Renaming version-controlled DITA files

[susannecm]

I have just migrated a Word document to DITA and I am also migrating a FrameMaker book to DITA.
For the Word doc, I used the new rename resource feature for the first time, and I really like this feature. Unfortunately, I will not be able to use it that often (actually, only in the migration context).

Once we have them, our DITA files are stored in Subversion, so we have to use svn rename to rename them (and svn delete to delete them). Otherwise we'd create tons of duplicate files with a misleading history. If these operations could be made Subversion-compliant (and if images referenced in DITA topics could also be taken into account), I'd use them all the time ...

Kind regards

Susanne

[Radu]

Hi Susanne,

And you are using the SVN Client which is bundled with Oxygen, right?
Yes, when resources are renamed in the Project or in the DITA Maps Manager and they belong to a working copy we should do this in a way which instructs the SVN client that a move has been operated.
We have plans for this but it is not yet implemented. I will update this thread when we manage to do so.

...and if images referenced in DITA topics could also be taken into account...

So you want an operation for renaming images in the DITA Map context as well?

Regards,
Radu

[susannecm]

Hi Radu,

And you are using the SVN Client which is bundled with Oxygen, right?

No, I don't. At the moment, I am using Tortoise. This client is widely used in our company and I had it already before I started using oXygen. I may have missed something, but the Synchro SVN Client looked like an external tool to me that only can be called from within oXygen. But I would start using it if I had a good reason to do so.

Yes, when resources are renamed in the Project or in the DITA Maps Manager and they belong to a working copy we should do this in a way which instructs the SVN client that a move has been operated.
We have plans for this but it is not yet implemented. I will update this thread when we manage to do so.

That is excellent news - and would be a very good reason to start using your SVN client .

So you want an operation for renaming images in the DITA Map context as well?

All our DITA content is organized under a single root directory (or Subversion repository). The second level consists of language specific subdirectories, the third level represents groups of related products. At the third level, we have oXygen projects that include all the content in further subdirectories. At the moment, we have less than 10 projects, but also dozens of maps (without the submaps). Within these projects, there is quite a bit of reuse (though restricted by some business rules). This structure has been fairly robust so far - if there was a link problem, we were able to resolve it within a few minutes.

Yes, I would want an operation for renaming images and adjusting their references. The images are probably the worst managaed part of the entire structure. Having this feature at the map level would be nice, but in our case, the project level is even more important.

So that was my wish list

Best regards

Susanne

[Radu]

Hi Susanne,

I may have missed something, but the Synchro SVN Client looked like an external tool to me that only can be called from within oXygen.

When Oxygen is installed, an SVN Client separate executable is also added to the Oxygen Start Menu entries. Our SVN client is also available as a separate installation:

http://www.syncrosvnclient.com/

That is excellent news - and would be a very good reason to start using your SVN client

I think that the improvements we want to make to preserve the history of moved or renamed resources will work even if you continue to use the other SVN client. The used Working Copy will be automatically detected from the resources which are moved and there is probably no need for authenticating the user in order to preserve the history.

Yes, I would want an operation for renaming images and adjusting their references. The images are probably the worst managaed part of the entire structure. Having this feature at the map level would be nice, but in our case, the project level is even more important.
So that was my wish list

I added this as an improvement request.
Thanks for giving us details about how your project is structured, it helps when designing tools to know how they are used.

Regards,
Radu

[susannecm]

Awesome - thanks!

[sorin_carbunaru]

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know that in the newly released oXygen 19.0 we added the DITA Master Files Support, that allows you to easily move and rename resources in the Project view, and also update the references to those resources..

You can find some more information at https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... er%2Cfiles.

All the best wishes,
Sorin Carbunaru
oXygen XML