DITA release history

This document lists major changes and new features by release.

DITA OT release 1.1.2.1

Release 1.1.2.1 is a full build to provide an urgent fix to fix the following critical problem which users found in release 1.1.2.

  • SF Bug 1345600 The build process failed when run "Ant all" in release 1.1.2

For this fix, we have restored all the source DITA files in 'doc' and directories in the binary packages.

Note that the original parameter "args.eclipse.toc" in "Ant tasks and script" was separated to "args.eclipsehelp.toc" for DITA-to-Eclipse help transformation, and "args.eclipsecontent.toc" for DITA-to-dynamic Eclipse content transformation.

Another issue is that we found there is a mismatch in the document and the toolkit behavior when you are trying to use the following command
ant -f conductor.xml -propertyfile ${dita.temp.dir}/property.temp.
Now we have updated the documentation. Please refer to the topic 'Building DITA output with Java command line' on our website for more details.

These updates do not affect standard operation of the toolkit. The main goal of this minor release to enable new users of the toolkit to run the installation verification tests without failure.

DITA OT release 1.1.2

Release 1.1.2 is a maintenance release to fix defects and make patches based on release 1.1.1.

But there are certain limitations and unfixed bugs in this release, such as,
  • Bug 1343963 Blank index.html generated for ditamap contains only reltabe
  • Bug 1344486 java.io.EOFException thrown out when reading ditaval file
Please check the current 'open' bugs on the SourceForge bugs tracker.
Changes
  1. SF Bug 1297355: Multilevel HTML Help popup shows filenames
  2. SF Bug 1297657: Update for Supported Parameters page
  3. SF Bug 1304859: Toolkit disallows repetition of topic ID within map
  4. SF Bug 1306361: Fatal error in published ditamap example
  5. SF Bug 1306363: common.css not compiled with htmlhelp
  6. SF Bug 1311788: DTD references not resolved
  7. SF Bug 1314081: Fix catalog entries in catalag-ant.xml for OASIS DTDs
  8. SF Bug 1323435: wrong system id for html output used in validation
  9. SF Bug 1323486: HTML Help subterm indexes not sorted
  10. SF Bug 1325290: JavaHelp output does not work for Russian
  11. SF Bug 1325277: File missing from the map causes abend
  12. SF Patch 1253783: dita2fo-links relative hrefs
  13. SF Patch 1324387: In xslfo, groupchoice var prints extra | delimiter
  14. SF RFE 1324990: Installation Guide
Parameter Changes
  1. The original parameter "args.eclipse.toc" in "Ant tasks and script" was separated to "args.eclipsehelp.toc" for dita2eclipsehelp transformation, and "args.eclipsecontent.toc" for dita2eclipsecontent transformation.
  2. Several parameters were added to the java command line interface, including "/javahelptoc","/javahelpmap","/eclipsehelptoc","/eclipsecontenttoc","/xhtmltoc".
Other Changes
Change to the "doc" directory, except "doc\langref" directory:
  1. The source dita files and the generated HTML, CHM, and PDF files were separated into separate downloads.
  2. The source package contains the source dita files.
  3. The binary package contains the generated HTML, CHM, and PDF files.

DITA OT release 1.1.1

Release 1.1.1 is a maintenance release to fix defects and make patches based on release 1.1.

For patch 1284023, we are changing the name of the jar lib file from dost1.0.jar back to dost.jar because we believe we need to keep the jar file name consistent through various releases.

Changes
  1. SF Bug 1196409: HTMLHelp output does not reference CSS
  2. SF Bug 1272687: extra "../" link generated by topicgroup
  3. SF Bug 1273751: revision flag using unavailable pictures
  4. SF Bug 1273816: Index generation doesn't cope with multilevel well
  5. SF Bug 1281900: Unnecessary comment and href typo
  6. SF Bug 1283600: unecessary space in document cause invalid parameter of Ant
  7. SF Bug 1283644: multipul document($FILTERFILE,/) doesn't work (XALAN)
  8. SF Patch 1251609: pretargets xsl directory needs to use ${dita.script.dir}
  9. SF Patch 1252441: Files in temp directory not deleted before build
  10. SF Patch 1253785: Inline images in dita2fo-elems
  11. SF Patch 1284023: change the name of jar file and remove the version name

DITA OT release 1.1

Release 1.1 is a major release to add new functions, fulfill new requirements, make some function enhancements and fix bugs over release 1.0.2.

  1. Adaptation to the new OASIS DITA standard

    Release 1.1 implements the new OASIS DITA 1.0 standard for DITA DTDs and Schemas.

    DTDs of the previous release locate in the directory dtd/dita132 and schemas of the previous release locate in the directory schema/dita132.

  2. Transformation to troff

    Release 1.1 supports new troff output. Troff output looks like Linux man page output.

  3. XML catalog support

    An XML catalog, which can consist of several catalog entry files, is a logical structure that describes mapping information between public IDs and URLs of DTD files. A catalog entry file is an XML file that includes a group of catalog entries. If you want to know more about XML catalog, please referXML Catalog.

