Implementing Single Sourcing with XML - Nilanjana Biswas Novell, Bangalore (bnilanjana@novell.com)

STC Conference, Bangalore What We’ll Cover What is single sourcing? How does single sourcing help? What is XML? Why XML? Single sourcing with XML Some examples 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore The Problem Company X is launching a new software product that will be deployed on UNIX and Windows. Your job is to create a documentation suite consisting of: online help user manual readme quick start card release notes error messages FAQs 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

Traditional Documentation Scenario Readme ERS Quick Start Each doc product is an island of information, and needs to be maintained individually. Online Help Error Messages FAQs User Manual Release Notes 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

Problems in the Traditional Documentation Scenario Redundancy and repetition of information Maintenance overheads rework scope for errors inconsistencies of style and format No time to improve content and usability Tight integration of format and content leads to a high dependence on tools 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

Single Sourcing Scenario Readme ERS Quick Start Single Source Online Help Error Messages FAQs User Manual Release Notes 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

What Is Single Sourcing? means writing content once and using it many times separates how information “is” from how it “looks” allows you to create and manage information as reusable objects 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

Information as Objects User manual Single source Quick Start 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

How Single Sourcing Helps Eliminates repetitive and redundant information Reduces maintenance errors Increases collaboration through object orientation Increases cost effectiveness by reducing effort on documentation Increases consistency across documents 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Where does XML fit in? 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore What is XML? eXtensible Markup Language or XML is a data standard that allows you to break up a document into elements and identify the different elements. 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Why XML? Open source technology Non-proprietary Cheap Versatile Universal data exchange format 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Some related terms... Styling: a means of displaying XML documents Examples: CSS, XSL, DSSSL Document Type Definition: a collection of elements and the rules governing their relationship (The DocBook DTD is of particular relevance to technical communicators.) 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Demo Using Jade and DocBook Using XML and XSL 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

Case 1: Using the DocBook with Jade 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore What You Need: Jade: a freely downloadable conversion engine The DocBook DTD: a freely downloadable DTD for technical writing and publishing Style sheets: freely downloadable modular style sheets that work with Jade An editor: Preferably, an XML editor like Xemacs; otherwise, Notepad will do 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore How to Make It Work: Identify the logical requirements (What are my deliverables?) Identify the physical information requirements (Which parts of the information can I reuse?) Create DocBook-conformant XML files. Use Jade to parse your document to create HTML, RTF or TeX output. Use Jadetex to create PS and PDF files. 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Case 2: Use XML with XSL 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore What You Need: A text editor (like Notepad) An XML processor (like Xalan or Cocoon) 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore How to Make It Work: Identify the logical information requirements (What are my deliverables?) Identify the physical information requirements (Which parts of the information can I reuse?) Create your XML files. Create style sheets corresponding to each deliverable type. Generate output using an XML processor. 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Resources Useful Links on XML/XSL http://www.w3.org/xml/ http://www.xml.org/ http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/ Books on XML/XSL Goldfarb, CF and Prescod P (1999): “The XML Handbook”. Prentice Hall, NJ. Elliotte RH (1999):”XML Bible”. IDG Books. India Doug, T (2001): “XSLT”. O’Reilly & Associates. 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Resources DocBook http://www.docbook.org/ Jade http://www.jclark.com/jade/ DSSSL http://www.jclark.com/dsssl/ Other XML Editors/Processors http://www.xmlspy.com/ http://xml.apache.org/xalan-c/index.html http://sourceforge.net/projects/jadetex/ 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore

STC Conference, Bangalore Thank you! 08 Dec 2001 STC Conference, Bangalore