november 2005 © 2004, 2005 ibm corporation presentation subtitle: 20pt arial regular, teal r045 |...

November 2005 © 2004, 2005 IBM Corporation

DITA specialization demonstration

Michael PriestleyIBM®

DITA specialization © 2004, 2005 IBM Corporation2

Overview of demonstrations

Creating samples (in base markup, then in specialized markup)

Identifying new tags

Creating the structural specialization

Creating the domain specialization

Adding override processing

Summary


Creating samples

Always easiest to start with something concrete and then figure out the general rules

So start by authoring a sample document in the closest existing information type

Then go through and rename tags that should be more specific

Then reverse-engineer the document type from its instance


Sample: A task for a wizard

Assuming that wizards do sometimes require documentation

A series of screens with next, back, and finish buttons

Let's say that each wizard task needs to describe how to open and finish the wizard, with one step per page in between

Can use markup to enforce consistency

Can also use special markup for the wizard title and the wizard-specific controls (next and finish)

This sample is for demonstration purposes only, not a best practice

Sample using task.dtd (mytask.xml)<task id="atest">

<title>Creating a foo</title><taskbody>

<steps><step>

<cmd>Click <menucascade> <uicontrol>File</uicontrol> <uicontrol>New</uicontrol> <uicontrol>Foo</uicontrol> </menucascade> to open the <wintitle>New Foo</wintitle> wizard.</cmd>

<info>The <wintitle>New Foo</wintitle> wizard opens to the Name page, where you provide a name for the foo.</info>

</step><step>

<cmd>Click <uicontrol>Next</uicontrol> and turn to the <wintitle>Properties</wintitle> page.</cmd><info>The Properties page lets you define the color and shape of your foo.</info><substeps>

<substep><cmd>Set the color of the foo using the color wheel.</cmd></substep><substep><cmd>Set the shape of the foo using the shape selection bar.</cmd>

<info>You can edit the shape of the foo after you create it; this shape is just your starting point.</info></substep>

</substeps></step><step>

<cmd>Click <uicontrol>Next</uicontrol> and turn to the <wintitle>Location</wintitle> page.</cmd><info>Select the project you want to save your foo in.</info></step>

<step><cmd>Click <uicontrol>Finish</uicontrol> to close the wizard and create your foo.</cmd></step></steps><result>The foo, with the shape and color you selected, should appear in your project folder.</result>

</taskbody></task>


Sample output from mytask.xml

Sample with renamed tags<wiztask id="btest">

<title>Creating a foo</title><wiztaskbody>

<wizsteps><wizopen>

<cmd>Click <menucascade> <uicontrol>File</uicontrol> <uicontrol>New</uicontrol> <uicontrol>Foo</uicontrol> </menucascade> to open the <wiztitle>New Foo</wiztitle> wizard.</cmd>

<info>The <wiztitle>New Foo</wiztitle> wizard opens to the Name page, where you provide a name for the foo.</info>

</wizopen><wizpage>

<cmd>Click <wiznext>Next</wiznext> and turn to the <wintitle>Properties</wintitle> page.</cmd><info>The Properties page lets you define the color and shape of your foo.</info>

<substeps><substep><cmd>Set the color of the foo using the color wheel.</cmd></substep><substep><cmd>Set the shape of the foo using the shape selection bar.</cmd>

<info>You can edit the shape of the foo after you create it; this shape is just your starting point.</info></substep> </substeps>

</wizpage><wizpage>>

<cmd>Click <wiznext>Next</wiznext> and turn to the <wintitle>Location</wintitle> page.</cmd><info>Select the project you want to save your foo in.</info></wizpage>

<wizclose><cmd>Click <wizfinish>Finish</wizfinish> to close the wizard and create your foo.</cmd></wizclose>

</wizsteps> <result>The foo, with the shape and color you selected, should appear in your project folder.</result> </wiztaskbody></wiztask>


Identify structural and domain tags

Structural - tags you need in certain places, plus their containerswiztask (from task)

wizbody (from body)

wizsteps (from steps)

wizopen, wizpage, wizclose (from step)

