Slides from DCL-sponsored Webinar 2 Nov 2014. Provides an overview of what's new in DITA 1.3 as well as DITA 1.3 completion status as of Nov 2014.

1. DITA 1.3: What's New And
Different
A quick guide to the new and cool
stuff coming in DITA 1.3
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Eliot Kimber
Contrext, LLC
DCL Webinar 2 Nov 2014

2. First A Bit About DCL
• The next few slides introduce Data Conversion
Laboratory
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3. Valuable Content Transformed
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• XML and HTML Conversion
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4. Experience the DCL Difference
DCL blends years of conversion experience with cutting-edge technology and
the infrastructure to make the process easy and efficient.
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5. We Serve a Very Broad Client Base . . .

6. . . . Spanning All Industries
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• STM
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• Telecommunications
• Universities
• Utilities

7. DITA 1.3: What's New And
Different
A quick guide to the new and cool
stuff coming in DITA 1.3
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Eliot Kimber
Contrext, LLC
DCL Webinar 2 Nov 2014

8. About the Author
• Independent consultant focusing on DITA analysis,
design, and implementation
• Doing SGML and XML for cough 30 years cough
• Founding member of the DITA Technical Committee
• Founding member of the XML Working Group
• Co-editor of HyTime standard (ISO/IEC 10744)
• Primary developer and founder of the DITA for
Publishers project
• Author of DITA for Practitioners, Vol 1 (XML Press)
• More DITA 1.3 accepted proposals than any other TC
member
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9. DITA VERSION 1.3 ACTIVITY
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10. DITA 1.3 Status
• DITA 1.3 features are frozen as of May 2014
• Public draft of final 1.3 specification for OASIS
final approval process available soon
• Approval targeted for mid 2015
• Implementation in Open Toolkit under way
(OT 2.x, DITA Community organization)
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11. What Can I Do Today?
• New vocabulary immediately usable
– Map and topic types and new domains are normal DITA
specializations
– DITA 1.3 vocabulary packaged as OT plugin for convenience
– Spec is stable—markup design unlikely to change between
now and final approval
– OT 2.x is 1.3 support release. Many 1.3 features already
implemented
– Most vocabulary also supported by OT 1.x plugins
• New architecture can be implemented as
preprocessing for DITA 1.2 processors
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12. Reminder: Always Backward
Compatible
• All DITA 1.x versions must be backwards
compatible with earler 1.x versions
• DITA 1.3 completely backwards compatible
– All DITA 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 documents are valid 1.3
documents
– Behavior of documents should be the same
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13. QUICK OVERVIEW OF NEW
DITA 1.3 FEATURES
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14. Lots of New Vocabulary
• MathML and SVG integrations
• Troubleshooting: new topic type, note type, task elements
• UX window display details map element and <revisionid> attributes
• Release management metadata
• Learning and training enhancements
• @deliveryTarget conditional attribute
• <line-through> and <overline> in highlight domain
• New <div> base element type
• Elements for tagging XML markup
• New <sort-as> element
• New table attributes for layout control and accessibility
• @cascade to control metadata propagation in maps
• More…
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15. Architectural Enhancements
• Scoped keys
– Same key reference can resolve to different topics or
text in different parts of a map
– Enables cross-deliverable linking
• Branch filtering
– Apply different filtering rules to different parts of a
map
– Automates replication of map branches for different
sets of conditions
• “this topic” fragment identifier: “#./fig-01”
• Cross-deliverable links
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16. Not Even Talking About
• RELAX NG as master vocabulary grammar
format
• Many small-but-important enhancements to
base content models
• Specialization enhancments (use structural
types as though they were domains)
• Specification improvements
• Stuff we considered but didn’t put in for
various reasons
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17. ARCHITECTURAL ENHANCEMENT:
SCOPED KEYS
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18. DITA 1.2 Keys
• Indirect addressing for topics:
– Assign keys to topics within maps
– Refer to keys in topics
– Keys resolve through map
– Same key can resolve to different topics in different maps
– Essential for re-use
• In 1.2, keys are global within a given publication (root
map)
– Every reference to a key must resolve to the same topic or
text
– Limits creation of multi-product or multi-language
publications
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19. DITA 1.3: Key Scopes
• Named scopes within maps
• Unqualified key references resolve to key in current
scope
• Key references can be qualified with scope names:
scope1.key-one, scope2.key-one
• Higher maps can override keys defined in scopes
• Same key referenced in different scopes can resolve to
different topics
• Same topic used in different scopes within same map
can link to different targets
• Applies to conref, xref, topicref, etc.
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20. Scoped Key Use Cases
• Multi-product or multi-language publications
– Each product or language is a different scope
– Different text or topics or images for same key in
different product or language context
• Combine separate publications into a single
publication
– Each publication is a separate key scope and defines
its own keys
– No interference between keys defined in each
publication
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21. Cross-Deliverable Links
• Define another publication’s root map as a key
scope in your map
– Target publication is a “peer” to your publication
– Processors don’t have to process the target map when
processing your map
• Can link to keys defined in the target publication
using scope-qualified key references
• Enables generation of deliverables with working
