Re: [dita] Improving variable content in 2.0

[Bob Thomas <bob.thomas@tagsmiths.com>]

But, of course, you can't because <tm> isn't allowed in wintitle. But, the idea is the same.

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 11:09 AM, Bob Thomas <bob.thomas@tagsmiths.com> wrote:

Hi Joe,

Suppose you had a window named "Confabulator® connections" and you wished to call <tm tmtype="reg">Confabulator</tm> from a variable.

Best Regards,

Bob

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Joe Pairman <joe.pairman@mekon.com> wrote:

Is there a particular reason that you need a dedicated "variable" element nested within the wintitle? The markup I suggested gives you a wintitle with variable text. I've used that kind of pattern to good effect with a number of teams, CMSs, and authoring tools.

Cheers,

Joe

On Jul 10, 2017, at 17:53, Scott Hudson <scott.hudson@jeppesen.com> wrote:

The problem is that keyref is not allowed on <text>.

 

--Scott

 

From: Robert D Anderson <robander@us.ibm.com>
Date: Monday, July 10, 2017 at 10:52 AM
To: Joe Pairman <joe.pairman@mekon.com>
Cc: "dita@lists.oasis-open.org" <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>, Scott Hudson <scott.hudson@jeppesen.com>
Subject: Re: [dita] Improving variable content in 2.0

 

Joe is right that <linktext> is meant to be a general best practice there, and will work for all elements that pull in text using @keyref -- provided you use the latest DITA-OT release. The toolkit did not properly resolve text for all cases using <linktext> until the 2.5.1 release a few weeks ago.

Regards, Robert D. Anderson  DITA-OT lead and Co-editor DITA 1.3 specification, Digital Services Group	<image004.png>
E-mail: robander@us.ibm.com Digital Services Group	<image005.png>
11501 BURNET RD,, TX, 78758-3400, AUSTIN, USA

<image006.gif>Joe Pairman ---07/10/2017 11:22:46 AM---Hi Scott, Elsewhere the spec suggests using the <linktext> element as a best practice "for cases whe

From: Joe Pairman <joe.pairman@mekon.com>
To: Scott Hudson <scott.hudson@jeppesen.com>
Cc: "dita@lists.oasis-open.org" <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Date: 07/10/2017 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: [dita] Improving variable content in 2.0
Sent by: <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>

---

Hi Scott,

Elsewhere the spec suggests using the <linktext> element as a best practice "for cases where all elements getting text from a key definition should result in the same value":
https://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/dita/v1.3/os/part1-base/archSpec/base/processing-keyref-for-text.html

I just tried it quickly and it appears to be legal per the DTDs and also work fine in the DITA-OT!

Here’s my map:

<map>
<title>DITA Topic Map</title>
<keydef keys="SomeKey">
<topicmeta>
<linktext>Some text string</linktext>
</topicmeta>
</keydef>
<topicref href="TestReferencingLinktextFromWintitle.dita"/>
</map>

And here’s the topic:

<concept id="topic">
<title>Test referencing linktext from wintitle</title>
<conbody>
<p>Wintitle follows: <wintitle keyref="SomeKey"/></p>
</conbody>
</concept>

Is that helpful at all?

Best regards,
Joe




On Jul 10, 2017, at 17:10, Scott Hudson <scott.hudson@jeppesen.com> wrote:

The current method for creating content variables is to use a keyword construct. (https://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/dita/v1.3/os/part1-base/archSpec/base/example-key-definition-for-variable-text.html )

For example:
<keydef keys="productname">
<topicmeta>
<keywords>
<keyword audience="GA">ProductA</keyword> 
<keyword audience="BA">ProductB</keyword>
<keyword audience="CA">ProductC</keyword>
</keywords>
</topicmeta>
</keydef>

Unfortunately, keyword is not allowed in many content models, so you cannot use variables in many cases. Here's an example use case:
We have product names that are stored as variables (in case Marketing changes the name during development and due to product variants), which we express in DITA using <keyword> keys. Several of our user interfaces use the product name as part of the interface area, which should be tagged with wintitle.

Right now, we have no way of marking the following:

On the <wintitle><keyword keyref="productname"/> Server Administration</wintitle> window, click <uicontrol>Manage</uicontrol>.

Unfortunately, the current model for <keydef> doesn't let you define variable content using ph or text elements, and the <wintitle> model, only (text data | <text>)* is allowed. 

For DITA 2.0, I'd like to propose a more globally applicable method for including variable content, perhaps based on <ph> or <text>.

Thanks and best regards,

--Scott

Scott Hudson
Content Strategist
Digital Aviation Learning & Development 

Voting member:
Boeing Data Standards Technical Advisory Board
OASIS DocBook TC, Publishers SC (Chair)
OASIS DITA TC, Tech Comm SC, LW DITA SC, Learning Content SC (Secretary)
OASIS DITA Adoption TC
OASIS Augmented Reality in Information Products (ARIP) TC
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Jeppesen | Digital Aviation | Boeing
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--

Bob Thomas

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Skype: bob.thomas.colorado

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--

Bob Thomas

+1 720 201 8260

Skype: bob.thomas.colorado

Instant messaging: Gmail chat (bob.thomas@tagsmiths.com) or Skype

Time zone: Mountain (GMT-7)