click to edit master title style © 2006 ibm corporation connecting the dots: relationships and...

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© 2006 IBM Corporation

Connecting the dots:Relationships and relevance with DITA maps

Presented byErik Hennum, IBM User Technology

Document Relationships and Relevance with DITA Maps © 2006 IBM Corporation2

The roster of OASIS document standards

Each standard creates a different kind of document content

Styled content – Open Document Format (ODF) / TextDocuments for authoring the presentation intent with the content

Structured narrative – DocBookBooks or articles with consistent structure

Structured content objects – DITAStrongly typed topics that are assembled for a resource


Complementary tools

Differentiated by purpose

Potential to become a comprehensive solution

For instance, ODF-based style policies for the elements of structured markup

Requires better interoperability

Conversion transforms are an obvious, necessary step

Collections of content with multiple formats


DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture)

Goal of usability for writers and vocabulary designersNot just clarity for processing

Topics – like HTML pages but structuredEmphasis on semantic focus, strong typing, and granularity

Maps – like HTML site maps but structuredManage the relationships outside of the topics

Hierarchies of topics as well as cross-hierarchy associations

Specialization – like Object Oriented inheritanceExtensibility to add XML vocabularies for new kinds of content

Specialized instances must be valid for the base XML vocabulary

Vocabulary definitions in pluggable modules


DITA maps: the separation of content from context

The map assigns properties and relationships to topicsA topic can have different properties and relationships in different maps

Views of overlapping subsets of contentRepurposing topics for learning, support, technical marketing, …Reuse and integration of information componentsInformation artifacts that can evolve throughout a workflow

A map can organize other formats besides DITA topics …

Hypertext navigation for help or web

topics map

Composition for books

use


Integrating your web content – the business value

One lesson of the web – the value of integration

Not any single resource but the combination and navigation

The problem with links embedded in contentPrevents reuse of content with different links in different contexts

Requires changes to content when associations change

Difficult to see the big picture because it isn’t represented in any artifact

Instead, maintain the relationships outside of the contentManage the content dependencies

Define a clear information architecture regardless of format

Identify related descriptions and related things


Integrating web content – an example

1. The map defines the relationships for content in different formats

map ODF document

DITA topic

DocBook article

<article> <title>DocBook article</title> ...</article>


Integrating web content – an example

1. The map defines the relationships for content in different formats

2. A process pushes the relationships into intermediate filesExpresses the relationships as appropriate for the format

3. Standard formatting for the contentA light extension to process relationships

Alternative: To process in one format, first convert to intermediate DITA topics

<article> <title>DocBook article</title> ... <simplelist> <member role="parent"> <ulink url="topic.html">DITA</ulink> </member> <member role="following"> <ulink url="doc.html">ODF</ulink> </member> </simplelist></article>

map ODF document

DITA topic

DocBook article


Flexible composition of books and other artifacts<book> <title>A DocBook book</title> <info> <publishername>XYZ</publishername> </info> <preface> <title>Book-specific content</title> ... </preface> <mapref href="reused.ditamap"/> <index/></book>

<map id="reused"> <topicref format="docbook" type="section" href="intro.xml"> <topicref format="dita" type="concept" href="background.dita"/> ... </topicref> ...</map>

DocBook section

DITA topic

merge and process

Table of contents Book-specific content Introduction Background ... …


Managing your subject matter – the business value

A better user experience by processing the semanticsDiscover the relevant content

Filter the irrelevant content

Compose different views of content based on relevance to the user

Improve your content by finding the problems in itHoles in the coverage of your subject matter

Content with a blurred focus

Duplicate coverage of a subject (no single authoritative resource)

Extend the content and formal semantics in parallelFor instance, when you start creating content about a web services offering,

define Web Services as a subject


Ingredients for the solution

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)RDF vocabulary from the W3C

Formal concepts and their relationships

Fills a hole in the RDF stack between properties and OWL ontologies

DITA taxonomy specializationExtends DITA to provide an authorable XML format for the SKOS model

