Ditamap versus Book map

[Boreas]

Hello,

we started with dita maps, and realized that we could not pull the attributes from the ditamap to generate the title page. We used to be able to set attributes in the dita map and they would appear on the title page. It no longer works, unless I am,again , missing something.Only the Title parameter is displayed, and we don't want to but the info in the fos. Only the title property is displayed.

So, we started using the book map which works great to pull metadata inserted at the top of the bookmap and push it in the title page. Works great. But then we have 2 problems, I cannot find where to format the The chapter title, and when I use topic headings on level 3 of the map they are not rendered properley, They appear at the end of the section, and all topics included under the topic heading disappear. If I move the Topic heading one level, they generate properly.

Regards

[Radu]

Hi Carole,

Please see some answers below:

we started with dita maps, and realized that we could not pull the attributes from the ditamap to generate the title page. We used to be able to set attributes in the dita map and they would appear on the title page. It no longer works, unless I am,again , missing something.Only the Title parameter is displayed, and we don't want to but the info in the fos. Only the title property is displayed.

I think this has always been the default behavior, but this can probably be changed with an XSLT customization in the:

OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/plugins/org.dita.pdf2/xsl/fo/front-matter.xsl

on the template called "createFrontMatter_1.0".
Is it possible that you had such an XSLT customization but you somehow lost it when upgrading?

So, we started using the book map which works great to pull metadata inserted at the top of the bookmap and push it in the title page. Works great. But then we have 2 problems, I cannot find where to format the The chapter title,

The XSLT where the chapter is output is this one:

OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/plugins/org.dita.pdf2/xsl/fo/commons.xsl

in the template called "processTopicChapter".

and when I use topic headings on level 3 of the map they are not rendered properley, They appear at the end of the section, and all topics included under the topic heading disappear. If I move the Topic heading one level, they generate properly.

I tried to build a small bookmap example to try and replicate the problem on my side.
My bookmap structure looked something like:

Code: Select all

    <chapter href="topics/installing.dita">

        <topicref href="tasks/installstorage.dita">

            <topicref href="tasks/unscrewcover.dita"/>

            <topichead navtitle="THIS IS HEAD">

                <topicref href="tasks/insertdrive.dita"/>

            </topichead>

            <topicref href="tasks/replacecover.dita"/>

        </topicref>

        <topicref href="tasks/installdb.dita"/>

    </chapter>

but this seemed to work for me using Oxygen 16.1 with the stock DITA OT 1.8 bundled with it.
Is it possible that maybe one of your XSLT customizations could have changed the default behavior?

Regards,
Radu

[miklos]

Hi,

Hope you don't mind if I resurrect this wandering topic.

My question might be obvious but I'm relatively new to DITA.

Can there be any drawbacks of using a bookmap for webhelp publishing as well?

From what I've seen this far, all the webhelp scenario did, was ignoring all bookmap specific elements.

Thanks in advance,
Miklos

[Radu]

Hi Miklos,

We are using a bookmap for the Oxygen User's Manual and we are producing from it both WebHelp-based and PDF output.
This solution works for us and probably for many others.

Regards,
Radu

[miklos]

Hi Radu,

Thanks a lot!
Miklos