DITA 101

DITA 101 Sarah O’Keefe (@sarahokeefe) Scriptorium Publishing (@Scriptorium)

Sarah O’Keefe @sarahokeefe❖ Founder and president, Scriptorium Publishing, www.scriptorium.com❖ Based in North Carolina❖ Content strategy for tech comm❖ Interested in collision of content, publishing, and technology

Before we begin…❖ Everyone is muted except for the presenter❖ Please ask your questions through the Questions area in the webcast interface❖ The presentation is being recorded; attendees do not appear in the recording❖ #dita101 hashtag for Twitter

Agenda❖ What is DITA?❖ Key DITA concepts❖ Typical scenarios for DITA❖ Is DITA right for you?

What is DITA?❖ Darwin Information Typing Architecture ❖ Darwin – because you can evolve new elements from existing elements ❖ Information Typing – content is categorized as task, reference, concept ❖ Architecture – 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 structure❖ DITA is a speciﬁc way to do structured authoring❖ Many software vendors support DITA

What is DITA, really?❖ XML standard❖ Built for topic-oriented authoring❖ A way to work in XML without having to design your own structure?❖ A major buzzword in tech comm❖ Cost-effective way to create, publish, reuse, and exchange structured content

DITA components❖ Document type deﬁnitions (DTDs, which deﬁne structure)❖ Open Toolkit for generating output ❖ HTML, Eclipse help, CHM, and others through XSL ❖ PDF through XSL-FO❖ Documentation

DITA publishing

WhatDITA is not ﬂickr: JoelK75

ﬂickr: bandita

Perhaps it’s this… ﬂickr: erix!

ﬂickr: matthewreidIs DITA better than XML?

Which is better? ﬂickr: eliduke, mdpettitt

Context matters. ﬂickr: NeilsPhotography

ﬂickr: liamq

DITA’s ideal habitat❖ Topic-oriented, modular content❖ Content reuse❖ Content exchange❖ Translation/localization workﬂow

Most common business case for DITA?❖ Localization cost savings❖ Reuse

DITA’s challenges❖ Automated formatting versus hand-crafted pagination❖ Narrative content❖ High level of technical expertise required❖ New skills for authors

DITA topic (simpliﬁed)<topic id=”seuss”> <title>One tag, two tag</title> <body> Red tag, blue tag Black tag, blue tag, old tag, new tag This one has a little car This one has a little star <note>Say, what a lot of tags there are!</note> </body></topic>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN""topic.dtd"><topic id="aardvark" audience="internal"> <title>Aardvark</title> <body> Aardvarks eat mostly termites. Do not accept the aardvarks offer to help deal with your termite problem. You will not like the results. <note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food.</note> </body> </topic>

<?xml version="1.0"?> I am XML.<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN""topic.dtd"><topic id="aardvark" audience="internal"> <title>Aardvark</title> <body> Aardvarks eat mostly termites. Do not accept the aardvarks offer to help deal with your termite problem. You will not like the results. <note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food.</note> </body> </topic>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN""topic.dtd"> I am a DITA topic.<topic id="aardvark" audience="internal"> <title>Aardvark</title> <body> Aardvarks eat mostly termites. Do not accept the aardvarks offer to help deal with your termite problem. You will not like the results. <note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food.</note> </body> </topic>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN""topic.dtd"><topic id="aardvark" audience="internal"> <title>Aardvark</title> <body> Aardvarks eat mostly termites. Do not accept the aardvarks offer to help deal with your termite problem. You will not like the results. <note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food.</note> </body> </topic>

WYSIOOWhat You See Is…One Option

Key DITA concepts❖ Topics❖ Map ﬁles❖ Content references (conrefs)❖ Specialization

Topics ﬂickr: scientiﬁcquilter

Map ﬁles ﬂickr: acnatta

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd"><map rev="1" title="Zoo Policies" xml:lang="en-us"><topicmeta> <author>Sarah</author> <critdates> <created date="2006/10/31"/> <revised modified="2012/05/31"/> </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>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd"><map rev="1" title="Zoo Policies" xml:lang="en-us"><topicmeta> <author>Sarah</author> <critdates> <created date="2006/10/31"/> <revised modified="2012/05/31"/> I am a DITA map. </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>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd"><map rev="1" title="Zoo Policies" xml:lang="en-us"><topicmeta> <author>Sarah</author> <critdates> <created date="2006/10/31"/> <revised modified="2012/05/31"/> </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>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd"><map rev="1" title="Zoo Policies" xml:lang="en-us"><topicmeta> <author>Sarah</author> <critdates> <created date="2006/10/31"/> <revised modified="2012/05/31"/> </critdates></topicmeta> Level 1<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>

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd"><map rev="1" title="Zoo Policies" xml:lang="en-us"><topicmeta> <author>Sarah</author> <critdates> <created date="2006/10/31"/> <revised modified="2012/05/31"/> </critdates></topicmeta> Level 1<topicref href="Animal_nutrition.xml" navtitle="Animal nutrition"type="reference"> Level 2 <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>

Named destination in Aardvark.xml conrefs <topic id="aardvark"> ... <note type="danger" id="nofeeding">Do not feed animals snacks, scraps, or people food. … </topic>Link in Baboon.xml<topic id="baboon"> <title>Baboon</title> <body> Baboons eat mostly fruit. <note conref="Aardvark.xml#aardvark/nofeeding"/> </body></topic>

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.

Customization options ﬂickr: munksynz

Customization

Constraints

Specialization

Business case for XML❖ Content exchange❖ Database publishing❖ Reuse content/reduce duplication❖ Automated formatting/publishing❖ Compliance

Beyond XML’s business case, DITA may…❖ Reduce content modeling effort❖ Make content truly portable❖ Support content reuse❖ Take advantage of software support❖ Provide output options❖ Reduce overall cost of implementation

Reduce content modeling effort

Make content truly portable ﬂickr: aloha75

Support content reuse❖ Map ﬁles❖ conrefs (and variations)❖ keyrefs (and variations)

Software support❖ DITA support found in many (most?) XML authoring tools❖ Some tools support only DITA and not general XML

Provide output options❖ XHTML, HTML Help, PDF, Eclipse, DocBook, JavaHelp, troff, Word RTF through DITA Open Toolkit❖ Starting point for output❖ Not suitable for production workﬂow❖ Customization is difﬁcult and time-consuming

Is DITA right for you? ﬂickr: nugunslinger

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 S1000D.❖ Content is and should remain narrative.❖ Semantic requirements are industry- speciﬁc, complex, and/or strict.❖ No possibility of internal or external support for technical challenges.

Maybe.❖ DITA is not an exact match.❖ Customization/specialization would be required.

Questions?

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DITA 101

by Scriptorium Publishing on Jun 28, 2012

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