Domain - tags you want made available wherever their ancestor elements are available

wiztitle (from wintitle)

wiznext (from uicontrol)

wizfinish (from uicontrol)


Creating the structural specialization

Copy the parent module (task.mod) to a new module (wiztask.mod)Keep anything related to task, taskbody, steps, and step

Three main sections: entities, element declarations, specialization attributes

In the entity section, delete everything except the DTD entity, included-domains entity, and entities for elements you're specializing, and the task-info-types entity

In the element section, delete everything except the elements you're specializing

In the specialization attributes section, delete everything except the elements you're specializing

Specialize entities

In the entities section, change entity names and values from task ones to wiztask ones

eg: <!ENTITY % task "task"> becomes

<!ENTITY % wiztask "wiztask">

you'll need to create three copies of step, since step has three specializations (wizopen, wizpage, wizclose)

eg: <!ENTITY % step "step"> becomes

<!ENTITY % wizopen "wizopen">

<!ENTITY % wizpage "wizpage">

<!ENTITY % wizclose "wizclose">

This prepares your specialized elements for extension by domains Rename task-info-types entity to wiztask-info-types

This prepares your module for integration with other modules in a DTD

Specialize elements

In the elements section, rename the element and attribute declarations to wiztask equivalents, and rename and adjust entities in the content model where you have changed entities from the original. For example:

<!ELEMENT steps ((%step;)+)>

<!ATTLIST steps %univ-atts;

outputclass CDATA #IMPLIED>>

becomes:<!ELEMENT wizsteps ((%wizopen;), (%wizpage;)?, (%wizclose;))>

<!ATTLIST wizsteps %univ-atts;

outputclass CDATA #IMPLIED> Again, you need three copies of the declaration for <step>, since it gets

specialized to <wizopen>, <wizpage>, and <wizclose>

Specialize specialization attributes

Add copies of the entry for step, since you need to specialize it three times

Rename the attribute declarations to point to your new element names

To the end of each attribute value string, add wiztask/elementname

For example:<!ATTLIST steps %global-atts; class CDATA "- topic/ol task/steps ">

becomes:<!ATTLIST wizsteps %global-atts; class CDATA "- topic/ol task/steps wiztask/wizsteps ">

Make sure you include a space after the value before the string closes


Result: wiztask.mod

Now the markup is declared, we just need to integrate the module into a document type, along with markup in other modules (such as ancestor structural types and appropriate domains)

Creating wiztask-simple.dtd

Copy task.dtd to wiztask-simple.dtd

Change <!ENTITY % task-info-types "task"> to <!ENTITY % wiztask-info-types "wiztask">

Lets wiztask topics nest, for no good reason

Add an entry after "Embed task to get specific elements" that does the same things for wiztask:

<!ENTITY % wiztask-typemod PUBLIC "-//IBM//ELEMENTS DITA

Wiztask//EN" "wiztask.mod"> %wiztask-typemod;

Testing wiztask-simple.dtd

Create a copy of your sample file (eg mywiztask-test.xml) and rename the element wiztitle to wintitle, and wiznext and wizfinish to uicontrol (since we haven't added support for them yet)

Add a DTD reference at the top of your sample file:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE wiztask SYSTEM “../wiztask-simple_shell.dtd">

Try processing it to HTML, eg:saxon mywiztask-test.xml d:\dita\xsl\dita2xhtml.xsl >mywiztask-test.html

Test with a validating editor or parser


Sample output: mywiztask-test.html


Creating the wiztask domain specialization

We have three new elements:wiztitle (from wintitle)

wiznext (from uicontrol)

wizfinish (from uicontrol) All are specialized from elements in the user interface domain, so

start by copying its files over to wiztask:uiDomain.ent to wiztaskDomain.ent

uiDomain.mod to wiztaskDomain.mod

Creating wiztaskDomain.mod

As with wiztask.mod, there are three sections: entities, element declarations, and specialization attributes.

