1. DITA – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality
7th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Risan, Montenegro, 8 – 15 September 2007
Sam Joachim

2. Agenda Motivation of this talk DITA – History & Background
DITA – short system overview
Teaching Material Repository:
Current state & future work
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

3. Starting point - JCSE
Distributed, mainly independent development of PPT slides: there are different independent Versions (in different language variants) originating from more or less one source
High effort in maintenance and for developing new materials / tailor materials for another auditorium
English
Version 1.1
Version 1.6
Version 2.0
Language
variants
Language variants
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

4. History of last workshops: ‚Authoring by Aggregation‘ process
Main Idea:
Learning Objects should be divided into reusable modules or fragments.
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

5. Shapes, Slides, Pictures, Textfields
History of last workshops: Learnativity Content Model (Duval & Hodgins 2003) o n e t s w y g
Shapes, Slides, Pictures, Textfields
Associated Slides
Section
Topic
JCSE Course
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

6. Authoring environment
History of last workshops: Authoring systems for teaching materials for groups of authors
Repository
Local file
system
Learning
Objects
Meta data
External content
Courses
Authoring environment
import
export
Author
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

7. Some questions emerged
Repository
Local file
system
Learning
Objects
Meta data
External content
Courses
Authoring environment
import
export
Author ?
Some questions emerged
Authoring environment:
Structure
Properties / Features
Workflow
Data representation of
the material o n e t s w y g
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

8. Desired target state: Architecture
Online
Browser
local authoring tools
Offline
Authoring environment
Authoring environment
Browser / Eclipse
Teaching material repository
Teaching material repository (local)
local authoring tools
Repository DB
Metadata DB
Synchronization
Synchronization
One central server / repository with all versions, language variants and also all newly developed ‚draft‘ materials.
User get / check out the materials they desire from this server
User can work / develop materials offline
With checking in the new materials, the new versions / variants / translations will be incorporated in the repository
Metadata DB
Repository DB
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

9. Schematic Workflow Process (Ravda 2006)
Interactiv „Authoring by Aggregation“ process uses fragments/modules to generate new material
(Semi-) Automatic generation of “Raw media objects“
(Semi-) Automatic grouping of connected objects
.doc
.pdf
.ppt
eLesson .
Essence
What is the essence?
Text? Pictures? Style?
Tool
Tool 2
Automated.
Some AI?
Half-baked
essence
Tool 3
Final document
Interactivity.
Some NI
XML?
Moodle
Ahyco
.ppt Slides
Something
Tool 4
Teaching / Learning Object or Material Repository
Raw data and media elements in XML format
Objects in some Teaching Material Language
(LMML /<ML3>)
knowledge
grid
Information objects (groups of objects, graphics)
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

10. Data Representation: Core: DITA as basic data format
Versioning of slides / objects / fragments
Input from different versions e.g. in different languages
 New slides? Changed slides? Changed objects?
.ppt
Transformation (both directions)
DITA
Graphical presentation
(color, fonts, shapes corporate identity)
Aspects concerning localizing
separated management of language specific elements
Different slide formats
(.ppt, .pdf (1, 2, 6), Lecture Notes)
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

11. Advanced features: Translation support with Translation Memory Systems
Creation of teaching objects
for new courses
different combinations of existing material
Different output styles
Textbook, .ppt, .pdf (Slides: 2on1, 6on1), .html, …
Building new material with respect to dependencies of existing learning objects
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

12. Agenda Motivation of this talk DITA – History & Background
DITA – short system overview
Teaching Material Repository:
Current state & future work
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

13. DITA – Abbreviation & Overview
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture is an XML
architecture for producing and reusing technical information.
DITA developed by IBM:
3rd May DITA 1.0 OASIS Standard
31th May DITA 1.1 OASIS Standard
DITA features:
Scalable reuse
you can reuse content in any number of delivery contexts simultaneously without complicating the source
Single Source Publishing
Interchangeability
you can treat specialized markup as if it were general
getting reuse of tools and processes
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture is an XML
architecture for producing and reusing technical information.
DITA features:
Scalable reuse, so you can reuse content in any number of delivery contexts simultaneously without complicating the source
Interchangeability, so you can treat specialized markup as if it were general, getting reuse of tools and processes defined at more general levels of descriptiveness
Descriptive markup, so you can use markup that describes your information in terms your customers need
Process inheritance, so you can reuse existing process logic in your specialized processes.
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

