Integrating DITA Content in the User Interface
To deliver documentation at Turbonomic, we implemented 4D Pubs (Distributed Dynamic Document Display). This is a client application that aggregates content from arbitrary sources as a single “document”. We’re now implementing our user interface as HTML. This user interface will aggregate data from arbitrary sources as a single application. An obvious step to take… Implement 4D Pubs within the user interface to aggregate data AND content in the same client app. This integration takes our single-sourcing to a new level.
This presentation will show how we integrate DITA content with the product user interface. The same topic can appear in a PDF document, or as a user interface widget that implements specific behavior. As background to the demo, we’ll look at the Turbonomic requirements that drive our pubs strategies, review the 4D Pubs client, and briefly look at how we implement the integration. Of course, we’ll show the integration in action.
What can attendees expect to learn?
This presentation demonstrates DITA integrated with an HTML client application. Developers can see how we achieve this integration. If you’re not a developer, you can see the value of including user interface text in your single source strategy. DITA is a powerful and flexible source format. I hope this presentation can spark ideas for taking even more advantage of that power and flexibility.
Meet the Presenter
Chris Despopoulos has been working in the tech pubs field for decades, both as a technical writer and as a tools developer. He has implemented numerous tools for FrameMaker under the name “”CudSpan””.
For DITA development, his main project is 4D Pubs─Distributed Dynamic Document Display. This framework loads DITA from the server and renders it as HTML on the fly. You can see it in action in the Turbonomic online documentation. Chris continues to improve 4D Pubs, implementing connections to different remote content sources.