Developed by IBM, the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a topic-based XML standard designed specifically for technical publications. With DITA, content is authored in discrete units, to enable re-use of the content in different contexts. The DITA standard is advanced through an open process by the OASIS DITA Technical Committee, a group that encourages new participation from developers and users.
Since XML is format-neutral, the content can be published to differing media such as HTML Help (.chm), uncompiled HTML (e.g. for product support on the web) and print (PDF). DITA is ideal for medium and large organizations that produce vast quantities of documentation, particularly if there is a requirement to re-use the same content in different publications and the documentation is to be localized. DITA encourages writing of content as modular topics, as opposed to long “book-oriented” files. Topics can be easily reused in different deliverables.
The Theory and Practice of DITA
DITA provides a basic architecture that includes dividing content into small, self-contained topics instead of the “traditional” document that is a series of chapters and related sections.The DITA specification includes rules for publishing DITA content in print, HTML, online Help, and other formats. It also indicates what elements, attributes, and rules are part of the DITA language. For example, rules also exist for processing other rich features such as conditional text, index markers, and topic-to-topic links.
Creating DITA content consists of writing topics and maps as XML files. Any XML editor can therefore be used to write DITA content, with the exception of editors that support only a limited set of XML schemas (such as XHTML editors). DITA-compliant XML editors validate documents against multiple schemas and DTDs.
DITA specifies three basic topic types: Task, Concept and Reference. Each of the three basic topic types is a specialization of a generic Topic type, which contains a title element, a prolog element for metadata, and a body element. The body element contains paragraph, table, and list elements, similar to HTML.
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- A Task topic is intended for a procedure that describes how to accomplish a task. A Task topic lists a series of steps that users follow to produce an intended outcome. The steps are contained in a taskbody element, which is a specialization of the generic body element. The steps element is a specialization of an ordered list element.
- Concept information is more objective, containing definitions, rules, and guidelines.
- A Reference topic is for topics that describe command syntax, programming instructions, and other reference material, and usually contains detailed, factual material.
A DITA map like a table of content contains links to topics, organized in the sequence (which may be hierarchical) in which they are intended to appear in finished documents. Images, video files, or other files which need to appear in output are inserted via reference.
DITA Open Toolkit
When DITA was released as a public XML standard in 2001, IBM contributed the DITA Open Toolkit, the first DITA-compliant processor. The DITA Open Toolkit is an active open-source project, with contributions from several companies.
The toolkit transforms DITA content into output formats like PDF, HTML, and Online Help, and can be extended to handle arbitrary specializations and arbitrary output formats. Out of the box, it handles all valid DITA specializations and several output formats, including:
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- PDF, through XSL-FO
- XHTML
- Microsoft Compiled HTML Help
- Eclipse Help
- Java Help
- Oracle Help
- Rich Text Format
The toolkit continues to be the foundation of most publishing of DITA content. Many DITA users use it directly, and some DITA authoring tools and content management tools now integrate parts of the toolkit into their own publishing workflows.
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