Integration of a DITA Specialization

A DITA specialization usually includes:

• DTD definitions for new elements as extensions of existing DITA elements.
• Optional specialized processing that is new XSLT template rules that match the extension part of the class attribute values of the new elements and thus extend the default processing available in the DITA Open Toolkit.

A specialization can be integrated in the application with minimum effort:

1. If the DITA specialization is available as a DITA Open Toolkit plugin, copy the plugin to the location of the DITA OT you are using (by default DITA_OT_DIR\plugins). Then run the DITA OT integrator to integrate the plugin. In the Transformation Scenarios view there is a predefined scenario called Run DITA OT Integrator that can be used for this.

   Important

   The directory where the DITA OT is located needs to have full write access permissions set to it.
2. If the specialization is not available as a DITA OT plugin, you have the following options:
   • If the DTD that define the extension elements are located in a folder outside the DITA Open Toolkit folder, add new rules to the DITA OT catalog file for resolving the DTD references from the DITA files that use the specialized elements to that folder. This allows correct resolution of DTD references to your local DTD files and is needed for both validation and transformation of the DITA maps or topics. The DITA OT catalog file is called catalog-dita.xml and is located in the root folder of the DITA Open Toolkit.
   • If there is specialized processing provided by XSLT stylesheets that override the default stylesheets from DITA OT, these new stylesheets must be called from the Ant build scripts of DITA OT.

     Important

     If you are using DITA specialization elements in your DITA files, it is recommended that you activate the Enable DTD/XML Schema processing in document type detection checkbox in the Document Type Association preferences page.
   • In your specialization plugin directory, create a folder called template_folders, which would contain all the folders with new file templates. In Oxygen XML Author plugin, the templates contributed by the plugin will be available in the New document wizard.