Using Ditaval files for conditional processing

IXIASOFT CCMS offers an intuitive interface for creating and organizing Ditaval files.

If you are using conditional attributes extensively in your documentation, you should take advantage of Ditaval files. These files specify the conditions to include and exclude when you generate your output. They ensure that conditions are always applied consistently to generated output.

For example, consider a documentation project with three conditions:

Platform: Linux or Windows
Audience: Sys_Admin or End_User
Product: Product A or Product B

You could create one Ditaval file for each combination that you need to generate. For example, the following code shows the Ditaval file for generating the Administration Guide for Product A on Linux:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<val>
	<prop action="exclude" att="audience" val="end_user"/>
	<prop action="include" att="audience" val="sys_admin"/>
	<prop action="include" att="platform" val="linux"/>
	<prop action="exclude" att="platform" val="windows"/>
	<prop action="include" att="product" val="Product A"/>
	<prop action="exclude" att="product" val="Product B"/>
</val>

With the CCMS, you do not need to code the Ditaval file manually; you simply use the Ditaval view to create the file. You then apply the Ditaval file that you need when you generate the output for your maps.

Note: Before you create Ditavals, confirm with your administrator that they are used by your transformation scenarios to generate output.