Chapter 4. How to create a new eAIP
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Chapter 4. How to create a new eAIP

Introduction

This chapter is aimed at people who support eAIP Editors in order to create their first eAIP.

Procedure

For the sake of this example, let's 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 package 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 scratch.

  1. Create a directory named EB-eAIP

  2. Create a new XML file named EB-eAIP-fr-BE.xml (we assume you use a good XML editor software 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 "C:\eAIP-pack\dtd\eAIP.dtd", but this is wrong, because the system path must be a valid URL, not a Windows path.

  4. Hopefully, at this point, your software will have automatically generated the mandatory structure of an eAIP for you in your XML file. However, the eAIP will not be valid yet, and you have a lot of work to make it valid.

  5. Edit MakeAIP.bat to change the deault parameters and add reference 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 will most certainly need help. Visit EUROCONTROL's Web site and read the eAIP Manuals for more information.

  8. When your eAIP is valid, you can split it using the eAIP Splitter (read below for an example).

Alternative method using the Specimen eAIP as a start

This method has the advantage of having complete eAIP content from the beginning. the inconvenient 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 2 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.bat to change the deault parameters and add reference 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 will most certainly need help. Visit EUROCONTROL's Web site 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 package, 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 Web site 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 needed for all your aerodromes and heliports. Remove the unneeded ones (EADD, EAZZ). You don't need to have real content in these elements: only 2 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.bat to use this directory by default.

  5. Edit MakeAIP.bat to change the deault parameters and add reference 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 will most certainly need help. Visit EUROCONTROL's Web site and read the eAIP Manuals for more information.

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