In each section:– Delete everything except the entries for uicontrol and wintitle

– Create an extra copy of entries for uicontrol (since we have two specializations of it)

Rename the entities and values to wiztask equivalents - eg:<!ENTITY % uicontrol "uicontrol"> to <!ENTITY % wizfinish "wizfinish">

Rename the element declarations

Rename the specialization attribute declarations, and add wiztask-d values to the end of each attribute, eg:

<!ATTLIST wiztitle %global-atts; class CDATA "+ topic/keyword ui-d/wintitle wiztask-d/wiztitle ">


The domain.ent files

The domain.ent files are what make domains different from information types - they allow the elements declared in the domain to be substituted wherever an ancestor element is declared.

For each parent element, you need an entity that declares the elements you are specializing off of it.

You also need an entity that declares the ancestry of the domain as a whole, for inclusion in the domains attribute.

We need the information separated into two files - .ent and .mod - so that they can be included in the right order in the integrating DTD file.

Creating wiztaskDomain.ent

Delete the existing entries for the UI specializations, leaving only the last entity (the d-att entity)

Create the entity for specializations of wintitle:<!ENTITY % wiztask-d-wintitle "wiztitle">the name of the entity says this entity is part of the wiztask domain, and is

defining specializations of wintitle

Create the entity for specializations of uicontrol:<!ENTITY % wiztask-d-uicontrol "wiznext | wizfinish">note that there are two specializing elements, separated by a bar

Rename the d-att entity, and add the wiztask domain to its list:<!ENTITY wiztask-d-att "(topic ui-d wiztask-d)">this gets used in the domains attribute, so that processes can tell what domains

are in use by a document


Integrating domain specializations with structural specializations

Create a copy of wiztask-simple.dtd called wiztask.dtd

We are specializing ui-domain, so look for existing entries for that module (ui-domain, or ui-d)

It appears in four places:vocabulary declarations (where the .ent files are pulled in)

vocabulary substitutions (where content models that allow parent elements are extended to allow elements specialized off them)

vocabulary attributes (where the domain attribute is defined)

vocabulary definitions (where the .mod files are finally pulled in)

Integrating wiztaskDomain At the end of vocabulary definitions, add an entry for wiztask-d:<!ENTITY % wiztask-d-dec PUBLIC "-//EXAMPLE//ENTITIES DITA Wizard Task Domain//EN"

"wiztaskDomain.ent"> %wiztask-d-dec;

At the end of vocabulary substitutions, add entries for wintitle and uicontrol (which you are expanding to allow specialized elements):

<!ENTITY % wintitle " wintitle | %wiztask-d-wintitle;"><!ENTITY % uicontrol " uicontrol | %wiztask-d-uicontrol;">

And expand the definitions of ancestor elements to include the new entities (in this case, keyword for wintitle specializations, and ph for uicontrol specializations):

<!ENTITY % keyword "keyword | %pr-d-keyword; | %sw-d-keyword; | %ui-d-keyword; | %wiztask-d-wintitle;"><!ENTITY % ph "ph | %pr-d-ph; | %sw-d-ph; | %hi-d-ph; | %ui-d-ph; | %wiztask-d-uicontrol;">

Under vocabulary attributes, add the wiztask domain to the end of the included domains:<!ENTITY included-domains "&ui-d-att; &hi-d-att; &pr-d-att; &sw-d-att; &ut-d-att; &wiztask-d-att;">

At the end of the vocabulary definition section, pull in the .mod file:<!ENTITY % wiztask-d-def PUBLIC "-//EXAMPLE//ELEMENTS DITA Wizard Task Domain//EN"

"wiztaskDomain.mod"> %wiztask-d-def;

Testing the newly integrated DTD

Go back to your original sample file, mywiztask.xml

Add a DTD reference at the top of your sample file:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE wiztask SYSTEM "wiztask.dtd">

Try processing it to HTML, eg:saxon mywiztask.xml d:\dita\xsl\dita2xhtml.xsl >mywiztask.html

Compare results with mywiztask.html in the accompanying samples


Sample output (mywiztask.html)


Are all these outputs starting to look the same?