Uses hypertext relationships to specify semantic relationships

Demystifies formal semantics

Step 1. Define each primary subject in a topicWrite a definitional DITA topic that provides SKOS properties like the

preferred label, alternate label, scope notes, …


Step 2 (optional): define the subject relationships

<subjectScheme ...> <hasKind> <subjectdef navtitle="Application server technology" ... <subjectdef navtitle="Web Services" href="WebServices.dita"> ... <relatedSubjects> <subjectdef navtitle="Service Oriented Architecture" ... <subjectdef navtitle="Web Services" href="WebServices.dita"/> ...</subjectScheme>

taxonomy map

Web Services subject topic

Application server technology subject topic

Service Oriented Architecture subject topic

Organize the subjects in a KIND-OF hierarchy with associations


Step 3: classify your documents

<map> ... <topicref navtitle="BPEL User’s Guide" format="docbook" href="bpel-

ug.xml"> <topicsubject> <subjectref href="WebServices.dita"/> <subjectref href="Workflow.dita"/> ... <topicref navtitle="SOAP Concepts" format="odf" href="soap-con.odt"> <topicsubject href="WebServices.dita"/> ...</map>

map

BPEL User’s Guide DocBook book

SOAP Concepts ODF document

Web Services subject topic

Identify the primary subjects of your content


Generate a queryable RDF representation

XSLT transforms classification from XML to runtime RDF

RDF APIs can query or traverse the SKOS model

<skos:Concept rdf:about="&SubjectBase;WebServices"> <skos:prefLabel xml:lang="en-us">Web Services</skos:prefLabel> <skos:definition xml:lang="en-us">A method for interaction... <skos:scopeNote xml:lang="en-us">Covers WSDL, SOAP, BPEL, ... ... <skos:inScheme rdf:resource="..."/> <skos:broader rdf:resource="&SubjectBase;ApplicationServer"/> <skos:isSubjectOf rdf:resource="&ContentBase;bpel-ug.pdf"/></skos:Concept>...

<foaf:Document rdf:about="&ContentBase;bpel-ug.pdf"> <rdfs:label xml:lang="en-us">BPEL User’s Guide... <skos:subject rdf:resource="&SubjectBase;WebServices"/></foaf:Document>...

Subject definition

Content classification


Sample runtime: the SWED facet browser

http://www.swed.org.uk/swed/servlet/Entry?action=v

SubjectsClassified content


Integrating data and discourse – the business value

Hybrid documents are commonplaceReal estate appraisals with lot data and descriptive text

Medical reports with diagnostic data and observations

Service orders with product data and acceptance terms

Like word processor documents with form fields but supporting complex structure and semantics

Integrate the Core Component (CCTS) with DITA?DITA 1.1 will enable specialization of data elements

CCTS offers a possible source of types for common business data

Data compatibility with initiatives like UBL and OAGi?


Integrating data and discourse – pluggability

A DITA document type combines topic type and vocabulary domain modules

A possible direction to exploreWrap the Core Component schemas as a DITA vocabulary domain

Offer the Core Component domain as a plugin for DITA document types

Standard DITA features apply to the data – such as extension, content fragment reuse, and inherited processing with overrides

Contact report topic type

Highlighting domain

Contact report document type

Core Component domain

Core Component types


Integrating data and discourse – example

<contactReport ...> ... <cac:Party> <cac:PartyName> <cbc:Name>XYZ, Inc</cbc:Name> </cac:PartyName> <cac:Address> <cbc:StreetName>Lakeshore Drive</cbc:StreetName> ... <contactCause>Returning call from ... <contactResult>Agreed to ... <contactFollowup> <cbc:Date>2006-06-15</cbc:Date> <contactAction>Call back to ... ...</contactReport>

Core Component data

Specialized DITA discourse


Specialization and interoperability – the worst case

Extension in parallel = a fragmented type hierarchyThe same problems as OO inheritance without a common base class

No sharing of design, processing, or content

Interoperability requires a common, unified type hierarchy

Topic

TaskConcept

Section and reference

Tutorial Tutorial

DITA DocBook


Possible futures for interoperable specialization

Enhance the specialization architecture

Accept many element name aliases for one element typeSensitive to culture or locale

For instance accept <p>, <para>, or <paragrafo> for the paragraph type (indicated in DITA by a defaulted class attribute containing " topic/p ")

Long term, recognize models common to variant XML expression


Summary

OASIS document standards provide a toolsetODF for styled documents, DocBook for structured narrative, and

DITA for structured content objects

DITA maps offer interoperability for multiple formatsIntegration of content as a coherent web resource

Composition of content for a book or other artifact

Management of semantics through subject classification

Potential hybrid objects with both data and discourse


More about DITA

Learn about DITADITA Focus Area on XML.org – http://dita.xml.org/

Cover pages – http://xml.coverpages.org/dita.html

OASIS Committee – http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita

Talk about DITAJoin the dialog on the DITA forum – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/

Download the DITA Open Toolkithttp://sourceforge.net/projects/dita-ot/

Taxonomy specialization available as a plugin

click to edit master title style © 2006 ibm corporation connecting the dots: relationships and...

Documents

dita maps

document relationships

web content

reuse of content

separation of content

content dependencies

ibm corporation

granularity maps