A Document Standards A Document Standards Interoperability Framework for Interoperability Framework for DocBook, DITA, ODF and More!DocBook, DITA, ODF and More!

www.oasis-open.org

Scott HudsonScott Hudson

Fraternal Twins? Optimized for book-oriented deliverables

Widely supported

Well-documented

Large user community

Designed for multiple outputs

Designed for topic-based authoring and re-use

Designed for interoperability

Highly flexible specialization

Designed for multiple outputs

Both designed for technical documentation!

In Search of the Holy Grail Content Sharing, Reuse and

Re-Purposing has always been the “Holy Grail” of Publishing

Interoperability is Needed! Sharing information between trading partners or OEMs who use different standards

Sharing information between areas in the same organization that have implemented different standards

Sharing content between “non-XML” users and XML Content developers (Knowledge Transfer)

Transitional strategy as an organization moves between content standards, but has existing applications that share data

Compatibility with tools that are optimized for a different standard

Syndication!

Leverage, Repurpose content from many sources

Today’s Reality Old and New Forms of Collaboration

OEMs and Partners Intra-Organizational Mergers/Acquisitions Syndication

Multiple XML Document Standards DocBook DITA TEI ODF Microsoft Office Open XML

How do I reconcile/leverage/reuse content from disparate standards?

Because DocBook, DITA and other standards will co-exist, these standards need to be interoperable, but they’re not… Yet.

A common set of element definitions and models as a base for each standard will require much more collaboration between standards.

Both standards contain methods to extend their respective standard:

Specializations in DITA Customization layers in DocBook

Interoperability: Current State

Content Interoperability “Shoehorning”

Processing Interoperability “Uni-directional”

Roundtrip Interoperability “Bi-Directional”

Strategies for Interoperability

Version ChaosDITA

1.1

1.0

DocBook5.0

4.5

4.4

4.3

4.2

S1.1

S1.0

“What a Tangled Web we Weave”DITA

1.1

1.0

DocBook5.0

4.5

4.4

4.3

4.2

S1.1

S1.0

1.0

ODF

More?

Version ControlDITA

1.1

1.0

DocBook5.0

4.5

4.4

4.3

4.2

S1.1

S1.0

1.0

ODF

InteropFramework

More?

Why Include ODF?

People already use it

Proof point for providing interoperability to other standards

Microsoft OpenXML

LegalXML

TEI

?

Potential use of ODF as a surrogate authoring application that doesn’t know about DocBook or DITA!

Choosing an Interoperability Framework Standard Not another new grammar! Please?!?

Hard to keep up with existing standards Re-Use/Re-purpose an existing standard Leverage existing tools, technology Shorter learning curve, faster adoption rate

What DITA, DocBook, ODF (and others) have in common? Designed for producing Content! Common Structural Components

Headings (Sections) Paragraphs Lists Tables Images etc.

What’s Behind the Interoperability Framework?

XHTML Microformats http://microformats.org/about/ “Semantic HTML” Humans first, machines second Provides basic structural abstractions common to

“content-based” XML standards (DocBook, DITA, ODF, etc.)

All of these standards have HTML renditions anyway

Transitional XHTML 1.0 Well-formed XML with a DTD using HTML markup

Implementing Microformats Use XHTML elements for “common” structures

table, p, ul, ol, img, code, pre, abbr, acronym Use “generic” structural elements as abstraction layer

div, span Use “title” attribute to store original element name Use “class” attribute to specify “semantic category” Preserve additional semantic data

Use <object> tag Valid virtually anywhere Attributes as <param> elements Enable introspection

<div title=“note” class=“admonitionblock”> <object class=“element-definition”> <param name=“type” value=“important”/> <param name=“audience” value=“dev advanced”/> </object> ... </div>

Use namespaced attribute/value pairs <div title=“note” class=“admonitionblock” dtattr:type=“important”

dtattr:audience=“dev advanced”>

Preserving Source Mappings The Goal: Preserve Source Semantics In the Interchange

DITA - outputclass is the appropriate mapping extension to preserve semantics DocBook - remap attribute designed for preserving source transforms DocStandards Interoperability Framework – utilizes a combination of title attribute and an object child or namespaced attributes to store source metadata

<head> element contains metadata (origin format, Interop declarations) <body> element contains content payload

Mapping the Standards

DITA Element title steps step substeps p ul ol note type=“note” note type=“caution” note

type=“warning” b u i

DocBook Element title procedure step substeps para itemizedlist orderedlist note caution warning emphasis role=“bold” emphasis role=“underline” emphasis role=“italic”

To develop the interoperability framework, a mapping of content elements between the standards will be needed:

DocStandards

Interoperability

Framework

Elements

Other Doc Standards (ODF, etc.)

Mapping Rules Not all elements have a 1:1 mapping Some markup will be implied to and from

framework:

<img src=“foo.png”/>

<mediaobject> <imageobject> <imagedata href=“foo.png”/> </imageobject></mediaobject>

<image href=“foo.png”/>

Interoperability Framework (XHTML)

DocBook

DITA

How High is the Fidelity?

DITA Roundtrip Example<concept>

<div title=“concept” class=“topicblock”>

<object class=“element-definition”/>

<section remap=“concept”>

<div title=“section” class=“topicblock”>

<object class=“element-definition”>

<param name=“remap” value=“concept”>

</object>

</div>

<topic outputclass=“section”> OR

<concept outputclass=“section”>

DocBook

Interoperability Framework

Interoperability Framework

DITA

What Can You Do With the Framework?

Enable interoperability between two or more standards

Enable interoperability between different versions of each applied standard

“Unlock” content in proprietary formats for initial migration to XML Document Standards

Apply the 80/20 rule to semantic accuracy

Proposed OASIS TC Flatirons has proposed an OASIS Technical

Committee to continue evolving the Interoperability Framework

docstandards-interop-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org

Standards members include: Michael Priestley (DITA) Scott Hudson (DocBook, DITA) Don Harbison (ODF) Jim Earley (DocBook, DITA)

Proposed OASIS TC charter The Doc Standards Interoperability TC is

intended to address: the development and documentation of

scenarios for cross-standard content sharing; a specification for an interoperability

framework, including mappings from participating standard formats to the framework;

and requirements on participating standards to improve interoperability.

A Call to Arms We need your:

Awareness Support Participation!

For more information: Email thoughtleader@flatironssolutions.com to subscribe to our whitepaper mailing list Download our whitepaper at flatironssolutions.com docstandards-interop-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org