DITA-OT
Foundational knowledge for DITA OT new users #4696
Replies: 3 comments 4 replies
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The DITA OT docs has evolved in time, is maintained and should cover quite well installing, publishing, configuring the DITA OT: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/ |
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Just to clarify, the point is not for the TC to get involved on the publishing side. You are correct that the DITA OT documentation is very good. That said, there is foundational knowledge about DITA (what are maps, what are topics, how do they relate) required before someone can start developing OT customizations. Our question is whether developers of these customizations can easily find this information, and whether it clearly explains what they need to know to complete the customizations successfully. |
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So you would want maybe the DITA OT documentation to maybe have a small article about what the DITA XML standard is with useful links pointing to the DITA standard? |
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No, the TC is not requesting any updates to the OT documentation. |
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Talking about general DITA learning, outside of the DITA OT, I have found it difficult to get thorough, understandable late-model info on how to do specializations and constraints. For example, Eliot Kimber's book on this is many years old. Maybe you have a suggestion. |
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For me, my a-ha moment was the importance of the @Class attribute.
When I first learned DITA, I had basic scripting skills but hadn’t touched
XSLT or Python yet. In my XSLT course, we mostly matched on element names,
not attributes. That worked—until I started working with DITA-OT plugins.
The @Class attribute was hidden in plain sight. Most DITA-aware editors
hide it, which is great for authoring but confusing when you're new to
plugin development (at least for where I was in my journey). You don’t see
it unless you know to look for it, understand what it does, and where it
lives.
After I figured that out, I was off to the races. From where I sit now,
it’s not hard. But at the time, I had no idea how those parts were
connected.
…On Tue, Sep 2, 2025 at 9:22 AM cliostechscribe ***@***.***> wrote:
No, the TC is not requesting any updates to the OT documentation.
The TC wants to make sure that the foundational knowledge of the DITA
architecture, its components, and how they work together, is available and
clear for OT plugin developers. We want to make sure that the information
about DITA itself that OT plugin developers need is included in the
architectural specification and is easy to find and navigate.
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Yep. Seems kind of counterintuitive or maybe just unnecessarily complicated when you first see it, but once you understand how specialization works, it just seems like genius in its simplicity. |
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The DITA TC has been discussing foundational information for plugin developers and others that work with the DITA Open Toolkit. We'd be interested in hearing about what foundational knowledge about DITA that you had a hard time finding when you were getting started with customizing DITA publishing. What would have been helpful to know that was not clearly explained or easy to find? Please share with the TC.
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