Below are some of the features that make dita so valuable for technical communicators. The package also includes a stylesheet for merging all the documents referenced by a. Pdx dita a dita users group in the portland, oregon. Depending on what you are looking for, these files are great for learning more about the practical aspects of using dita. Creating intelligent content with lightweight dita documents the evolution of the darwin information typing architecture dita a widely used open standard for structuring technical content. Mar 17, 2014 typically, the javadoc tool from sun microsystems is used to generate java api reference documentation from java source code. An xmlbased technical documentation authoring and publishing architecture michael priestley, gretchen hargis, and susan carpenter t his column examines emerging technologies of interest to technical communicators to help them identify those that are worthy of further investigation. The map may contain numerous topics, nested topics, links between topics, and other information to organize content.
Note that any dita map specialisation should be handled in a similar manner to the book map specialisation, as the implementation works off the class attributes of the elements to determine whether a topic reference has been found. While the dita standard is owned and developed by oasis, the dita open toolkit project is governed separately. The topic references therefore are labeled according to the book components they point to, such as booktitle, frontmatter, chapter, and appendix. The generated book contains these converted framemaker documents in the same hierarchical structure as the dita map. The information unit used to compose a dita document is called a topic. The javadoc tool generates the basic structure for the java api reference documentation, but the documentation is often incomplete and limited to developer comments.
Map the element provides information about the relationships between topics. Darwin information typing architecture dita is an international xml standard for writing and delivering information. The element describes the relationships among a set of resources, such as dita topics. Think of a map as a book binder and topics as pages. The darwin information typing architecture dit a is an architecture for topicbased, structured xml authoring. The darwin information typing architecture dita is an xmlbased, endtoend architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. Creating intelligent content with lightweight dita 1st. Ditafmx is a plugin and set of structure applications that let you create and. Dita maps are the glue that binds your topics together, the driver for producing your output, and the information path for your users to follow. Dita supports a single source that can output multiple formats. In the context of a book, each chapter could have its own dita map, listing the topics in that chapter, and then a map for the entire book can list just the maps for each chapter. Their responsive web help thats only available for dita looks very promising too. While dita historically has been driven by the requirements of largescale technical documentation authoring, management, and delivery, it is a standard that is applicable to any kind of publication or information that might be presented to readers, including interactive training and educational materials, standards. Wellstructured dita maps are vital to the usability of online and print documentation because they are the basis for navigating and linking content.
As opposed to standards that support long, book oriented writing, dita is optimized for creating content in small, discrete units called topics that you then can organize in different ways to product output deliverables. Sep 28, 2005 the darwin information typing architecture dita is an xmlbased, endtoend architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. The containing element for a bookmap is the element, which can. From the book map, locate open the chapter map file, and then locate and open the particular topic files to be updated. See appendix for information about this element in oasis document type shells. The majority of documentation teams out there still follow this model, and keith schengiliroberts, market researcher and dita evangelist, noted, theres nothing wrong with that. The problems with waterfall, however, are that it is prone to failure, and does not deal with change or adapting to customer needs gracefully.
This example illustrates how one map can reference a subordinate map using either or the basic element. By the way, madcap flare does a reasonable job of importing a dita map and topics if you want to output to one of the flare outputs like webhelp or even pdf. The package also includes a stylesheet for merging all the documents referenced by a map into a single dita file. The darwin information typing architecture dita is an endtoend, xmlbased architecture for authoring, managing, and publishing your organizations technical content. This fourlesson course introduces you to dita maps and bookmaps. The dita map and mapgroup domain elements organize topics into hierarchies, groups, and relationships. The default value will increase with each release of dita. A current limitation is that the attribute names cannot be specialised. As its name suggests, a topic addresses a single subject. Bookmaps consist of references to topics organized as book content. Introduction to the darwin information typing architecture. Darwin information typing architecture dita is todays most powerful toolbox for constructing information.