cross-deliverable links, e.g.: HTML-to-HTML,
HTML-to-PDF, PDF-to-PDF, PDF-to-HTML
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22. ARCHITECTURAL ENHANCEMENT:
BRANCH FILTERING
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23. DITA 1.2 Filtering
• Filtering conditions apply only to whole
publication
• No way to have different conditions applied to
different parts of a map
• Can lead to complex and hard-to-manage
conditions
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24. DITA 1.3: Branch Filtering
• Point to DITAVAL files from within topicrefs
• DITAVAL applies to that branch of the map
• For a single branch, can have multiple DITAVAL
references
– Each DITAVAL produces a new copy of the branch
filtered according to that DITAVAL
– Avoids need to maintain copies of map branches with
only different filtering
• Can control how names in duplicated branches
are constructed
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25. Branch Filtering Use Cases
• Multi-platform publications:
– <chapter keyref=“installation”>
<ditavalref keyref=“ditaval-osx”/>
<ditavalref keyref=“ditaval-win”/>
<ditavalref keyref=“ditaval-lin”/>
<topicref keyref=“inst-overview”/>
…
</chapter>
• Multi-audience publications
• Multi-product publications
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26. NEW VOCABULARY
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27. SVG Integration
• Inline SVG graphics
– <svg-container>
• Can pull in SVG from non-DITA XML files
– <svgref>
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28. MathML Integration
• MathML domain:
– <mathml> element contains <m:math>
– Can link to <m:math> elements in non-DITA XML files:
<mathmlref>
• Equation domain:
– Elements for identifying semantic equations:
• <equation-inline>, <equation-block>, <equation-figure>
– Can control equation numbering
• <equation-number>
– Can have alternate forms of the equation: MathML,
image, etc.
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29. Troubleshooting Support
• New topic type: troubleshooting
– Provides problem/cause/solution structures
• New elements for use within tasks:
– <steptroubleshooting>, <tasktroubleshooting>
– Clearly identifies troubleshooting-specific
information
• New “trouble” note type for highlighting
troubleshooting-related notes
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30. UX Window Control
• Specifically for online help
• Within maps:
– Define size and position details of windodws to use for
showing online help
– <ux-window name=“win-01”
width=“400” height=“600” >
• Within topics:
– Reference named windows from <resourceid>
elements in topics
– <resourceid appid=“myapp”
ux-windowref=“win-01”/>
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31. Release Management Metadata
• Metadata for maps and topics
– <change-historylist>
– <change-item>
• Lets you capture details about a specific
change to the map or topic:
– Who, what, when, why
– References to issue-tracker issues
• Can be extended with additional metadata
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32. Learning and Training
Enhancements
• New learingObjectMap and
learningGroupMap map types
• New learning2 domain for interactions
(assessments):
– Allows block elements in questions, answers, and
feedback
– Same semantics and question types as DITA 1.2
learning domain
– Can be used with 1.2 learning domain
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33. @deliveryTarget Conditional
Attribute
• Lets you have deliverable-specific content:
– PDF, EPUB, HTML, online help, etc.
• Specialization of @props
• Includes sample subject scheme map that
defines a set of typical values
• Can use any values you want
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34. Highlight Domain Enhancements
• New element types:
– <line-through>
– <overline>
• Completes the set of line-based highlighting
(underline, overline, line-through)
• Note: Can use existing @status=“deleted” to
indicate deletions
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35. XML Markup Tagging
• XML domain
• Elements for tagging mentions of XML
elements, attributes, etc.
• Useful for documenting XML vocabularies
• Used by the DITA 1.3 spec
• XML domain specializes “markup domain”
– General elements for indentifying any kind of
markup-related names: <markupname>
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36. New <div> Base Element Type
• Like DITA 1.2 <sectiondiv>
• Can go in body or section
• Specialization base for learning2 elements
• No semantic other than containment
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37. SUMMARY
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38. Reuse Support Features
• Scoped keys and branch filtering satisfy most
of the reuse requirements not met in DITA 1.2
• “This topic” fragment identifier makes links
within conrefs work properly
• Branch filtering makes multi-product or multi-
language or multi-audience publications
possible
• Cross-deliverable linking allows flexibility in
packaging of content into deliverables
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39. Vocabulary: Key Requirements,
Relevant Standards
• Integration of MathML and SVG aligns DITA with
HTML5 and EPUB3
• Troubleshooting and release management
markup addresses important Technical
Communication requirements
• Learning2 domain makes question and answer
markup useable for typical Publishing use cases
• UX enhancements important for online help
delivery
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40. In Short
• DITA 1.3 fills in important feature holes left in
DITA 1.2
• Iterative improvement in vocabulary
• No changes to existing semantics, processing
rules, etc.
• Key scopes and branch filtering critical for
authors but challenging for CCMS and authoring
tool vendors
• Highlights importance of Information Architect
role within writing teams
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41. Resources
• OASIS DITA Technical Committee: https://www.oasis-
open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita
• OASIS DITA Adoption Technical Committee:
https://www.oasis-
open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita-
adoption
• Kris Eberlein’s DITA 1.3 Overview:
http://dita.xml.org/sites/dita.xml.org/files/overview-of-
dita-1.3.pdf
• DITA Open Toolkit: https://dita-ot.github.io
• DITA Community Resources GitHub project:
http://www.dita-community.org
• Me: ekimber@contrext.com, http://contrext.com
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