An overview of how to manage variant content in DITA. Includes variables (keyrefs), attribute-based conditions, ditaval files, and conref push. Pre

1. contentstrategy101.com
Extreme
conditions
in
DITA
flickr: mikebaird
Sarah O’Keefe
Scriptorium Publishing

2. ❖ Founder and president, Scriptorium
Publishing, www.scriptorium.com,
North Carolina, USA
❖ Coauthor of Content Strategy 101
❖ Interested in collision of content,
publishing, and technology
Sarah
O’Keefe
@sarahokeefe

3. ❖ Basic conditions
❖ Advanced conditions
❖ Scary conditions
❖ The human element
❖ Surviving extreme conditions
Agenda

4. Murky
conditional
requirements
are
common
flickr: jaybergesen

5. ❖ Variables
❖ Short snippet, like a product name,
that changes
❖ Conditional information
❖ Needs to be included or excluded
❖ Topic, block, or inline
❖ Graphics and tables
Classes
of
text
variants

6. ❖ Output
❖ Product
❖ Audience level
❖ Customer type
❖ Customer
❖ and more…
Conditional
dimensions

7. flickr: jenniferwoodardmadazero

8. <map>
<title>DITA Topic Map</title>
<keydef keys="clientname">
<topicmeta>
<keywords>
<keyword>My First Client</keyword>
</keywords>
</topicmeta>
</keydef>
<topicref href="sample.dita"/>
</map>
<p>When we deliver this information
to <keyword keyref="clientname"/>...
Map
Topic

9. Basic
conditions
flickr: snowpeak

10. <p>This paragraph is for everyone.</p>
<p audience="advanced">This paragraph is
only for advanced users.</p>
<note><p>
It's possible to do conditional content at
the phrase level<ph platform="badidea">, but
it's a really terrible idea</ph>.
</p></note>
Paragraph
Inline

11. <p audience="expert"
platform="windows"
product="X">content goes here</p>
<p audience="expert"
platform="windows mac"
product="X Y Z">other content here</p>

12. Do
not
use
conditions
below
the
sentence—preferably
paragraph—level.
flickr: snowpeak

13. flickr: snowpeak
<p>The colo<ph xml:lang="en-uk">u</ph>r of
money is a very speciali<ph xml:lang="en-
uk">s</ph><ph xml:lang="en-uk">z</ph>ed
topic.</p>
Please,
for
the
love
of
all
that
is
holy…NO.

14. <val>
<prop action="include" att="audience"
val="expert" />
<prop action="include" att="product" val="X" />
</val>

15. ❖ Taxonomy and information architecture
much more difficult
❖ Which attributes?
❖ Which attribute values?
❖ How do the attributes combine?
❖ (more on this later)
Markup
is
the
small(er)
challenge.

16. ❖ Three attributes out of the box.
❖ Then, you must speciali[s|z]e.
❖ Can limit allowed attribute values
through authoring tools or subject
scheme maps.
Markup
is
the
small(er)
challenge.

17. Complex
conditions
flickr: ooocha

18. <warning audience="ca">
<p> This product contains chemicals known to the
State of California to cause cancer and birth defects
or other reproductive harm.</p>
</warning>

19. <warning audience="ca">
<p> This product contains chemicals known to the
State of California to cause cancer and birth defects
or other reproductive harm.</p>
</warning>
<warning audience="usa-ca">
<warning audience="ca">

20. <warning audience="usa-ca">
<warning audience="ca-en">

21. <warning audience="usa-ca">
<warning audience="ca-en">
<warning audience="usa-ca">
<warning audience="ca" xml:lang= "en-ca">
<warning audience="ca" xml:lang= "fr-ca">

22. Customers
lead
to
complexity.

23. <p audience="army">

24. <p audience="army">
<p audience="navy">

25. <p audience="army">
<p audience="army navy">

26. <p audience="military">
<p audience="army navy">
<p audience="usaf">
<p audience="marines">
<p audience="coastguard">

27. And
now
for
the
non-U.S.
military
customer…

28. <warning audience="military-us-army">
<warning audience="military-uk-army">
<warning segment="military" branch="army"
country="us" >
<warning segment="military" branch="army"
country="uk" >

29. Reuse
and
conditions
flickr: noaaphotolib

30. Content
references
(conrefs)

31. <p id="framemaker">We recommend FrameMaker if
sophisticated PDF formatting is a critical requirement.</p>
Source

32. ...
<p conref="fm.dita#id/framemaker" conaction="mark"/>
<p conaction="pushafter">Using FrameMaker would
eliminate the manual formatting that currently takes up so much
production time.</p>
<p id="framemaker">We recommend FrameMaker if
sophisticated PDF formatting is a critical requirement.</p>
...
<p conref="fm.dita#id/framemaker" conaction="mark"/>
<p conaction="pushafter">FrameMaker does not support
right-to-left languages (such as Arabic), which ClientB needs.
</p>
Source
Client A
Client B

33. The
human
element
flickr: danoff

34. Surviving
extreme
conditions
flickr: Bruce Guenter

35. Questions?
flickr: cayce

36. Contact
me
❖ Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing
❖ www.scriptorium.com
❖ Email: okeefe@scriptorium.com
❖ Twitter: @sarahokeefe