TC Dojo Open Session: Are You Getting the Most Out of DITA Content Reuse?

Are You Getting the Most Out
of DITA Content Reuse?
Keith Schengili-Roberts
IXIASOFT
2/8/2016 TC Dojo Open Session 1

Agenda
• Introduction
• Content Reuse in DITA: The Mechanics
– A look at the tools in DITA for creating reusable
content
• Content Reuse in DITA: How to Make it Work
– Making reusable content efficient and findable
• Q/A
2/8/2016 TC Dojo Master Session 2

Who’s This Guy?
Keith Schengili-Roberts, DITA Specialist
with IXIASOFT
What I do:
• DITA evangelist
• Liaison with OASIS; on DITA Adoption
and Technical Committees
• Industry researcher
• Also lecturer on Information
Architecture at the University of
Toronto
• Have 10+ Years of experience with
DITA XML

Am Also “DITAWriter”
• Industry blog started ~5
years ago
• Just over 185,000 hits
• Have regularly updated info
on DITA Conferences, DITA
Books, Companies Using
DITA, DITA CMSes, DITA
Editors, other DITA Tools,
and DITA Consulting Firms
• News and views on DITA use
• Also features interviews
with those making a
difference in the world of
DITA

DITA Reuse in DITA: The
Mechanics
A look at the tools in DITA for creating
reusable content

The Levels of DITA Reuse
• Structural (ditamap, map)
• Topic
• Conref (and Conkeyref, and Conref “push”)
• Conditional processing
• Keys
• Metadata to help find content to reuse (more
on this later)

Matryoshka (Russian Doll) Reuse
• With each of these
levels, it is possible to
add the next sub-level of
reuse
• So a reused map might
(for example) contain a
topic from another map,
which in turn uses a
conref, conditional
processing and keys

Structural Reuse
• Highest-most level of reuse, involving reuse of
entire ditamaps and maps
• ditamaps: goes hand-in-hand with either
conditional processing and/or keys
• maps: ditto above, but when used as
“chapters” can also be published as separate
documents
– IXIASOFT documents use both scenarios

Topic Reuse
• At its easiest, it is
simply taking a topic
and using it elsewhere
• Can be done at the
topicref level, or by
using a conref (+ key)
• May also involve use of
conditions and keys
used within the map

Conrefs
• Involves taking
paragraph(s), sentences
or phrases
– Handy when you just
want to reuse
something smaller
than a whole topic
• Requires addition of an
ID to the conref being
targeted
– This should be
coordinated with others
– Should use a standard
style/convention
Conref target elsewhere in the same file:
conref="#topicID"
Conref first topic in a different file:
conref="filename.xml"
Conref specific topic in a different file:
conref="filename.xml#topicID"
Local target:
conref="#topicID/elementID"
Conref to specific element reference in a
different file:
conref=
"filename.xml#topicID/elementID"
Conref to element in a different map:
conref=
"othermap.ditamap#elementID"

Avoid Spaghetti Conrefs!
• Avoid having nested
conrefs (i.e. conrefs that
contain conrefs), or
conrefs that could be
subject to change
• IXIASOFT DITA CMS
includes a specialization
designed specifically for
holding conref-able
content
– Can do the same thing by
simply agreeing to have
conref-able content on
designated topics

Conref-ing Down the Rabbit Hole
• There’s reuse, and then
there’s ridiculous levels of
reuse: you could for
example conref every
single letter in your topics
– There comes a point where
making the conref takes
more time than simply
writing “new” content
• In general, don’t conref
below the level of a
phrase

Conkeyrefs (Conref “Pull”)
• These are indirect content
references defined by
keys at the map level
• Good for pulling in short,
term values referenced
elsewhere
– It “pulls” in values
referenced elsewhere
• Pro: Change terms easily
by pointing to different
values in the referred
topic
• Con: referred topic needs
to be managed over time
• Might want to organize your
conkeyref targets in a table:
• Which can then be referenced
elsewhere:

Conref Push
• Designed to “push”
content at a marked place
• Pro: perfect for a “quick
fix” where you need to
insert something
• Con: arguably trickier/less
straightforward than keys;
without good
communication can lead
to unwanted surprises for
other writers
• Example from Kris Eberlein’s article on conref
push at: http://dita.xml.org/resource/dita-
12-feature-article-conref-push
Original topic with id added:
Conref “push” topic that points to id in original
topic, then specifies content to include:
Resulting output:

Conditional Processing (Profiling)
• Allows conditions to be
applied within topics so
that elements can be
included or excluded
during output processing:
DITAVAL is your friend!
• Pro: great for creating
content aimed at multiple
audiences
• Con: can become
unwieldy as more
conditions that are added
Sample DITAVAL file:
<val>
<prop action="exclude"/>
<prop action="include" att="audience"
val="everybody"/>
<prop action="include" att="audience"
val="novice"/>
<prop action="include" att="product"
val="productA"/>
<prop action="include" att="product"
val="productB"/>
</val>
This example excludes all
values not specified in the
DITAVAL, and includes
audience=everybody and
novice plus product=product
and productB

