Dita webinar 20th march

Webinar
on

Darwin Information Typing
Architecture
by
Amit Siddhartha

Copyright© MetaPercept

About the presenter

 Owner & Consultant at Metapercept Information Solutions &
Consulting
 Solution & implementation expert in DITA, XSLT, Structured
Authoring, Single Sourcing, Usability, & Information Mapping
 Provides consulting & training in DITA-XML, STE, DITA based
Authoring Tools, & DITA based Content Management Systems.


Agenda

 What is DITA?
 Why DITA-XML?
 Do we need DITA?
 What all do we need to implement DITA?
 Phased approach to DITA migration
 Questions & Answers


Objective
After this Webinar, you will be able to:

 Understand DITA ecosystem
 Analyze if DITA is required for your documentation system
 Understand dependencies for DITA implementation
 Understand importance of planning in DITA


Future of unstructured documentation


Unstructured Document


What is DITA?


Common definitions

 Definition 1: DITA is an open standard for creating,
managing, and publishing topic based content. DITA
supports topic types within a comprehensive content
management system that can facilitate single sourcing and
reuse of the topic types.

 Definition 2: DITA is a topic based structured
documentation system. DITA topics can be easily
assembled from multiple source to create deliverables in
various output formats.


DITA is like this!


DITA Ecosystem


DITA Authoring key principles

 Topic-based information
 Information types and domains
 Structural integrity
 Semantic markup
 Separation of content from presentation
 Separation of content (topics) from context (maps)
 Reuse
 Extensibility and customizability


Using DITA-XML, we can..

 Create, manage, and publish XML-based, structured information
in a wide variety of environment, platforms, and deliverable
 Facilitate information sharing and reuse, and collaborative writing
projects
 Reduce writing, publishing, and translation costs
 Integrate more tightly with related technologies


DITA information types

 Concept
 Task
 Reference


Information types in DITA content model..little more in detail
 Task
 Graphical task
 Description concept
 Graphical concept
 Requirements
 Specification
 Worksheets
 General reference
 API
 Scenario
 Resolution
 Structure
 Glossary


Task
 The Task type provides the information a user needs to perform a
procedure that requires more than one step.
 At a minimum, the Task type must include all steps the user must
perform and the correct order of those steps.
 A Task can also provide:
– Notes and other useful details

– Expected results of the procedure

– Any prerequisites or postrequisites


Graphical Task


Concept (Description Concept)
 Provides background information that users must know prior to
working with a product or interface.
 Description concept is usually a process, which will be presented in
an ordered list. Example: A series of functions that the system
performs would be considered a process but a high-level set of
steps that a user performs would be a task.


Graphical Concept


Graphical Concept – 2


Requirements


Specification
 Provides values for hardware-related elements of a system such as:
height, weight, temperature, density, capacities, memory,
bandwidth, etc.

Command Reference
 Provides a list of system commands that includes command names,
descriptions, variables, and examples. Sections of this information
can be used in other topics.


Worksheet
 Includes information a user must gather and record, or lists of task
that the user must complete in sequence.

General Reference
 Includes lists and tables of reference information that does not fit
into one of the other defined reference types.
 Example: Legal Documents, Copyright Information

API
 Provides API information and can include description, syntax,
example, usage.


API sample


Scenario
 A Scenario type is a topic-length example that helps a user to
understand a concept or a task. Scenario can be a concept or a
task, depending on the type of information being included in the
scenario.

Resolution
 The Resolution type provides information about detecting and
resolving product issues, events, alarms, and errors.


Structure
 The Structure type describes the components of a container such as
product interface or a hardware component. This topic type can
include application fields, icons, report fields, etc. For hardware
components, this can include a list of components of a server, or an
image followed by a description of the image contents.

Glossary
 The Glossary topic type provides a term and its definition.


Why DITA-XML?


What stake holders ask
How are we going to meet our financial projections if we use DITA?
If we want to add new products with our existing ones, will DITA
help us lower the cost?
We had a merger recently with another company and we are
adding their product line. What would be the cost involved?

What managers ask
How much is the effort by a Technical Writer, if we migrate to
DITA?
How can we compare the deliverable effort and content creation
effort for current year, last year or just for a month by each author?
How can we calculate the cost of a deliverable if segregated into
effort applied by author, reviewer(s), and editor?


Why DITA-XML?