They should - we've added new markup, but are reusing existing processing rules that get applied based on the class attribute of each element.

As long as each specialized element obeys the rules of specialization - the same or more restrictive content models - the processing can safely handle what the specialized element throws at it.

In the next exercise, let's see what it takes to shake up the output a little.

Specializing output 1: copy an existing template

Create a new XSLT module, in the same directory as the ui-d.xsl module: wiztask-d.xsl

Add XSLT header stuff, and copy the template match for wintitle to use as a start:

<xsl:template match="*[contains(@class,' ui-d/wintitle ')]" name="topic.ui-d.wintitle">

<xsl:call-template name="commonattributes" /> <xsl:call-template name="setidaname" /> <xsl:call-template name="flagcheck" /> <xsl:call-template name="revtext" /> </xsl:template>

Specializing output 2: change match statement and code

Change the match statement to point to wintitle, and change the behavior to make wiztitle bold:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="*[contains(@class,' wiztask-d/wiztitle ')]"> <xsl:call-template name="commonattributes" /> <xsl:call-template name="setidaname" /> <xsl:call-template name="flagcheck" /> <xsl:call-template name="revtext" /> </xsl:template></xsl:stylesheet>

Specializing output 3: integrating the specialized code

Copy dita2xhtml.xsl to dita2xhtml-wiztask.xsl

Add a reference to the wiztask-d.xsl module at the end of the import list in dita2xhtml-wiztask.xsl:

<xsl:import href="wiztask-d.xsl"/>


Test output

saxon mywiztask.xml dita2xhtml-wiztask.xsl >mywiztask-new.html

Compare with HTML output in the previous samples. The wizard title should now be bold.

Note that generic wintitles in the same document are not affected.


Sample output (mywiztask-new.html)


Mechanics

class attribute for a new structural element:starts with -

lists ancestor elements plus current element, scoped by information type (the topic-level element name)

ends with a space class attribute for a new domain element:

starts with +

lists ancestor elements plus current element, scoped by domain package name (arbitrary name, typically something-d, used consistently for element names and in domains attribute)

ends with a space domains attribute

lists the domains, and their ancestors, in use by the current document type

allows comparison of constraints (does task 1 allow the same things as task 2?)


Summary

Mechanics are simple

Design implementation is copy and extend, but copy only the parts you need to change - reuse everything else by reference

Design hierarchy has one module per structural or domain specialization, which are integrated into doctypes by a shell DTD

Processing hierarchy has an equivalent structure: processing modules integrated into a transform by a shell XSLT

But processing hierarchy can get away with a subset of the design modules: don't need processing modules for every design module, only the ones that need special processing; and within a processing module, only need rules for the special elements


What's the value?

Still work involved to define the seven new elements

But no work to define the other 100-odd already defined

No work to get those tags enabled in existing processes

No work to get the content integrated in existing books and Webs

And reuse by reference means you can pick up enhancements to both base design and base processes when you want to.

The real work is in figuring out what your tags need to be. What DITA does is simplify the mechanics of getting those tags into an authoring and processing environment you can test with your users - shorten the feedback cycle, improve more quickly.

A rapid prototyping architecture that scales to a production one.


Recommended reading

The DITA 1.0 Architectural Specification, in the DITA 1.0 Standard: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/15316/dita10.zip

Additional reading (pre-specification, so not all examples use appropriate naming conventions):

http://xml.coverpages.org/DITA-EXTREME-SpecializationPres.pdfprovides a technical overview, with checklists/instructions

http://xml.coverpages.org/priestleySIGDOC2002-DITA.pdfprovides in-depth view of the technology, process, and policy issues of specialization

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita2/index.htmlspecifics of information type specialization

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita5/index.htmlspecifics of domain specialization

november 2005 © 2004, 2005 ibm corporation presentation subtitle: 20pt arial regular, teal r045 |...

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