This presentation given during DITA-OT Conference at Munich 2016, shows how SAP has integrated the DITA Open Toolkit to create a large-scale production infrastructure able to build 60 000+ outputs daily for SAP product documentation.

1. Large Scale Production Using Project Maps
Youssef BENNANI
Nov 13, 2016
Public

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Agenda - DITA-OT Conference – Munich 2016
This presentation will show how SAP has integrated the DITA Open Toolkit to create a large-scale
production infrastructure able to build 60 000+ outputs daily for SAP product documentation.
This covers the end-to-end process from DITA CMS to delivery channels, using project maps as a
key ingredient.
• Introduction : SAP environment
• DITA Adoption and growth
• DITA Process and Landscape overview
• DITA Production process @SAP
• Project(*) production life cycle based on project map
• DITA Open Toolkit integration into the production landscape
• Peer linking across outputs as example of advanced feature
• Infrastructure optimization to scale
(*) Project : documentation set for a product shipment

3. 3Public
Introduction : SAP environment

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DITA implementation @SAP
150 authors
First products
First 12 languages
First outputs
based on DITA
Open Toolkit
General
decision to
use DITA
CMS
evaluation
and
selection
Initial
implementation
and migration
Migration
and
scaling
Evaluation
and decision
to broaden
H2 2011 Q1 2012 Q2 2012-2013 2015 2016
Continuous
improvement
and
incremental
growth
2014
300 authors
100 products
21 languages
12k+ outputs (daily)
700+ authors
300 products
47 languages
60k+ outputs (daily)

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503
136
100
85
61
33
31
25
18
15
9
8
6
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Germany
India
United States
Canada
China
Ireland
France
Bulgaria
Israel
Hungary
Brazil
Japan
Poland
United Kingdom
Ukraine
Switzerland
United Arab Emirates
New Zealand
Czech Republic
Finland
Russian Federation
Portugal
Korea
Slovakia
Mexico
Sweden
Austria
Romania
1000+ CMS users (registered, not necessarily all active)
Some statistics
3+
Million DITA files
x2 increase in 2Y
3200+
Projects
x2 increase Y2Y
50%
Migrated content
x1.4 increase Y2Y
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
CMS Content
(# k-DITA files)
# Brand new files # Migrated files

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Automated pushes
through daily builds
Software
builds
Daily
Authors
• Co-create with developers
• Review with stakeholders
Reviewers/contributors
• Access latest doc content
• Fix/add information directly in the right place
Translators
• View source content
• Preview translation Internal Preview
server
Daily
Translation
(SOLITT)Every 1h
DITA
builds
• Content validation, technical checking, and translation of documentation begins early and is performed continuously
• Final preparation before publication is reduced to minimum
Day-to-day process overview

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SAP DITA Landscape overview
Walldorf
Bangalore
Vancouver
Paris
Ra´anana
Sofia
Shanghai
Palo Alto
RDP servers
Build serversOutput generator
TEXTML Server
DITA Production landscape
DITA Production cluster
Translation landscape
ROT Data Center
Exchange DITA CMS/ ORBITT
ORBITT
Exchange
server
• ~40 servers in
central data center,
operated by IT
• Central admin team
• RDP access for users
around the world

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SAP DITA Landscape detailed view
TEXTML Authoring
Connection, Replication, Document Base, Configuration, DTD …
Back-end Infrastructure
(DC, Storage, cluster, Servers, failover …)
RDP Infrastructure
(DC, Storage, Servers, Remote access)
CMS Client / RDP environment
CMS back-end environment
Output Generator Server PNG creationCloning Scheduler
Web Author
(Browser)
Web Author Server
Production plugins: Production center,
Build dashboard, Project Map editor …
Build environment
Delta fetch
IXIASOFT
extensions Acrolinx
Schematron
Oxygen Customizations
IXIASOFT DITA Eclipse
Oxygen editor
…
DITA Open Toolkit
DITA OT customization
Antenna house
DITA Output toolset
TEXTML Localization
Translation, Build, Back-up …
Replication
Translation exchange Translation
system
(Hourly)
Content
(Daily)
Structure
Delivery
channels
(Daily, On demand)
Deliverables
Deliverables
Internal
Previewe
Server
…
DITA Build system
& scheduling
Build Infrastructure
(DC, Build servers, Logistic Servers)
SAP DITA Build Framework
SAP
Non-SAP