This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating informationtyped modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and product support portals on the web. The map element describes the relationships among a set of resources, such as dita topics. Displaying topic titles in the dita map view ixiasoft. Wellstructured dita maps are vital to the usability of online and print documentation because they are the basis for. Dita expert eliot kimber takes you inside the dita xml standard, explaining the architecture and technology that make dita unique. Publishing smarter dita primer learn the dita basics. A dita map describes the relationships among a set of dita topics. See plugin installation documentation plugin installation documentation plugin installation documentation for next steps. Each topicmap in the dita map, gets added to the framemaker book in the xml format itself. Introduction to dita, the dita concept topic type, the dita task topic type, and the dita reference and glossary topic types. The dita package includes xslt stylesheets that enable you, with a single command, to transform all the documents referenced by a map to html and build a table of contents that links to all of them. The original html source for the derby documentation was converted to dita to create an easy solution for requirements such as creating pdf outputs or single html files for each manual see the derby documentation in pdf format thread. The overall contents of a dita document are specified using a topic map also simply called a map.
If you want to create an abridged version of a book, you can use another dita map to cherrypick the topics or maps you want to use in the shorter version. All dtds are valid and creation of instances based on my bddoc dtds is working correct. Finally, update the boilerplate topics like preface, license, glossary, etc. Dita fmx is a plugin and set of structure applications that let you create and. Dita open toolkit is a vendorindependent, opensource implementation of the dita standard, released under the apache license, version 2. The dita bookmap document type enables you to organize references to dita topics and other resources into a traditional book format. Originally designed for technical publications, dita is being used for a variety of document types including marketing materials, policies and. Mar 17, 2015 in the context of a book, each chapter could have its own dita map, listing the topics in that chapter, and then a map for the entire book can list just the maps for each chapter. Veterans health administration both participate on dita committees, and i personally helped migrate the product documentation for itt fluid technologies manufacturer of pumps and valves. Donations the ditaot pdf plugin generator is developed as a spare time project by jarno elovirta and is available for use free of charge. Now we are considering moving our documentation from docbook to dita.
This would enable us to integrate the creation of the documentation into our build process without much effort by using the plugin from oxygen. Mar 22, 2017 demo of adobe framemaker, justsystems xmetal, and oxygen xml with dita maps. This language reference describes the elements that comprise the topic dtd and its initial, infotyped descendents. In a bookmap, highestlevel topicref elements in your dita map become chapters in the. Then i can use these familiar names as the link references in my dita documentation. The bookmap element is a map specialization used to describe the relationships among a set of dita topics intended to be configured as a traditional book. Dita was designed to meet the evolving needs of organizations in the face of todays business requirements for managing and publishing content for multiple products.
Structure the book is 248 pages long, and, in addition to the appendix just described, contains an introduction, and nine chapters. Adobe techcomm blog all about output from dita maps with. Structured authoring enforces structure to the authoring of documents. We encourage you to complete the other classes before taking this class. Well kick this effort off with a meetup for old and new dita practitioners and friends on march 6th from 5. While dita historically has been driven by the requirements of largescale technical documentation authoring, management, and delivery, it is a standard that is applicable to any kind of publication or information that might be presented to readers, including interactive training and.
The element is a map specialization used to describe the relationships among a set of dita topics intended to be configured as a traditional book. For example, consider the following chapter in a map. Typically, the javadoc tool from sun microsystems is used to generate java api reference documentation from java source code. The reason dita has too much built into the content model itself, i think, is that it was built around the idea that anyone should be able to just download the package the dtdschema and the open source dita open toolkit, and work with files on a local file system, without the need for any programmatic processing or the use of a database. Adobe techcomm blog adobe dita world 2017 day 3 summary. My starting point was to create a copy of the sma arbortext application and then create my own specialized bddocconcept, bddocreference, bddocbookmap etc. Dita language reference overview the design of the darwin information typing architecture dita is based on deriving multiple information types, or infotypes, from a common, generic topic. Dita maps have unique attributes that are designed to control the way that relationships are interpreted for different output purposes. Recent years have seen many changes in the methods of delivering information to users. The darwin information typing architecture dita is an xmlbased method for writing and delivering information in a variety of forms.
