Best practices for custom frameworks

[rencheung]

I've created a custom set of templates and css based on the standard DITA specification. However, I need to now create another set of custom templates that are based on the original custom set I made with some subtle differences (mostly in the prolog section).

What is the best practice around the creation of these frameworks and is there any way to avoid duplicating the entire package? (Can any code sharing be done?)

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Radu]

Hi Renee,

Could you tell us more about your set up? Did you make the changes directly in the "DITA" framework configuration which comes with Oxygen? Do you want to create another framework which has these new templates or do you want the same DITA framework to have both the old templates and the new?

If I were to start customizing the base DITA framework I would open the Oxygen Preferences->Document Type Association page and press Extend to extend the DITA framework.
Then I would save the extension of the DITA framework in a separate custom framework location next to it, something like:

OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR\frameworks\dita_custom

Then make changes to this extension, like for example going to the "Templates" tab, removing the existing references and adding template folders which are defined in the dita_custom framework.

This extended framework folder would have thus very few resources in it and it would work in any place where the base DITA framework is installed.

After you have an extended framework, you can also pack it as an add-on in order to distribute it to others via an add-ons installation site:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/ ... d-ons.html

Regards,
Radu

[xephon]

Hi Renee,

for myself a good Oxygen framework should completely avoid using the tag mode. Everything should be so easy and simple to handle (with shortcuts, buttons and menu entries) that writers without XML skills can use the authoring environment. I copied the whole DITA CSS family, because I changed most of the rules. Unfortunately I cannot share company code.

Best regards,
Stefan