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Editor's Note: While many in the technical communications field are very familiar with DITA, we suspect that there are many who are not up to the task, and could use a refresher. This is the first part of a two-part series on the basics of DITA. (With thanks to SiberLogic, Inc, who prepared materials for this reference documentation.) Introduction to DITA: From GML (Generalized Markup Language) to DITA The evolution of structured authoring Purpose This DITA Guide is intended to serve as an easy-to-use reference to help improve your understanding of Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). It is not a definitive reference on the subject. Audience This guide is targeted at technical communicators and information architects getting started with DITA. It assumes a passing familiarity with XML. Version This guide is current as of version 1.0 of the OASIS DITA standard1. What is DITA? DITA Defined DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is a topic-based XML framework used to support the authoring, management, and publication of technical documentation2. What's in a name? Darwin: Applies theories of evolution through specialization and inheritance to information types. Information Typing: Central to DITA is its focus on authoring based upon classified units of information. Architecture: Goes beyond structured XML to capture best practices for both extensive design and process. Single Source Publishing with XML
What is XML (eXtensible Markup Language) XML is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language capable of describing many different kinds of data. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different, potentially disparate systems. Advantages of using XML for structured content XML allows authors to separate form from content allowing it to be reused across a wider range of information products. By applying specific markup, information can be retrieved and processed. Using a non-proprietary format also reduces costs. Challenges of using XML Prior to DITA, authors were unable to take the most advantage of these benefits. Markup was either too specific to be shared or too generic to be truly useful. The DITA Solution DITA introduces several innovations for making XML more useful for authors. Rich element tagging Content can be tagged by information type (procedure) instead of by format (list). Extensible XML for organizations Specialization makes is possible to share content across different domains. In fact all organizations subscribing to DITA are able to share and access content. Better opportunities for reuse DITA's topic-based orientation and reference mechanisms make reuse easier. Captures best practices for Technical Communication DITA was designed for technical publications and employs concepts such as Information Mapping® and Minimalism3 in its architecture. Brief history of DITA The DITA architecture and DTD were designed by a cross-company workgroup representing user assistance teams from across IBM through 1999-2000. By 2001, DITA was hitting the streets across North America. To reduce barriers to adoption and promote its growth, IBM moved DITA into the public domain under the auspices of the Organization for the advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) in 2004. By 2005, the OASIS DITA Technical Committee, consisting of members from across the industry, succeeded in having DITA ratified as an official OASIS standard.
The DITA Standard DITA version 1.0 The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) specification defines both a set of document types for authoring and organizing topic-oriented information; and a set of mechanisms for combining and extending document types using a process called specialization. The specification consists of:
For more visit http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.0/ditaref-type.toc.html OASIS DITA Technical Committee OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. The DITA technical committee was founded4 in March 2004 to refine the Darwin Information Typing Architecture and to promote the use of the architecture for creating standard information types and domain-specific markup vocabularies.
DITA Specification: Information Types Components The two primary components of DITA documents are Topics and Maps. Topics A topic is a unit of information with a title and content, short enough to be specific to a single subject or answer a single question, but long enough to make sense on its own and be authored as a unit.5 Topics can nest other topics. Maps DITA maps are documents that collect and organize references to DITA topics to indicate the relationships among the topics. They can also serve as outlines or tables of contents for DITA deliverables and as build manifests for DITA projects. Like topics, DITA maps can nest other DITA maps. DITA topics use the file extension .DITA or .XML while DITA Maps use .DITMAP. The Topic The Topic-type topic is the root type of all topics in DITA. From the DITA base, topics are specialized into Concept-, Task-, and Reference-types. The root element of a Topic is <topic>, or <dita> if the topic is home to many nested topics. Structure All DITA topics must have an ID, a title, and body. Topic structures can consist of the following parts: Topic element - Required unique ID attribute, contains all other elements. Title - The subject of the topic. Topic structures may also include alternate titles. Alternate titles may be used to provide different text for navigation or search. When not provided, the base title is used for all contexts. Short description - A short description of the topic. Used both in topic content and in generated summaries that include the topic. Prolog - Container for various kinds of topic metadata, such as change history, audience, product, and so on. Not to be confused the XML document prolog. Body - The actual topic content: paragraphs, lists, sections, and other elements the information type allows. Typical body content can include:
Related links - Links to other topics. When an author creates a link as part of a topic, the topic becomes dependent on the other topic being available. To reduce dependencies between topics authors can use DITA maps to define and manage links between topics, instead of embedding links directly in each related topic. Nested topics - Topics can be defined inside other topics. Nesting can result in complex topics that are less reusable and should be used carefully. Common Attributes Attributes are broken down into three major areas:
Other miscellaneous attributes are used for language and output specifications. Identity Attributes Element ID The ID attribute in DITA is used in two different contexts depending upon the type of element it is associated with. When associated with a topic-level element (topic, concept, task, or reference), the ID is unique. It is referred to as a topic ID and is defined as type "ID" in the XML declaration. Elements inside a topic are not defined as type "ID" as they do not need to be unique outside of their resident topic. This type of ID is referred to as an element id. The topic ID and element ID are used together to identify specific instances of elements for linking or reuse. Content Reference The DITA conref (content reference) attribute provides a mechanism for reuse of content fragments. The conref attribute stores a reference to another element and is processed to replace the referencing element with the referenced element. Metadata Attributes Metadata attributes capture information about the topic or fragment including: (i) importance, (ii) status, and (iii) revision. Other attributes capture applicable user information about the topic or fragment including: (i) audience, (ii) platform, (iii) product, and (iv) props. Any combination of these attributes can be used to control how content is rendered using sheets. Space is used to separate multiple values for each attribute (e.g., platform = "Win2003 LINUX"). Conditional Processing DITA tries to implement conditional processing in a semantically meaningful way. Rather than allowing arbitrary values to accumulate in a document authors are encouraged to use specific metadata attributes on content. These metadata values can then be leveraged by any number of processes beyond simply filtering conditional content to include flagging, search, and indexing.
1 DITA Language Specification: http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.0/langspec 2 DITA: An XML-based Technical Documentation Authoring and Publishing Architecture, Priestley/Hargis/Carpenter, Society for Technical Communication, Technical Communication, Vol48/No3, Aug 2001. 3 Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel, Carroll, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998. 4 OASIS DITA charter. 5 OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Architectural Specification v1.0, OASIS Standard, 09 May 2005 Editor's Note: Materials for this guide were developed by SiberLogic, Inc. and are based on their DITA pocket guide. We'll have the next part of "Everything you wanted to know about DITA" in the next issue of DCL News. If you're a subscriber, it will be automatically delivered to your INBOX next month. If you're not a subscriber, you can request a subscription at http://www.dclab.com/request_subscription.asp. If you can't wait; or want the complete version of this guide in a handy desk-top reference format, visit http://www.siberlogic.com/dita_dcl/ to request your copy.
DCLNews Editorial
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