Release 6 of DITAinformationcenter was published today.
This version of our free DITA information and modeling resource supports DITA Open Toolkit 1.5.1 (final build) and the DITA 1.2 language standard (still to be approved).
New features include:
- We have eliminated the code distribution. We recommend that you install the DITA Open Toolkit instead.
- We have added topics on how we automated the creation of DITA files to document WSDLs (web services) using a Python script.
- We have added topics on using Python code to do machine translation using Google Translate and Microsoft Translator (Bing).
- We have added information on using Simplified English to improve the quality of translated content.
- We are providing sample translations in Spanish and German of the garage and grocery shopping samples done using Google Translate and Microsoft Translator.
You can download the DITAinformationcenter from either vrcommunications.com resources page or xmldocs.info, which has been converted to a WordPress site.
-Anna and Dick
We had a very lively and energetic discussion of various topics. I've organized them into three main groups below.
TOPIC 1: Converting unstructured content into DITA
Before conversion:
- Perform document analysis; better to spend more time on this than not enough
- FM - look into using the Remove All Overrides command to clean up files
- Prototype project should not be the first book you want to convert. This should contain bits that represent all possible structures and components in your documentation set. Test and perfect the conversion, then test and prototype the various output options you plan to use.
Conversion processes/tips:
- Use Mif2Go convert to DITA - export to Mif, then set up mif2Go config file to set up elements, wrapping syntax for Mif2Go, etc.
- Use FM Conversion table to map styles to elements, wrap elements into other elements, etc.
- Create a base topic for each section (Parse on Heading 2 or Chapter) to get files into DITA
- Conditional text boundaries need to map to to element boundaries. This is applied as attributes on those elements. It's often better to rewrite heavily conditionalized content into multiple paragraphs so you can apply conditions at the paragraph level.
- Frame's conversion tables don't map conditions. Any tools that do?
- Variables can become conrefs or just make them into plain text.
- Remove inline cross-refs and create relationship tables.
- The DITA 1.1 bookmap provides nodes for book-like structures like chapters, appendixes, and lists (TOC, index, etc.).
- If using Frame for PDF output, your TOC and index can be FM generated, otherwise they are generated by the tool (OT, or ?).
- If in doubt, shred your content to be more granular. It's easier to merge multiple topics together than break them apart later. Don't use "sections" if you can help it, they can probably be topics.
Best practices?
- Think about why you want to convert – based on current content, maybe only convert tasks, or other topics that are truly concepts or reference.
- How much material - manual or automated conversion
- How often you will convert – 1 time, or often
- Source material is in-house or external, both?
- How well or poorly structured
- Do a good doc analysis – go through doc set and see how well formed they are try to capture all use cases, what is in the docs? What do the styles mean?
- Too few or too many steps in conversion process – a step may have too much transformation , try small steps with iontermediate results to try out
- Prepare documents for DITA (to be good DITA) before conversion.
TOPIC 2: Options for generating output from DITA
- The OT provides scripts for generating, CHM, HTML, Eclipse Help, Java Help, PDF, and more.
- Basic output is not too hard, but styling/formatting can be very difficult for non-techie people.
- Suite Solutions offers great training for the OT if you want to learn how to maintain things yourself.
- CSS can be a simple way to customize OT output.
Options other than the OT:
- DITA2Go can be a replacement for the OT; from makers of Mif2Go
- RoboHelp
- Flare
- XMetaL comes with OT bundled so it may be easier
- CHM to Web – generate HTML HELP from the OT and then use a template to convert to WebHelp
- FrameMaker can be the easiest way to generate PDFs from DITA even if you're not using FM for authoring.
- DITA-FMx provides extended PDF/book publishing features.
TOPIC 3: Authoring tips and ideas
- Author Assistant from SDL - Grammar Checker requires tweaking (free download for FrameMaker 9)
- Capture "what do I do now" moments – what do you do when something does not fit the model. Good to review later and share with others.
- See Megan's SVDIG presentation on creating Supertasks (tasks with links to subtasks)
- Indexterms in prolog, become meta keywords; this is good for HTML. Indexterms inline are good for PDF/print. Decide which is more important. Once you move indexterms into prolog it's hard to get them back inline; investigate tweaking XSL to copy inline indexterms to prolog for both purposes.
- DITA-FMx and Oxygen provide element sensitive online Help for DITA documents. Makes it easy to learn how things fit together.
» Thanks to Lauren Katzive for taking notes!
Business: Remote access and virtualization, infrastructure products
Organization: Training (also Technical Publications)
Objectives: Temporarily add to functionality of XMetaL and the DITA Open Toolkit, eventually purchase a CMS to handle the same tasks (they have since moved to DocZone)
Requirements, Issues: Automate edit/review of training material, translate into multiple languages, PPT a required target, SCORM package required, search and link management issues
Key Tools: XMetaL, svn, custom tools produced in-house by Ben and others
Sample Custom Solutions: Excel/VBA macros, script to create stub topics to get writers started, search facility using JEdit, script to build SCORM package, semi-automatic transformation to PPT from DITA source
Sample Challenges: Customizing PDF output, multi-volume books, SCORM requirements, instructor requirement to use PPT
Possible Future Challenges or Barriers to Reuse: Training and publications departments are now using different CMSs (DocZone on Alfresco and Astoria)
Conclusions: You don't need $1 million in tools to achieve some of the key CMS functionality required/useful in a DITA environment. What you learn doing custom tool production will help you choose the right commercial CMS when that opportunity presents itself.
