WebHelp tiles from nested ditamaps

[Bas10R]

Hello,
(Oxygen XML Editor 26.0)

By default, the tile version of the WebHelp output uses first-level topics as the source for tiles, with the title being pulled from the topic's <title> element, and the tile description being pulled from the topic's <shortdesc> element.

However, I have a bigger project which has a root map with a number of nested ditamaps.
Is it possible to change the default behaviour to instead create tiles with titles pulled from the <title> element of such nested ditamaps? And preferably some description that I could adjust for each such tile (or maybe pulled from some meta description from each ditamap).

Kind regards,
Konrad

[ionela]

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

Unfortunately, it is it possible to change the default behavior. The workaround would be to use topichead element that warps each mapref, as described the the DITA 1.3 specifications:
DITA 1..3 <mapref>

Code: Select all

<map id="standardlib">
  <topichead navtitle="Developing with standard libraries">
    <mapref href="lib.ditamap"/>
  </topichead>
  <!-- ... -->
</map>

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Ionela

[Bas10R]

Ionela,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.
I noticed that your User Guide uses a slightly different approach to customise the text on the tile:
https://github.com/oxygenxml/userguide/ ... amap#L5-L8
Instead of pulling the shortdesc from the topic itself, the tile description is being pulled from the <topicmeta> shortdesc instead.
Result:

image.png (17.49 KiB) Viewed 290 times

Can you provide some more information on how to set this up?

Kind regards,
Konrad

[radu_pisoi]

Hi,

Indeed, you can specify shortdesc information in DITA map as well as in the topics that the map references.

Deciding where to set metadata like `shortdesc` in a DITA map or topic depends largely on your specific use case and how readers will interact with your content.

You can read more in the Metadata in maps and topics topic from the DITA 1.3 specification.

[chrispitude]

Hi Konrad,

I have a DITA-OT plugin that does exactly what you describe:

DITA-mapref-topichead (github.com)

We use it so that book submaps in our WebHelp map automatically contribute their titles as navigation hierarchy. The plugin even ensures that variables and conditional text inside the submap are reflected in the inferred title.