DITA Preview and XML
Prerequisites:
Administrators must configure the normalized DITA output for rendering DITA content. See Configuring DITA Open Toolkit Output Formats for details.
Administrators must configure the DITA post-publish content processor for the publishing target. See Configuring Post-Publish Content Processor for details.
ImportantFor the DITA Preview and XML tabs to display, the DITA processor must have a normalized DITA transformation output and must have a URL Partial Match value.Views must be in place for the page schema to properly render DITA content. See Setting up DSS with ASP.Net Views to Display Content for details.
Users can apply the installed DITA-OT to generate previews and associated XML content. Each DITA asset contains a DITA Preview tab and an XML tab.
This topic includes:
DITA-OT Transformation Process
The DITA Preview and XML tabs share similar transformation processes. Each tab uses the DITA-OT for preview generation.
When users select the DITA Preview or XML tab on a DITA asset item, the system automatically displays DITA map options that users can choose to determine the map scope for the DITA preview generation. This "map scope" specifies the top-level DITA map from which the DITA-OT will run the transformation process.
The system also provides optional DITAVALs that users can apply to the DITA-OT transformation for conditional processing. See DITAVAL Management for details about DITAVALs.
When the DITA-OT transformation process executes, the process automatically uses the normalized DITA transformation output format. Other factors include:
- The user's map scope selection.
- The user's DITAVAL selection.
- The administrator's DITA-OT parameter settings.
See DITA Open Toolkit Parameters for details.
- The administrator's chosen page schema that renders the DITA asset content.
See the prerequisite above.
As the process runs, users can view the log details and DITA-OT transformation commands in the Log screen.
When the process completes, the tab switches to the Content screen where users can view the generated preview.
DITA Preview Tab
Similar to the Preview tab for site pages , the DITA Preview tab renders a visual preview of the views associated with the currently selected DITA asset. The preview provides context for how the content will display when the DITA asset is published to the DSS. In this view, all navigation and links within the map scope display and work as they will when the DITA asset and nested dependencies are published to the live site.
See Previewing DITA Views for details to generate previews for DITA asset views.
XML Tab
Rather than rendering a visual preview like the DITA Preview tab, the XML tab renders the raw preview XML that correlates with the DITA asset views and content. The system generates the preview XML after the DITA-OT transformation process completes.
See Previewing DITA Raw XML for details to generate preview XML content for DITA assets.
Preview Cache
The CMS automatically caches generated previews after DITA preview transformation processes complete in the DITA Preview and XML tabs. When users generate another preview for the same DITA asset file, then the system automatically loads the cached preview instead of processing a new one.
If map scope option's Pre-Rendered column displays a checkbox in the Select DITA Preview Generation Scope dialog, then the map scope has an existing preview cache.
By loading pre-rendered previews, users bypass the DITA-OT transformation process load times. If the preview cache becomes outdated, use the Clear Preview Cache feature to delete all cached previews associated with individual DITA assets.
See Clearing DITA Preview Cache for details to delete cached DITA previews.