Hi, All --
Dick Johnson and I have just released the fifth edition (publishing date June 30, 2010) of our DITAinformationcenter code distribution, documentation, and DITA project sample source files, available at:
www.vrcommunications.com/resources.htm
or
www.xmldocs.info
This release focuses on DITA 1.2 features and DITA Open Toolkit 1.5.1 (final build).
The code distribution contains:
- DITA Open Toolkit 1.5.1 (final build)
- PHP interpreter 5.1.4
- A number of PHP debugging and reporting tools (also available in prior editions)
- A new Python repair tool (DITArepair) that fixes bad references (for example, if files have been moved and links broken) and also serves as an example of how Python can be used effectively in the XML/DITA environment
The documentation contains several DITA 1.2 features:
- Extensions to conref, conaction pushreplace: A Python script run in a preprocessing step to put keywords into shortdescriptions, both keywords present in the topic itself and also those keywords "inherited" from container topics
- Keyref: The values for publisher, copyright, and vrm version now have a single definition in a resource topics (instead of being defined separately in each topic)
- Coderef element: We have replaced some of the inline code examples with coderef elements that point to items in a code directory
Information describing how we implemented the 1.2 features are described in one of the topics (published as an appendix in the PDF output target).
Other documentation features:
- Added a section on trends in global communication and why DITA helps to solve some of the current challenges
- Information about our recommended DITAworkflow methodology based on the agile software development process
- New localization and translation topics and core vocabulary items
Sample DITA projects:
- As before, our grocery shopping and garage samples (garage is an expension of the garage sample available with the Toolkit)
- The current DITAinformationcenter source files, possibly useful as a model project of moderate size (350 topics) and complexity, and for testing processing tools. It contains a wide variety of DITA features, both from 1.2 and prior standards.
As always, comments are welcome. We hope the resource is useful to members of the DITA community.
-Anna and Dick
Who?
Eric Armstrong, Treelight Enterprises
eric at treelight dot com
When? Where?
June 9, 2010 at NetApp
What?
Context-sensitive WebHelp using a "preview feature" in XMetaL
Why?
No user download required
How?
Uses Javascript, XMetaL target (beta code)
Some customization required
Features (Pros)
Collapsible TOC
Index, search, browse
Print (but only single topic)
Cons
Does not launch if WebHelp already open
Links work (go to appropriate page), but framework not operational
XMetaL IDs are long and complex; Eric created his own unique IDs
For More Information
Tutorial by Su-Laine Yeo of JustSystems: http://forums.xmetal.com
Presentation: http://www.treelight.com/dita/CS_WebHelp.ppt
The demo page, to launch the CS help: http://www.treelight.com/dita/cs_webhelp/
Topic: Quark DITA Studio: "DITA for the rest of us."
Speaker: Bill Kirk - Technical Services Consultant, Quark, Inc.
Topic: Show and Tell .. DITA-OT customizations
Speaker: You! (Yes .. you.)
References: www.xmldocs.info, Hacking the DITA Open Toolkit
Pics and notes: djcline.com
Topic: Options for generating AIR Help from DITA files, plus .. under the hood of the lmi-airhelp DITA OT plugin
Speaker: Scott Prentice, Leximation, Inc.
Presentation material: 2010-SVDIG-DITA_to_AIR.pdf [946KB].
Topic: Year-end wrap-up social at Pedro's Restaurant & Cantina
» Another fun time was had by all!
Topic: DITA and Eclipse Help: Various Perspectives
Speakers: Brenda Oakley, Information Architect at Citrix; Laura Bellamy, Information Architect at VMWare; Mel Kiyama, IBM.
Presentation material: SVDIG_Eclipse_Bellamy.ppt [347KB].
Topic: DITA and Dynamic Publishing: A Discussion About Market Trends in the Future
Speaker: Howard Schwartz, Ph.D., VP of Content Technologies for SDL XySoft.
Topic: Roundtable discussion. Various topics.
Speaker: All
Topic: Making a good start: Understanding DITA basics
Speaker: Joanne Grey, Sr. Technical Author at Maxiscale.
Presentation material: SVDIG_Prezo.zip [430KB].
Topic: The Perfect Conversion: FrameMaker to DITA in 365 Days
Speakers: Laura Bellamy and Yas Etessam of VMware.
Presentation material: TD5_Etessam_Bellamy_Final.ppt [861KB].
Topic: Roundtable discussion. Best practices for controlling content inclusion.
Speaker: All
Topic: Moving Your Team to DITA
Speakers: Tim Bombosch and Tom Idleman of Lasselle-Ramsay, Katie Crick of Cisco.