    A catalog entry can be used to locate a unified resource identifier (URI) reference for a certain resource such as a DTD file. An external entity's public identifier is used for mapping to the URI reference. The URI of any system identifier can be ignored.

  4. Topicref referring to a nested topic

    The href attribute of the topicref is extended to quote a nested topic in a dita file.

    For example, in previous releases, href attribute is set like: href = "xxx.dita"; in release 1.1, href attribute can be set like: href = "xxx.dita#abc.dita".

  5. Globalization support

    Release 1.1 supports over 20 popular languages within the content of dita files. And it also provides translation function for DITA keywords to over 20 languages. Currently this globalization support fully applies to Eclipse Help and XHTML transformations, and partially applies to other transformations.

  6. Accessibility support

    Accessibility support is now partially applies to PDF and XHTML transformations.

  7. Eclipse Content Provider Support

    Please refer to Eclipse Content Provider for detail information.

  8. Index information in output

    The output of HTML Help and Java Help transformations contain index information now.

  9. Mapref function

    Mapref refers to a special usage of the <topicref> element as a reference to another ditamap file. This allows you to manage the overall ditamap file more easily. A large ditamap file can thus be broken down into several ditamap files, making it easier for the user to manage the overall logical structure. On the other hand, this mechanism also increases the reusability of those ditamap files. If you want to know more about mapref, please refer Mapref.

  10. TOC generation for Eclipse Help transformation

    TOC generation now supported in transformation to Eclipse Help. Eclipse.

  11. Helpset generation for Java Help transformation

    Helpset generation now supported in transformation to Java Help.

  12. New parameters supported in Java commands

    In Java commands: /indexshow, /outext, /copycss, /xsl, /tempdir.

  13. New parameters supported in Ant scripts

    In Ant scripts: args.indexshow, args.outext, args.copycss, args.xsl, dita.temp.dir

Other Changes
  1. SF bug 1220569: Add XML Schema processing to DITA-OT
  2. SF bug 1220644: Prompted ant--image does not link for single topic to PDF
  3. SF bug 1229058: Add schema validation loading file for processing
  4. SF RFE 1176855: Ant must be run from toolkit directory
  5. SF RFE 1183482: Copy pre-existing html to output dir
  6. SF RFE 1183490: Provide argument to specify the location of temp dir
  7. SF RFE 1201242: override capability

DITA OT release 1.0.2

Release 1.0.2 is a maintenance release to fix defects and adds some minor enhancements in release 1.0.1.

Changes
  1. SF Bug 1181950: format attribute should be set to 'dita' for dita topic
  2. SF RFE 1183487: Document the usage of footer property
  3. SF RFE 1198847: command line interface support
  4. SF RFE 1198850: architecture document update
  5. SF RFE 1200410: need explanation for dita.list
  6. SF RFE 1201175: XML catalog support
  7. SF Patch 1176909: Add template for getting image URI

DITA OT release 1.0.1

Release 1.0.1 is a maintenance release to fix defects and adds some minor enhancements in release 1.0.

Changes
  1. Committer: maplink.xsl doesn't generate related links for second level referred topic
  2. Committer: avoid infinite loop of conref
  3. SF Bug 1160964: Can't point above the directory which contains the map file
  4. SF Bug 1163523: Broken XPath expression in mappull.xsl
  5. SF Bug 1168974: useless DRAFT param in FO transformation
  6. SF Bug 1173162: generate null internal link destination in fo transformation
  7. SF Bug 1173164: Not correctly use document() in dita2fo-links.xsl
  8. SF Bug 1173663: All base directories are DITA-OT 1.0
  9. SF Patch 1163561: XLST match patterns test for element names
  10. SF Patch 1165068: FO hyperlinks and FOP-generated PDF bookmarks
  11. SF Patch 1174012: Modification to sequence.ditamap

DITA OT release 1.0

The initial release of the Open Sourced DITA Toolkit introduces major architectural changes from the previous, developerWorks version of the Toolkit.

New features
  1. A new, Java-based processing architecture that supports single-threaded execution throughout.
  2. Ant-based orchestration of the processing environment, from preprocessing to transformation to any required post-processing.
  3. A pre-processor core that supports conditional processing and conref resolution.
  4. Map-driven processing that generates links for transformed topics.
  5. A new DITA to HTML transform that replaces the previous topic2html_Impl.xsl core transform. This new core is based on requirements for high-volume usage within IBM for the past several years.

Ant-driven processing means that you can integrate the DITA processing tools into a seamless pipeline within supportive environments such as Eclipse.

The DTDs and Schemas in this version are based on those in the previous dita132 package with bug fixes. The DITA OS Toolkit will later support the OASIS 1.0 specification in its public review form.

DITA history on developerWorks (pre-Open Source)

Versions of the toolkit prior to Open Source are in the developerWorks XML Zone at this address: DITA Downloads Change logs for those versions are within the Readme files in each distribution.

Related concepts
DITA futures
Building DITA output with Ant
Building DITA output with Java command line
Related reference
DITA release notes
Controls, parameters, tweaks, and gizmos for dita2htmlImpl.xsl
Related information
Tested platforms and tools
Using DITA transforms