dita 101 -- why the buzz
TRANSCRIPT
DITA 101: Why the Buzz?
Sarah O'KeefeScriptorium Publishing
About the presenter
Sarah O'KeefeFounder and president, Scriptorium PublishingConsultantExperienced with lots of different publishing ideas, including XML and DITA
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...we've got answersType any questions in the Question and Answer area of the GoToWebinar barSharon Burton, MadCap Product manager, will do her best to answerI will provide contact information if you need to follow up after the webinar
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Overview
What is DITA?Key DITA conceptsTypical scenarios for DITAIs DITA right for you?
What is DITA?
Darwin Information Typing ArchitectureDarwin – because you can evolve new elements from existing elementsInformation Typing – content is categorized as task, reference, conceptArchitecture – includes components for reuse, single sourcing, and generating output
Developed by IBM, maintained by OASIS
Why is DITA important? Is DITA important?
Structured authoring is creating content with programmatic enforcement of the required structureDITA is a gateway to structured authoring
What is DITA, really?
XML standardBuilt for topic-oriented authoringA way to work in XML without having to design your own structure?A major buzzword in tech commCost-effective way to create, publish, reuse, and exchange structured content
DITA components
Document type definitions (DTDs)Open Toolkit for generating output
HTML, Eclipse help, CHM, and others through XSLPDF through XSL-FO
Documentation
DITA publishing
DITA topics
DITA Open Toolkit
HTMLCHMPDFEclipse help…
DITA map fileDITA topics
Links
<topic>...</topic>
DITA map file
<map> <topic>... </topic> <topic>... </topic></map>
What DITA is not
It's more like this...
Is DITA better than XML?
Which is better?
DITA's niche
Topic-oriented, modular contentContent reuseInformation exchange with other organizationSemantic requirements are minimalBasic metadata (audience, platform, output) is adequate
DITA strengths
Topic-oriented, modularSupport for reuse of topics (map files)Support for reuse of content (content references)Specialization mechanism for customization of content model
DITA weaknesses
Generic content modelOutput through Open Toolkit is rudimentarySpecialization can be challenging
DITA topic (simplified)
<topic id=”seuss”><title>One tag, two tag</title><body>
<p>Red tag, blue</p> <p>Black tag, blue tag, old tag, new tag</p> <p>This one has a little car</p> <p>This one has a little star</p> <note>Say, what a lot of tags there are!</note></body>
</topic>
<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE dita PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Composite//EN" "ditabase.dtd"><dita> <topic id="aardvark" audience="internal"> <title>Aardvark</title> <body> <p>Aardvarks eat mostly termites. </p> <p>Do not take the aardvarks' offer to help deal with your termite problem. You will <b>not</b> like the results.</p> <note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food.</note> </body> </topic> </dita>
Key DITA concepts
TopicsMap filesContent references (conrefs)Specialization
Topics
Requires writing modular contentThink about consistency and making pieces reusableA writing challenge rather than a technology challenge
Map files
Let you organize topics sequentially and hierarchicallyBasis for creating books, help, deliverables
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd">
rev="1" title="Zoo Policies" xml:lang="en-us">
<topicmeta>
<author>Sarah</author>
<critdates>
<created date="2006/10/31"/>
<revised modified="2009/01/31"/>
</critdates>
</topicmeta>
<topicref href="Animal_nutrition.xml" navtitle="Animal nutrition" type="reference">
<topicref href="Aardvark.xml" navtitle="Aardvark" type="topic"/>
<topicref href="Baboon.xml" navtitle="Baboon" type="topic"/>
<topicref href="Crane.xml" navtitle="Crane" type="topic"/>
<topicref href="Dingo.xml" navtitle="Dingo" type="topic"/>
</topicref>
<topicref href="Visitor_behavior.xml" navtitle="Visitor behavior" type="topic">
<topicref href="Adults.xml" navtitle="Adults" type="topic"/>
<topicref href="Children.xml" navtitle="Children" type="topic"/>
</topicref>
</map>
conrefs <topic id="aardvark">
...
<note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food.
…
<topic>
Named destination in Aardvark.xml
id="baboon"><title>Baboon</title><body>
<p>Baboons eat mostly fruit.</p> <p> <note conref="Aardvark.xml#aardvark/nofeeding"/> </p>
</body></topic>
Link in Baboon.xml
Specialization
Lets you create additional elements without breaking DITA Open Toolkit processing.New element is a specialization of the base element.This is what put the D in DITA.
The structure you need versus the structure you have...
CustomizationSubsettingSpecialization
Customization
Subsetting
Specialization
Business case for XML
Content exchangeDatabase publishingReuse content/reduce duplicationAutomated formatting/publishingCompliance
Beyond XML's business case, DITA may...
Reduce content modeling effortMake content truly portableSupport content reuseTake advantage of software supportProvide output optionsReduce overall cost of implementation
Reduce content modeling effort
Assume that DITA structure is a reasonable matchSpeed up the transition to structureBut what if DITA doesn't match?Does your industryhave specialrequirements?
Make content truly portable
Do you need to send content to a customer, partner, vendor, other department?Will they standardize on DITA?
Support content reuse
Map files for topic reuseconrefs for smaller reuse
Software support
DITA support found in many (most?) XML authoring toolsSome tools support only DITA and not general XML
Provide output options
XHTML, HTML Help, PDF, Eclipse, DocBook, JavaHelp, troff, Word RTF through DITA Open ToolkitStarting point for outputNot suitable for production workflowCustomization is difficult and time-consuming
Is DITA right for you?
Yes.
DITA meets all requirements.A business partner or customer requires DITA content.Single sourcing is a requirement.No existing content.Can be flexible with markup requirements to make implementation faster.
No.
Content must conform to a specific standard, such as S1000DContent is and should remain narrative.Semantic requirements are industry-specific, complex, and/or strict.
Maybe
DITA is not an exact match.Customization/specialization would be required.
Questions
Thanks!
Thank you to Madcap Software for organizing.Thank you to participants for attending.