Now, three dita pioneers offer the first complete roadmap for successful dita adoption, implementation, and usage. If the toc needs any changes, update the either the chapter map, book map, or both of them. Demo of adobe framemaker, justsystems xmetal, and oxygen xml with dita maps. These models represent only the default document types distributed by oasis. Sep 27, 2010 dita has gained widespread adoption in the technical documentation world, in companies such as cisco, ibm of course, nokia, and oracle. Dita darwin information typing architecture is an xmlbased, endtoend architecture for authoring, producing, and deli vering information often called content as discrete, typed topics. Consult the dita documentation to fully understand the structure of a dita bookmap and where to create each element. The following code sample illustrates how a dita map can use the specialized element to reference another dita map. A dita map is a container for topics used to transform a collection of content into a publication. Volume 1 of his twovolume exploration of dita starts with a handson explanation of endtoend dita processing that will get you up and running fast.
As opposed to standards that support long, bookoriented writing, dita is optimized for creating content in small, discrete units called topics that you then can organize in different ways to product output deliverables. Apr 23, 2012 dita expert eliot kimber takes you inside the dita xml standard, explaining the architecture and technology that make dita unique. Dita has grown in popularity and features since its origins as an internal grammar for structuring technical documentation at ibm. The toolkit supports all versions of the oasis dita specification, including 1. No further development or enhancements will be made to this version. For each drupal article theyre called nodes in drupal lingo, theres a permalink, like node123. Generate dita java api reference documentation using. It is intended neither as an endorsement of any technol. Maps consist of references to topics, maps, and other resources organized into hierarchies, groups, and tables.
Dita maps are documents that organize topics and other resources into structured collections of information. By implementing dita, organizations can gain more value from their technical documentation than ever before. While dita was originally developed to meet ibms technical documentation requirements the dita architecture is completely general and can therefore be used productively for any kind of document. The advent of the extensible markup language xml and rapid adoption of topicbased content standards like dita have forced us to separate. Features provides dita map and top ic authoring commands as well as enhanced dita features. It is fair to say that standard dita tools dont currently provide a means for creating map and alias files used by help compilers, but may soon do so. Dita supports a number of features that are very useful for writers of technical documentation. Xmldita structured authoring training course program india. The history of dita is the history of its many powerful characteristics modularity, structured writing, information typing, separation of content from presentation, singlesourcing, minimalism, topicbased, taskorientation, content reuse, conditional processing, localizationfriendly, multichannel, component publishing, usability, consistency, objectorientation, inheritance. This course builds on what you learned in the four preceding classes.
While many tools and methods are available for producing documentation, one that has been attracting a lot of attention from technical writers is dita. Sep 09, 2019 a dita document is necessarily modular. A framemaker book is created based on the dita map. This post is to announce we will be resuming quarterly meetings of our pdx dita user group, which has been a bit sleepy the last couple of years. Framemaker a standard documentation tool and other xmlbased solutions such as docbook use the traditional, fairly rigid book chaptersection metaphorthe book is a container that contains chapters, which in turn contains individual sections describing an idea or a task. Dita maps specify hierarchy and the relationships among the topics.
A map can include relationship tables reltables that define hyperlinks between topics. Project file if the principal differences between a chm file and contextsensitive chm file are window definitions and context hooks. Donations the dita ot pdf plugin generator is developed as a spare time project by jarno elovirta and is available for use free of charge. Maps can reference topics or other maps, and can contain a variety of content types and metadata. Conditional publishing based on the use of a val file is included. Dita has gained widespread adoption in the technical documentation world, in companies such as cisco, ibm of course, nokia, and oracle. This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating informationtyped modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and. The dita map and map group domain elements organize topics into hierarchies, groups, and relationships. These are not necessarily examples of good topicbased authoring or proper use of.
819 825 695 1432 783 1295 171 1457 1046 252 848 980 778 522 1457 109 1225 1304 35 325 1244 102 1245 925 213 1387 290 969 453 518 838 1435 943 483 1068 1621 1520 1293 780 1070 850 883 179 996 528 227