Building DITA output with Java command line

The DITA Open Toolkit release 1.0.2 or above provides a command line interface as an alternative for users with little knowledge of Ant to use the toolkit easily.

Running example

  1. Change into the DITA Open Toolkit installation directory.
  2. On the command line, enter the following command:

    java -jar lib/dost.jar /i:samples/sequence.ditamap /outdir:out /transtype:xhtml

This particular example creates a properties file, and then calls Ant using this properties to build the sample sequence.ditamap file and outputs the xhtml results to the out directory. You can add other parameters to this properties file. See the following Table of supported parameters for details.

Note:
  1. In this example, the '/' symbol preceded by a space is the separator for each parameter.
  2. Currently, the parameters /filter, /ftr, /hdr, and /hdf require an absolute path.
  3. The properties file is saved in the ${dita.temp.dir} directory, and this directory is cleaned before each transformation after release 1.1.1, if you want to use this properties file in future transform, you need to specify '/cleantemp:no' in the command. The following command provides an example using this properties file:

    ant -f conductor.xml -propertyfile ${dita.temp.dir}/property.temp

Supported parameters

Table of supported parameters lists the supported parameters (their Ant names are within the braces) that you can set with this tool.

Table 1. Table of supported parameters
Parameter Description
/i:{args.input} The path and name of the input file. This argument should be in the same upper or lower case with the filename on file system.
Note: This parameter must be provided if dita.input and dita.input.dirname not be provided.
/if:{dita.input} The name of the input file .
Note: This parameter must be provided if args.input not be provided. And this parameter must be used together with the dita.input.dirname parameter. The result of this combination is equivalent to use only the args.input parameter. It is an alternative way to specify the path and name of the input file.
/id:{dita.input.dirname} The input directory which contains the input file.
Note: This parameter must be provided if args.input not be provided. And this parameter must be used together with the dita.input parameter. The result of this combination is equivalent to use only the args.input parameter. It is an alternative way to specify the path and name of the input file.
/outdir:{output.dir} The path of the output directory.
/tempdir:{dita.temp.dir} The directory of the temporary files. The default is 'temp'.
/ditaext:{dita.extname} The file extension name of the input topic files, for example, '.xml' or '.dita'. The default is '.xml'.
/transtype:{transtype} The transformation type. Currently, the supported values include xhtml, pdf, javahelp, eclipsehelp, htmlhelp, eclipsecontent, troff, and docbook.
/filter:{dita.input.valfile} The name of the file containing filter/flagging/revision information.
/draft:{args.draft} Default "hide draft & cleanup content" processing parameter ("no"= hide them); "no" and "yes" are valid values; non-"yes" is ignored.
/artlbl:{args.artlbl} Default "output artwork filenames" processing parameter; "no"and "yes"are valid values; non-"yes" is ignored.
/ftr:{args.ftr} The name of the file containing XHTML to be placed in the BODY running-footing area.
/hdr:{args.hdr} The name of the file containing XHTML to be placed in the BODY running-heading area.
/hdf:{args.hdf} The name of the file containing XHTML to be placed in the HEAD area.
/csspath:{args.csspath} The path for css reference, it can be a URL start with 'http://' or 'https://', it also can be a local absolute directory. Default will be output directory.
Note: args.csspath should end with '/' if it is a URL, or file separator for local path.
/css:{args.css} User specified css file, it can be a local file or remote file in the web.
Note: It must be a filepath relative to URL or local root dir base on the type of args.csspath.
/copycss:{args.copycss} The parameter to specify whether copy user specified css files to the directory specified by args.csspath. Only "no" and "yes" are valid values.
/indexshow:{args.indexshow} The parameter to specify whether each index entry should display within the body of the text itself. Only "no" and "yes" are valid values.
/outext:{args.outext} The output file extension name for generated xhtml files. Typically, '.html' or '.htm' can be used as the extension name for the generated xhtml files. You can also specify other extension name. The default is '.html'.
/xsl:{args.xsl} The xsl file to replace the default xsl file. It will replace dita2docbook.xsl in docbook transformation, dita2fo-shell.xsl in pdf transformation, dita2xhtml.xsl in xhtml/eclipsehelp transformation, and dita2html.xsl in javahelp/htmlhelp transformation.
/cleantemp:{clean.temp} The parameter to specify whether to clean the temp directory before each build. Only "no" and "yes" are valid values. The default is yes.
/foimgext:{args.fo.img.ext} The extension name of image file in pdf transformation. Only '.jpg', '.gif' are valid value. The default is '.jpg'.
Note: Only one extension supported in the same transformation, image files with other extensions will be renamed to the specified extension.
/javahelptoc:{args.javahelp.toc} The root file name of the output javahelp toc file in javahelp transformation. The default is the name of input ditamap file.
/javahelpmap:{args.javahelp.map} The root file name of the output javahelp map file in javahelp transformation. The default is the name of input ditamap file.
/eclipsehelptoc:{args.eclipsehelp.toc} The root file name of the output eclipsehelp toc file in eclipsehelp transformation. The default is the name of input ditamap file.
/eclipsecontenttoc:{args.eclipsecontent.toc} The root file name of the output Eclipse content provider toc file in eclipsecontent transformation. The default is the name of input ditamap file.
/xhtmltoc:{args.xhtml.toc} The root file name of the output xhtml toc file in xhtml transformation. The default is 'index'.
Related concepts
DITA futures
Building DITA output with Ant
Related reference
DITA release notes
Controls, parameters, tweaks, and gizmos for dita2htmlImpl.xsl
Related information
DITA release history
Tested platforms and tools
Using DITA transforms