Changing default attribute values

[ericlandes]

My specific problem is this:

I'd like to have the editor (using 9.3) automatically fill in the outputclass attribute to "stdimage" whenever I add an image to a DITA file. Our style guide requires a certain spacing around images, and the best way I've found to support that is through custom CSS. I'd like to make this brainless and thus change the default attribute value to our CSS class. I'd also like to change the default value of the placement attribute to be "break" as well for similar reasons.

In general, though, is there a way to change the default attribute values for XML elements when they're entered in the editor? It would really make our life simple if that was the case.

Thanks!

[Radu]

Dear Eric,

The easiest way to change the defaults for attribute values is to modify the DTDs used to validate/parse the DITA topics.

In the OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/dtd/commonElements.mod file at line 622 you can find the allowed attributes for the image element. Just replace it with the following.

Code: Select all

<!ATTLIST image           

             href       CDATA                            #REQUIRED

             keyref     NMTOKEN                          #IMPLIED

             alt        CDATA                            #IMPLIED

             longdescref 

                        CDATA                            #IMPLIED

             height     NMTOKEN                          #IMPLIED

             width      NMTOKEN                          #IMPLIED

             align      CDATA                            #IMPLIED

             scale      NMTOKEN                          #IMPLIED

             placement  (inline | break | 

                         -dita-use-conref-target)        "break"

             %univ-atts;

             outputclass (stdimage)                     "stdimage">

If you make the modification while Oxygen is running, please reopen the topics that are currently edited.

Regards,
Radu

[ericlandes]

Thanks for the response, Radu. I'll head off and make those changes.

This solution doesn't seem very scalable to an 8-person team, however. Seems like rollouts/future upgrades may prove difficult.

It would be wonderful if future versions have customization like this built into the UI...

[Radu]

Hi Eric,

The only way to make a customization like this which would change the default attribute value for editing and also for transforming the topic is customizing the DTD. I do not see a way in which this would get implemented in a general way using a GUI.

Regards,
Radu