Hi Gordon,
you may want to post your questions in the dita-users and/or
framemaker-dita Yahoo groups. You'll get more answers there:
* http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/
* http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/framemaker-dita/
I run a consultancy, specializing in DITA-based technical writing, but I
am also a long-time "Framer", so I think I can give you a couple of
recommendations. This is what I'm currently using:
* *Authoring*: XMetal 5 and/or FrameMaker 8 with the DITA-FMx
plug-in (http://www.leximation.com/dita-fmx/)
* *Publishing*: FrameMaker to PDF and the DITA Open Toolkit to
xhtml, EclipseHelp and chm. I use chm2web Pro to convert the chm
to webhelp (simple, fast and inexpensive). WebWorks ePublisher is
the only help authoring tool (HAT) I know so far which accepts a
ditamap as input. I have done some quick tests and it looks
promising, but I need to do some further testing here.
* *Managing DITA content*: Our technical writers use the CMS of the
customers, so we don't have a CMS (yet). You may want to check
out this site: http://dita.xml.org/products.
Kind regards
Yves Barbion
Managing Director
Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
Scripto
Belgium
Gordon McLean wrote:
> DITA isn't a publishing standard, it's a content structure standard I
> thought.
>
> Perhaps I need to state my question more clearly.
>
> Does anyone have an example of all the applications (names!) used in an end
> to end publishing system that is based on XML single source (DITA is a bit
> of a red herring I guess, it's a standard, not an application).
>
> I know FrameMaker 8 supports DITA, and I'll be evaluating that soon (I
> presume it handles the transformation from XML to 'FM editable' and back?).
> But what CMS are people using? And what publishing engines? Webworks? Or
> something from the DITA Open Toolkit?
>
> I'm wary of getting sucked into a proprietary path, and also of having an
> overly complex build system (ultimately we want to publish on a schedule as
> well as instantly to a website). I've visited and read up on a lot of vendor
> propositions, and I'm aware that consultancies will have favoured solutions,
> so I'm asking the Framers for THEIR recommendations if they have such a
> system in place.
>
> Gordon
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shmuel Wolfson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: 12 March 2008 09:08
> To: Gordon McLean
> Subject: Re: FrameMaker DITA and CMS
>
> You need an XML editor such as Xmetal or Structured Frame. The CMS helps for
> version control and knowing which chinks are used in which books.
> This is useful information when considering editing a chunk. DITA is a
> popular XML publishing standard, although there are others. There is a
> plug-in for structured Frame to have DITA support in Frame, and in Frame
> 8 it is built in.
>
> HTH
>
> Regards,
> Shmuel Wolfson
>
>
>
> Gordon McLean wrote:
>
>> I'm currently evaluating a variety of tools and solutions with an aim to
>> moving the team to some form of single source process.
>>
>> We have looked at, and like, DITA, and will be using that as the basis for
>> our content.
>>
>> However trying to find an end-to-end solution is proving hard, or perhaps
>> I'm looking in the wrong places?
>>
>> My belief is we need a database (CMS) to hold the content (as XML chunks),
>> an editing application (FrameMaker?) as well as a set of rules to
>>
> transform
>
>> the XML into something editable (or we get an XML editor like... XMetal?).
>> We then need publishing engines to convert the XML to PDF, JavaHelp, HTML
>> etc.
>>
>> Ohh and we need to maintain three different versions (releases) of the
>> documentation set.
>>
>> The DITA side I've done a lot of research on, we have the beginnings of an
>> Information Model and have planned out how we will specialise the schema
>>
> for
>
>> our own use.
>>
>> It's the tooling side that seems wide open. I've looked at the Open
>>
> Toolkit
>
>> but (and this may be a strange admission for a TECHNICAL writer) it's a
>> little heavy on the tech side.
>>
>> So, in short, I'm looking for any/all recommendations in this area. If you
>> have a DITA based publishing system in place, with version control, I'd
>>
> love
>
>> to hear about it!
>>
>> Gordon
>>
>> P.S. This is not an excuse for vendors to cold call me!
>>
>>
>>
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