DITA futures

Activity on the DITA Open Toolkit project will revolve around maintenance (bug fixes), enhancements (new function based on prioritized requests), demos and experimentation (sandbox activity), and community support (forums, etc.).

DITA Open Toolkit 1.0 is a major upgrade from its predecessor, the developerWorks version known as "dita132." Because this is a new project with a new name. a new home, and largely new code, and because it is considered production-level code for XHTML output, the project numbering has been initiated at 1.0 for the first built release. The 1.0 version of code is still based on the dita132 DTDs and Schemas.

Major improvements from dita132 include:

Future plans:

Future development activity of the DITA Open Toolkit is based on the end goal of providing a complete reference implementation for all core output transforms. The anticipated order of work based on current prioritizations (post 1.0) will be:
  • 1.1: Develop the currently demo-level FO transforms to support production-level, book-like functionality with a generic format that can be easily interfaced for particular corporate styles and branding. This will involve working with the OASIS DITA Technical Committee to validate and endorse the bookmap specialization of DITA map. (roughly matching the DITA TC 1.1 plan, based on the OASIS DITA 1.0-level DTDs and Schemas, expected to be a Spec in this timeframe). This version will be based on the OASIS DITA 1.0 level of DTDs and Schemas.
  • 1.2 (roughly): Develop the remaining demo-level help tools to support production-level output for these output formats: Eclipse help with plugin support, HTML Help, and JavaHelp. Also other new help formats as prioritized for this release (such as manpage, QT Assistant, etc.). (roughly the 1.2 plan, based on OASIS DITA 1.0-level DTDs and Schemas with any fixes known at that point)
  • 1.3 (roughly): Develop migrators for OASIS updates that might impact existing DITA source. Other requirements as identified, such as styling layers, custom package building from the project, interfaces to translation standards such as XLIFF, and so forth.

The project will use the SourceForge RFE tool to accept new requirements. These will be prioritized for placement into plan according to the process in the Development Process document.

Related concepts
Building DITA output with Ant
Building DITA output with Java command line
Migrating HTML to DITA
Related reference
DITA release notes
Problem determination and log analysis
Controls, parameters, tweaks, and gizmos for dita2htmlImpl.xsl
Known Limitations
Troubleshooting
Related information
DITA release history
Tested platforms and tools
Using DITA transforms
Transfomring DITA to Word RTF