DITA 1.3 Cross-Deliverable Links

[kirkilj]

Does the OT built into Oxygen support cross-deliverable links? Does any processor support this capability? I understand the description in the Oxygen and DITA-OT documentation from a language spec perspective, but it's not clear if the processors have caught up to support it yet. I've seen messages in various maillists indicating that the functionality wasn't implemented in DITA-OT as of May, but have any processors have implemented the feature?

[Radu]

Hi John,

Cross publication linking is not yet implemented in the DITA OT:
https://github.com/dita-ot/dita-ot/issues/1768

so you will either need to link directly to the server location where the second publication is located or maybe perform some post processing of the published output to get the links right.

Regards,
Radu

[kirkilj]

Thanks Radu. I was just checking to see if you had done something to extend OT via a plugin or two to implement a workaround.

[kirkilj]

I've heard it mentioned when the DITA 1.3 new features were being presented that this feature would be difficult for a processor to implement, but if the gen-list phase of DITA-OT retains a list of all the files in the target peer as well as the root map location of the target and source, couldn't an accurate keydef file be generated for the proper key-scope. I could be way off, I'm sure.

[Radu]

Hi John,

I do not have a precise idea about how this could get implemented. Maybe you could get in touch with Eliot Kimber who proposed this feature in the DITA 1.3 specification, see what ideas he has about the implementation.

Regards,
Radu

[steinbacherGE]

Any update on how to make DITA cross-deliverable links work?

I've been trying to figure it out as described here:

https://www.oxygenxml.com/dita/1.3/spec ... -maps.html

I downloaded the cross-deliverable-links dita-test-case:

https://github.com/dita-community/dita- ... able-links

I noticed this test-case includes a project file (cross-deliverable-links-test.xpr) mentioned by Eliot Kimber:

https://github.com/dita-ot/dita-ot/issu ... -499543114

Is there a special way to make these links work using the project file?

I'm publishing to Oxygen Webhelp Responsvie (v20.1).

I tried to publish as-is, starting with maps A, B and C first. I got these errors when publishing test-01:

[DOTJ047I] Unable to find key definition for key reference "map-a.topic-01" in root scope. The href attribute may be used as fallback if it exists
[DOTJ047I] Unable to find key definition for key reference "map-b.topic-01" in root scope. The href attribute may be used as fallback if it exists
[DOTJ047I] Unable to find key definition for key reference "map-c.topic-01" in root scope. The href attribute may be used as fallback if it exists

Plus sever Missing navtitle and linktest errors.

Do I need to modify the project or the scoped keys based on my local file structure to make the links work?

I've attached a screenshot of my output.

cross-deliverable-links.png

Thanks,

Leroy

[Radu]

Hi,

Sorry but the DITA Open Toolkit has not yet implemented this feature. So in the meantime you will need to add web links pointing to the web server where the secondary publication will be placed.

Regards,
Radu

[chrispitude]

Hi steinbacherGE,

I have a solution for cross-deliverable (cross-book) links with Oxygen's HTML5-based WebHelp:

https://github.com/chrispy-snps/DITA-fi ... html-links

Feel free to ask any questions!

- Chris

[RAYTECH]

Hi Chris
When following the instructions avaiable on this link https://github.com/chrispy-snps/DITA-fi ... html-links, as quoted below:
"For example, in the default bash shell, add this line to your \~/.profile file:"
I got stuck with the

image.png

In this instance, I cannot simply figure out why vim ~/.profile does not work

Additionally, as for this line "PATH=~/git/DITA-fix-html-xbook-links/bin:$PATH", does that mean I can simply append it to the .profile?
By way of background, I have put the plugin in this location:

image.png

Any pointers would be much appreciated.
Ray

[chrispitude]

Hi Ray,

First, please check which shell you are using by running the following command:

Code: Select all

echo $SHELL

If you are using bash, then yes, you should be able to just put that line as the last line of your .profile file. Or, you can skip customizing the search path and just specify the full path to the fix_html_xbook_links.pl script when running it. The search path is just a convenience.

I don't know why vim will not run for you. Linux comes with other text editors. This is probably something you will need to search for and read some articles on how to do things in Linux, as it's quite a general topic.

[RAYTECH]

Hi Chris
Thank you for sending this reply.

image.png

Yes, I am working with Bash shell.

image.png

Although I have put your FIXlink utility in place, it appears it is to no avail.

Could you please advise what might go wrong?

[chrispitude]

Hi Ray,

I am not sure. As this is my script and not a Syncro Soft product, you will probably want to make a small testcase and submit an issue here:

https://github.com/chrispy-snps/DITA-fi ... nks/issues

And we can continue discussion in that issue's worklog.