FW: [dita-users] Oxygen XML V9 Now Just Works: Here's How

["Carol Geyer" <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

Is this the kind of comment we'd like to encourage people to append to DITA
XML.org product listings?


-----Original Message-----
From: dita-users@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dita-users@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Eliot Kimber
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 12:09 PM
To: dita-users@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [dita-users] Oxygen XML V9 Now Just Works: Here's How

In my ongoing evaluation all the DITA-capable XML editors (that I have 
licenses for) with regard to the degree that they "just work", I can 
report that OxygenXML Version 9 now comes very close to Syntext Serna 
(still in the lead) with regard to its ability to automatically apply 
its DITA functionality, including visual editing, to any DITA document 
of any sort (including any specialized documents).

However, it does require that you make one not-necessarily-obvious 
setting change in order for this to work.

By default, OxygenXML does not resolve DTDs before trying to determine 
what editor configuration set to apply to it. This means that it will 
likely fail to recognize local shells as being DITA document types 
(because it won't see the DITAArchVersion attribute, which is the key 
clue it uses to distinguish DITA from non-DITA).

You can, however, turn on DTD resolution in the configuration settings, 
like so:

1. Go to Options->Preferences to open the Preferences dialog then select 
the "Document Type Association" page.

2. Make sure that the user role selected in the "User Role" pulldown is 
"Developer" (I think this is required).

3. Make sure that the "Enable DTD processing for document type 
detection" check box is selected.

4. If you use DTDs that are served from a Web server, rather than being 
maintained on your local machine, make sure that the "Only for local 
DTDs" is unchecked. If you check this option, OxygenXML will not try to 
resolve DTD references over the net, which can be a good thing if you're 
working without a network connection.

5. Apply the new preferences.

You will also need to make sure that you've configured OxygenXML to tell 
it where the entity resolution catalogs are (e.g., 
catalog-dita_template.xml) that it will use to resolve any references to 
local shells. However, this step will be required by any editor 
(including Syntext Serna). Catalogs are configured in OxygenXML under 
XML->XML Catalog.

Once you've done this setup, you should be able to open any conforming 
map or topic document, using any shell or specialization, and edit it in 
Oxygen's new "Author" mode with appropriate styling applied and 
DITA-specific functions available.

With Syntext Serna all you have to do is configure your catalogs, but on 
the other hand, Serna may appear to lock up if you have a reference to a 
DTD via a URL that can't be resolved (which is why OxygenXML's default 
is to not resolve DTDs for doctype lookup). It won't have locked up, it 
will just be waiting for the resolution attempt to time out, but that 
might take 30 or 60 seconds, which is an eternity when you're waiting 
for a document to open.

I think it's pretty cool that there are now at least two full-featured, 
usable, low-cost, well-supported XML editors that have reduced the 
needed up-front configuration for DITA support to the absolute minimum 
possible (short of automatically discovering where your catalogs are). 
This helps fully deliver on DITA's "[almost] zero cost of entry" promise.

I haven't yet had a chance to work with XML Mind or the latest version 
of XMetal to see how their configuration processes compare--I hope 
they're comparable but I'm not counting on it.

I will be doing some client work with Arbortext Editor very soon but I 
don't think Arbortext's configuration mechanism has changed much in the 
last year (it wasn't too bad but it wasn't yet fully automatic--but at 
the time I last tried it it was the best, which says a lot about the 
progress Syntext and SyncroSoft have made in improving their products).

I'll also be doing some client work with In.Vision's XPressAuthor for 
DITA so I'll be able to report on that. Because of the nature of 
XPressAuthor's integration with Word I expect that to be a bit more 
involved--but just being able to do productive DITA authoring in Word 
would be a big win for a lot of users and there's no real expectation 
that something like XPressAuthor would be used as casually as Serna or 
OxygenXML (or even Arbortext Editor or XMetal) would be. But in any case 
I'll find out....

[NOTE: In both of these cases the client chose these products before I 
was involved so do not take the fact that I'm doing paid work with them 
as endorsements or evidence that I recommended them. Which is not to say 
that I might not recommend them but such a recommendation would be based 
on many variables specific to a given client. My intent is to know as 
much as I can about all the available tools so that I can recommend the 
best tool for a given client based on their specific needs. All of the 
current crop of editors have strengths and weaknesses and unique 
characteristics that will make them all appropriate choices for some and 
not for others (even FrameMaker). There is no sense that any one product 
is absolute "better" than any other products. If an editor product works 
well enough to be considered at all it will be a best fit for somebody.]

As far as I know, FrameMaker is a lost cause--the reports I've had are 
that it can't even handle local configurations, much less 
specializations. But if I'm wrong about that please let me know.

Cheers,

E.

-- 
Eliot Kimber
Senior Solutions Architect
"Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
Main: 610.631.6770
www.reallysi.com
www.rsuitecms.com


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