14. What is Single Source Publishing ?
Why Single Source Publishing ?
There is a trend toward publishing content in different media
In a manual way:
time-consuming, error-prone and expensive
How does SSP work?
Content is managed in a single location / source
From this source: generate specialized content for different target media
SSP data source
Online help
Slide presentations
Web
Manuals, reports, catalogues
en detail:
Content is divided in information e.g. paragraphs, sentences, graphics
These information:
- are produced only one time
- are administrated in a single place
- can be reused
- can be used to generate output in
different media
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

15. Single Source Publishing Example: DB2 installation manual
The Installation manual for DB2 appears in different scenarios / documentations:
Standalone Database
Content Management System
Lotus Notes
DB2 Intelligent Miner
Different roles and needs in the documentation lifecycle
Project manager
Has to manage huge amounts of documentations
Administration of dependencies in these documentations
Version management
Technical Writers
Authoring tools for producing documentation
User
Different target media e.g.
HTML, PDF, RTF
consistency
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

16. Single Source Publishing – pro & con
reuse of information
reduction of creation time and costs
constantly changing information  decreased cost for maintenance, review and translation
consistency in the whole documentation (content and design)
no redundant information
faulty information can be avoided more easily because changes occur only in a single place (no copy & paste)
changes affect always all documents (e.g. header)
all in all,this points can improve the quality of the documents
con
much more design complexity because reuse has to be planed respectively information has to be structured carefully
use of tools is very necessary for producing, administrating and combining the information blocks
staff has to work with new technique
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

17. Agenda Motivation of this talk DITA – History & Background
DITA – short system overview
Teaching Material Repository:
Current state & future work
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

18. What is DITA?
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information.
DITA divides content into small, self-contained topics that can be reused in different deliverables.
The extensibility of DITA permits to define specific information structures and still use standard tools to work with them.
The ability to define group-specific information architectures enables DITA to support content reuse and reduce information redundancy.
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

19. Basic concepts in DITA Topic: Map:
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.
Map:
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.
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

20. Other features of DITA Tailoring DITA / inheritance:
Topics and maps can be specialized according to the actual needs
New element definitions are derived from existing ones
Comparatively easy syntax and known structures (XML, .html)
Built-in support for multi language documents by using language typed strings
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

21. Example: Topic03.ppt
<reference id="Folie3“> <title>Process models: used terminology</title> <refbody> <section> <ul> <li>Software process models</li> <li>Phase models</li> <li>Life cycle models</li> <li>Software development models</li> <li>Project models</li> </ul> <note>(Note: terms are …</note> </section> </refbody> </reference>
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

22. Agenda Motivation of this talk DITA – History & Background
DITA – system overview
Teaching Material Repository:
Current state & future work
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

23. Basic idea Slide as a specialisation of a DITA topic: ‘slide_topic’
‘slide_topic’ consists of the elements of the slides
Layout information is kept in a separate style sheet
individual layout of slides (save original .ppt layout)
Change standard design for other output formats
A whole ppt file is represented as a specialisation of a DITA map
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

24. Current state: PPT ‘Com Add-Ins’ for
Transforming ppt to DITA + stylesheets
Transformation DITA  PPT
Changing layout / appearance of the material
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

25. Original Rebuild from DITA Actual state problems:
Changing fonts in a paragraph
Direction of lines
Transparent colors
Tables & pictures
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007

26. Sources
OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Language Specification:
OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Architectural Specification:
OASIS DITA Technical Committee
DITA open source kit (
Michael Priestley, DITA XML: a reuse by reference architecture for technical documentation, Proceedings of the 19th annual international conference on Computer documentation
Don Day, Erik Hennum, John Hunt, Michael Priestley, David Schell, Nancy Harrison: An XML Architecture for Technical Documentation: The Darwin Information Typing Architecture
DeveloperWorks site:
XML Cover page DITA:
"DITA for DocBook: Implementing the Darwin Information Typing Architecture for DocBook."
"An XML-Based Information Architecture for Learning Content, Part 1: A DITA Specialization Design. Use DITA XML to Develop Reusable Learning Content.“   
"An XML-Based Information Architecture for Learning Content, Part 2: A DITA Content Pilot. Use DITA XML to Develop Reusable Learning Content."    John P. Hunt, Robert Bernard
"How Global Companies can Close the Globalization Gap DITA." Idiom Technologies, Inc.
'Dita – a language for single source publishing with support for multilinguality', Risan, Montenegro, September 2007