 Structural integrity
 Platform Independency
 Portability
 Reusability & Single Sourcing
 Transformation

In DITA ecosystem, topic based content structure is maintained by
the extended markup language (XML), and presentation
(formatting and styling) for each deliverable type is maintained by
cascading style sheets (CSS).


What is topic based information?

 A topic is the smallest independently maintainable unit of content.

 Topics must be able to stand alone so that they can be
understood when they are encountered out of context. For
example when a user finds the topic through search, an index, or
by following a link.


Information type and domain in DITA:

 Each information type
 Represents one type of content that we create at a topic level
 Has a specific intent
 Comprised of a series of content elements in a prescribed order.

 Domains are kind of content within topics. Example: There’s a group
of DITA elements concerned with user interfaces (uicontrol, wintitle),
and another concerned with programming (such as codeph).


Structural Integrity

 Guaranteed content structure stipulated by the Document Type
Definition (DTD).
 Easy content porting from one writer to another without disturbing
document structure.
 Transformation to other document types or data formats is much
easier.


Extensibility & Customizability

 DITA is extensible by defining new information types or domains.
Example: Glossary, Index, Mathematical Formula
 DITA Specialization of new information types or domain extends
existing types or domains by adding the hierarchy


Reuse
 Create a chunk of content and reuse in multiple topics, DITA maps,
or patterns, even across several projects.

Benefits of reuse:
 Simplified and reduced time for content maintenance.
 Less ambiguity and consistency of information.
 Enhanced usability and standardized wording.
 Reduced localization costs.


Do we need DITA?


We need DITA to:

 Develop structured documents
 Use common look & feel for complete documentation system
 Streamlined documentation, content management, publishing, and
build integration system
 Reuse contents for multiple deliverable
 Decrease content legacy issues
 Multiple deliverable output with same content
 Reduce time to create content
 Reduce return on investment
 Standardize the content structure and maintenance process
 Make life easy for Technical Writers


What all do we need to
implement DITA?


Analysis, Planning & Scheduling
 Analyze existing information
 Plan and schedule project
 Assemble the right team
 Get appropriate Authoring, CMS and Publishing tools

Basic Authoring
 Document Type Definitions & DITA maps
 Schemas
 Editor (notepad, wordpad, or any authoring software)


Content Management
 DITA enabled Content Management System
 Version Control and Review System
 Content Mapping System

Publishing
 Style Layout and Condition Mechanism
 Desirable Output Generation System


 DITA Maps
 Schemas
 Content: Methods to handle content
 Deliverables: Publishing formats
 Customization: Extensibility of topic types (markups) specific to your
requirement
 Scalability: Ability to manage user (Technical Writers working on same
content)

 Relationship tables


Phased approach to DITA
migration


DITA migration must have a phased approach. This phased
approach would include:

l Evaluation of new information, redundancies,
interdependencies, and complexity of contents
l Prioritization of information units
l Evaluation of documentation infrastructure & delivery methods
l Assessment of training requirements such as: Scheduling
management, authoring tools, CMS, and information mapping
l Constant Reviews & Support
l Workload balancing


Resources involved in DITA migration

 DITA-XML Architects
 DITA-XML Editors
 Infrastructure Developers
 Technical Writers - Experienced in DITA-XML
 Development & Product Management Experts


Some of the authoring & CMS tools

Authoring Tools
 Notepad/ Wordpad
 oXygen
 xMetal
 Adobe FrameMaker
 ArborText Editor
Content Management Systems
 DITAToo
 IXIASOFT
 Astoria
 DITA CMIS Explorer
 EasyDITA


Questions


References to learn DITA

Books:
DITA 101 Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers by Ann
Rockley, Steve Manning and Charles Cooper with Mark Lewis
Darwin Information Typing Architecture by Jesse Russell, Ronald
Cohn

Online Sources:
DITAXML.org: http://dita.xml.org/
IBM: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/


Contact for Training & Consulting:
Email: info@metapercept.com
Gmail: metapercept@gmail.com
Twitter: metapercept
Linkedin: in.linkedin.com/pub/amit-siddhartha/8/7b3/28a/

Website: www.metapercept.com


Upcoming Events:

 DITA Authoring using oXygen XML Author
 DITA Content Management using DITAToo
 Working with context & conditions in SmartDocs with MSWord
 Many more………


Thank You!


Dita webinar 20th march

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