xml: "java -jar tools/saxon/saxon.jar eAIP-split/eAIP-full.xml tools/Splitter/ns-eAIP-splitter.xslt". eAIP-split directory now contains your split eAIP. Rename this directory to EB-eAIP, for example. Edit the default parameters of MakeAIP-core.bat to use this directory by default;

  5. Edit MakeAIP-core.bat to change the default parameters and add references to the new aerodromes and heliports;

  6. Edit EB-eAIP-fr-BE.xml to update all attributes on the "e:eAIP" element;

  7. Edit the other XML files to replace text from the Specimen AIP with your AIP text. At this point, you may require further assistance. Visit EUROCONTROL's website and read the eAIP Manuals for more information.

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Chapter 5. MakeAIP-core.bat Documentation Home Chapter 7. How to Create an eAIP