Recommended Best Practices for
Conditional Processing
• Write your conditions as you create you content
– And keep track of what you use!
– A good internal Style Guide will state commonly used
conditions and expected values
• Don’t go overboard: if things appear to be getting
too complex, they probably are. Consider writing
separate topics
• Test your output! There’s nothing worse than
revealing content not intended for a particular
audience / product

Keys
• An indirect
addressing
mechanism where
key names are
attached to
resources which are
then referenced
elsewhere
• Very flexible, highly
adaptable
file.dita:
<topic id="topicid">
<title>Example referenced
topic</title>
<body>
<section id="section-
01">Some content.</section>
</body>
</topic>
Key definition defined in the map:
<map>
<topicref keys="myexample"
href="file.dita"/>
</map>

Best Practice for Keys
• Eliot Kimber’s opinion: “use keys everywhere”
– I really think he’s on to something
• Basically there are two types of keys: resource
and navigation only
– Resource keys link to URLs, images, etc., contained
in “warehouse” topics
– Navigation keys (or “normal keys”), which are
named key for topic links
 Eliot also recommends using keys with conrefs
(conkeyref)

DITA Reuse Metrics
• Arguably the most
influential article on this
topic is Bill Hackos’ “Reuse
of DITA Topics? What is the
Best Metric to Measure the
Success of Your Reuse of
DITA Topics?”
(http://ow.ly/X7mzM)
• Percent Repository Words
Reused in Context = (Words
in All Produced Content –
Words in the
Repository)/(Words in the
Repository)

Example Based on IXIASOFT DITA
Documents for 2015
Based on 2015 numbers:
• Total number of words in the repository: 268,663
• Words in All Produced Content: 623,078
• PRWRC = (623,078* – 268,663)/268,663
• PRWRC = 354,415 / 268,663 = 132%
• How is 100%+ reuse value possible?
– Easy: DITAVAL
– We have number of publications that are created based on a
series of DITAVAL value, as much as 21 per bookmap

Content Reuse in DITA:
How to Make it Work
Making reusable content efficient and
findable

The Human Angle
• So far we have only talked about the
mechanics, but it is people who have to make
this work (with or without benefit of a CCMS)
• Past the mechanics, effective reuse within a
documentation team comes down to:
– Writing content for reuse
– Finding content to reuse
– Communicating about reusable content

Moving from Legacy Content
• Few who move to
DITA have the luxury
of starting fresh;
legacy content needs
to be converted
• Do an audit of this
material, look for
what is common
• Port only the content
that will be used in
the future

Create a Reuse Strategy
Once the content audit is
done, think about:
• Naming conventions for
filenames, IDs, etc.
• Determine how granular
reuse will be: topic,
element or phrase
• What criteria to use when
content should be forked
Add this material to your
DITA Style Guide!

Communicate About Reusable
Content
• Create metadata to
describe your content to
make it findable
• Determine where and
what reusable content
will be stored
• Coordinate about how
and when content can be
reused within the team
Prevent this from happening!

Don’t Go Overboard
Evaluate reuse efforts
against the returns:
• It is just easier to simply
write “Click OK” rather
than conref-ing it
“Apples to apples, dogs to
ducks”
• When things are very
different, don’t try to
squeeze reuse out of
them

Knock Down Those Silos!
• Effective reuse means
that content can no
longer be siloed
• By necessity, content
“ownership” needs to be
shared and
communicated
– One person or group
should not “own” their
content, and change to
content that is already
shared needs to be
coordinated

Writing Content for Reuse
• Keep things concise:
content reuse and
minimalism go hand-in-
hand!
• Omit terms like “see the
following” or “the above
image…” etc.
• Think about reuse
possibilities as you write
– DITA content is inherently
modular, so drop any
pretense of narrative

Finding Content for Reuse
• Solution: devise effective metadata and tag your
topics accordingly!
• Use descriptive titles
• Use short descriptions!

Further Reading
• “DITA 1.2 feature article: conref push”, by Kris Eberlein
(dita.xml.org/resource/dita-12-feature-article-conref-push)
• “The Elusive Promise of Content Reuse” by Leigh White
(article: ow.ly/XS0qs, SlideShare: ow.ly/XS0vb)
• “Managing Deliverable-Specific Link Anchors: New
Suggested Best Practice for Keys (YouTube: ow.ly/XS0gz)
• “@conref @conkeyref @conrefpush: Reuse Strategies in
DITA When Migrating Legacy Content” by Adam Sanyo
ow.ly/XS0db
• “Reuse of DITA Topics? What is the Best Metric to Measure
the Success of Your Reuse of DITA Topics?” by Bill Hackos
ow.ly/X7mzM

Questions?
robertsk@ixiasoft.com
@KeithIXIASOFT

TC Dojo Open Session: Are You Getting the Most Out of DITA Content Reuse?

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