9. 9Public
DITA Production process

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Project
setup/update
(Self-service)
Build
(Automated)
Publishing
(Automated)
Review &
validation
Project content
(Authoring, Localization)
IXIASOFT CMS / Oxygen XML editor
Project
Map
DITA CMS
Doc lead
Project Map Editor
Build Dashboard
Internal Preview Server
Author
Project production lifecycle
• The project map defines the configuration of project’s outputs and publishing
o The consistency and enablement of the project production lifecycle is defined in one place : project map
o It’s a ticket free life-cycle : moving across the cycle is either self-service or automated

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Fetch source from CMS
Based on project map
Drop zone
server
TEXTML
server
Build
server
Delivery channel
Bootstrap step
Clean step
Fetch step
Import step
Import DITA OT & 3rd party binaries
Compile step
Export step
Export outputs and logs to dropzone
Export outputs to Delivery channel
DITA Output toolset
(using DITA Open Toolkit)
• Build lifecycle uses highly performant production framework with parallel compilation
• Project configuration information defined in project maps is:
o transformed into properties passed to DITA Open Toolkit for producing branded SAP outputs (with SAP customizations)
o used for automated publishing to delivery channels (e.g. Nexus, UA Content Platform…)
Output 1 (html)
Output 2 (html)
Output n (pdf)
…
DITA build landscape
Build step

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23232
27651 27918
30786
38447
42719
57473
63913
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
2016
Average daily #outputs
…
Output formats & their customizations
• Advanced rendering features e.g. datatable, interactive image maps
• Conditional processing : profiling, filtering & flagging
• Customized linking behaviors
• Language support, including right to left
SAP DITA Open Toolkit Framework
DITA Open Toolkit 1.6 (migration to v2.3 in progress)
DITA Open Toolkit
Exposed to
• Continuous improvements in DITA Output toolset
o Output formats (20+) and their customizable properties (100+) are exposed to Doc Leads through Project Map Editor
o Integration of Open source components where applicable for better user experience
o Toolset changes are pushed automatically to daily builds after passing acceptance tests  Quality assurance to +60k daily outputs
Doc Lead
Project Map Editor
Build
(Automated)
Pushed to
… | Jquery | dataTable | Pretify | Lunr | …
Open source components (JavaScript)
DITA Output toolset enhancement cycle
… Customizable properties …
DITA Output toolset
SAP
Non-SAP
…
Antenna House

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Project A
Output O1
Topic T1
Project B
Output O2
Topic T2
O2O linking
Depends
Outputs
Project
source
Build
configuration
OTK pre-process
By output
collection
By output format
Compile
By output
Output
metadata
O2O Linkning
metadata
Compile
pre-process (except metadata)
xslt tranformation
« Package »
O2O link resolution
• Enables linking between outputs of the same collection
(output format e.g. html5) within the same project or in
the project dependency tree
• Implemented in daily Build (compile step)
Output-to-output (O2O) linking within documentation set

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• New architecture to support project dependencies in the CMS (project map) and in the build process
• New Document base split architecture (one document base for authoring, another for localization and production) with
replication process to insulate authoring work from the performance impact of translation and production
• New Delta Fetch mechanism for faster build process
• New optimized build process with Delta compilation (only impacted outputs are re-built and published)
TEXTML
Production Server
PROD cluster
DITA build servers
DITA RDP servers
Translation Management
system
Replication
Authoring
docbase
Localization
docbase
TRANS
exchange store
Delta fetch
Export / ImportTranslation exchange
Container store
Delta fetch
TEXTML
Authoring Server
End-Users
Delta-compilation
Recent scaling activities (to accommodate growth)

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• Rely on leading industry solutions and Open Source technologies
where applicable
• Large volume requires continuous optimization of the landscape
• It’s key to build an internal community of stakeholders and
experts to foster innovation and internal support
• It’s important to have a regular upgrade strategy (e.g. DITA
Open Toolkit) and engage with external community to take
advantage of updates and recent enhancements
Key takeaways and learnings

16. 16Internal
Thank you
Contact information:
Youssef Bennani
Head of Engineering Services France
Products & Innovation, Technology