Convert Dita 1.1 - 1.2

[TheSun]

Hello,

Is there a process to convert from version 1.1 to 1.2? I understand that 1.2 is backwards compatible however we use some custom tags, is there a validator that I can test to ensure it is in proper format?

Also I am having a hard time finding good documentation on Dita (DTDs, .mod files etc). Is there a good tutorial available?

Thank you.

[Radu]

Hi,

DITA 1.2 is fully backward compatible with DITA 1.1 (so it just contains more elements and attributes).
You need to look at the DOCTYPE declaration for your topics. If it looks like this:

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<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">

that public ID does not contain any version number inside. If you are using DITA OT 2.x for validation, it will use the DITA 1.3 DTDs. But if you are using DITA OT 1.8 then it will resolve the public ID to the DITA 1.2 DTDs.
But if your public ID looks like this:

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<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA 1.2 Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">

the DTDs used for validation will be the DITA 1.2 DTDs no matter what DITA OT version you are using. Same idea if you use the "1.3" version directly in the public ID, you will force validation using the DITA 1.3 DTDs.

About how the DTDs are organized, maybe this part of the DITA 1.3 specs might help:

https://www.oxygenxml.com/dita/1.3/spec ... ments.html

Otherwise maybe you can register and ask around on the Yahoo Groups DITA Users List.

Regards,
Radu