Rockley Ann Rockley

DITA v1.1 Released

22-Aug-2007

Tags: Component Content Management, XML

OASIS, an international open standards consortium, has recently announced that DITA version 1.1 has been approved as a standard.

Three additions in particular provide responses to three frequent complaints heard about v1.0. The new version adds the long awaited "Bookmap" -- better support for books as output -- which includes book elements and metadata in a map structure. This version also includes improved indexing and support for adding structured metadata through the specialization process.

Bookmap provides the structures for separating parts of books that are really navigation and flow-based from content, as well as providing structures for things like title page, front matter, and so on. These changes will make DITA much more palatable to users who deliver books as part of their documentation set.

Revised indexing structures provide the ability to create effective, complete indexes. Definitely lacking in v1.

Finally, the addition of support for specializing attributes provides key functionality that was a glaring issue in v1.0. Users implementing v1.0 were faced with the option of living with the built-in metadata structures of the standard, or to customize outside of the specialization mechanism. This second work-around, however, introduced issues with backwards compatibility for new and improved versions of DITA. The new functionality in v1.1 gives users the ability to extend metadata structures within the specialization framework, making it easier to upgrade to new versions of DITA as they are delivered.

    Now Get the Complete Real Story

    Vendor Evaluations

    Learn the real strengths and weaknesses of major vendors from around the world, in our research stream.