1. IBM User TechnologyNovember 2004 | DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Principles of DITA Specialization: Extending the base Erik Hennum for IBM User Technology

2. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Reuse of design

3. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Reuse of design  General types are rarely enough Requirements specific to organization or industry tasks may span both usage and problem determination  Meet requirements with new elements New element specializes existing element New content is a subset of base content  Add only the deltas - still use the base  Designs are modular For instance, optional b and i highlighting

4. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Specializing from Topic to Task Small DTD additions to enforce document structure. May have no CSS or XSL process changes. topic title prolog metadata related-links body task title prolog metadata taskbody prereq context steps taskxmp result postreq step cmd, (info | substeps | tutorialinfo | xmp | choices)*, result? related-links topic title prolog metadata related-links body task title prolog metadata taskbody prereq context steps example result postreq step cmd, (info | substeps | tutorialinfo | stepxmp | choices|choicetable)*, stepresult? related-links

5. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation From Task to Business Task Additional structure changes. businesstask title prolog metadata related-links btaskbody prereq context bsteps example result postreq step appstep appdesc task title prolog metadata taskbody prereq context steps taskxmp result postreq step cmd, (info | substeps | tutorialinfo | xmp | choices)*, result? related-links task title prolog metadata taskbody prereq context steps example result postreq step cmd, (info | substeps | tutorialinfo | stepxmp | choices|choicetable)*, stepresult? related-links

6. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Specialization of topic types Topic Concept Task Reference Java APIsJava APIC++ APIsC++ API Topic Concept Task Reference bctask Troubleshooter manpagesCommand APIs API Messages Message

7. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Specialization of domains  Use a domain in any topic type Defines the semantics of discourse or metadata properties for a subject area Extend any existing domain or the discourse or metadata elements in the base topic  DITA core domains Programming domain for programming names and text: apiname, codeph, … Software domain for software names and text: cmdname, filepath, varname, … UI domain for user interface names and text: wintitle, uicontrol, … Highlighting domain for formatted text: b, i, … Task topic type software domain UI domain programming domain highlighting domain UI domain Web UI domain topic elements

8. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Pluggability of specialization modules  To create a document type, you plug in specialization modules For financial services software, you might include The task type The UI domain A new domain that you specialized for the vocabulary of the financial industry The highlighting domain – if you are a pragmatist Task topic type financial domain UI domain highlighting domain ?

9. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Benefit of design reuse through specialization  No need to reinvent the base vocabulary - Create a module in 1/2 day with 10 lines vs. 6 months with 100s of lines; automatically pick up changes to the base  No impact from other designs that customize for different purposes - Avoid enormous, kitchen-sink vocabularies; Plug in the modules for your requirements  Interoperability at the base type - Guaranteed reversion from special to base  Reusable type hierarchies - Share understanding of information across groups, saving time and presenting a consistent picture to customers  Output tailored to customers and information - More specific search, filtering, and reuse that is designed for your customers and information, not just the common denominator  Consistency - Both with base standards and within your information set  Learning support for new writers - Instead of learning standard markup plus specific ways to apply the markup, writers get specific markup with guidelines built in  Explicit support of different product architectural requirements - Requirements of different products and architectures can be supported and enforced, rather than suggested and monitored by editorial staff

10. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation The DITA vision: a platform for collaboration Core TechnicalMarketingLegalMedical Retail  Not just product information Marketing event announcements or Development functional specifications  Shared specialization modules Between partners and across industry peers Install the modules you need, assemble the document types, and go

11. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Reuse of processes

12. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Reuse of processes  Base processing is in extensible XSLT  Overrides provide class-like inheritance of processes Standard processing can be customized as needed New elements can be given specific behaviors  Processes for base elements apply to new specialized elements by default Can rely on base processing, but Can write new/custom processing if needed

13. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Produce information without “steps”, just numbered list Produce PDF document with “steps” Create a wizard to lead user through steps of a task Automatically perform Automatically validate Produce information web with “steps” XSLT DITA Task Possible Outputs

14. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Specialized processes handle the delta for specialized topic types Base topic Task Concept Reference bcTask bcReference Specialization-specific processors Base processors Base and delta DTDs Base and delta processors Specialized processes

15. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Summary of reuse  Reuse content through topics Author content as standalone information Reuse topics as components  Reuse designs through specialization Meet requirements specific to your organization Keep interoperability with others  Reuse processing Inherit base and intermediate processes Customize new specialization only as needed

16. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Specializing an element topic: … task: … Class attribute identifies package and ancestry Base processing applies by default Specialized content replaces base content

17. IBM User Technology DITA Specialization © 2004 IBM Corporation Demo  Take it away, maestro