Further Reading and Resources for DITA Help

This topic catalogs some demonstrations, downloads, and articles relevant to DITA help.

OASIS Resources and Sites

Consult the following resources to learn more about the activities of OASIS DITA Technical Committees in general and the OASIS DITA Help Subcommittee in particular.

OASIS DITA Technical Committee: This working committee is responsible for the technical development and specification of the OASIS DITA architecture and language.
TC home page: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/

TC Wiki site: http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/FrontPage
OASIS DITA Adoption Committee: The working committee is responsible for promoting the adoption of the OASIS DITA standard by educating the global marketplace on the value of DITA for document creation and management.
Adoption home page: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita-adoption
OASIS DITA Help Subcommittee: This subcommittee of the DITA Technical Committee is responsible for developing a top-level design for authoring of Help systems and user assistance content using DITA and for making recommendations for the integrating of DITA-authored Help systems and software applications using context-sensitivity.
Help home page: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-help/

Roster: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-help/members/roster.php

Working documents: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-help/documents.php

Online Demonstrations

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Expandable Content in XHTML: Tony Self has an article on how to customize the output from DITA and the DITA-OT to support a piece of user assistance -- the "Note" tag that provides expandable content when clicked. See the following web page for a working example:
http://www.hyperwrite.com/Articles/showarticle.aspx?id=71
Adobe AIR Help: Scott Prentice has an online demonstration of "AIR Help," a cross-platform Help format that has been made possible by Adobe's introduction of the AIRTM (Adobe Integrated Runtime) development technology. You should be able to take your "web help" files, and wrap them up in an AIR application that can be installed as a Help system. The same AIR application can be installed on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
http://leximation.com/airhelp/

Downloads

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HTMLSearch Plug-in: This DITA Open Toolkit plug-in is available at the Yahoo DITA site. The plug-in is also integrated with Tony Self's WinANT application.
Yahoo DITA plug-ins site (you'll need a yahoo account): http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/files/Demos/
WinANT: Tony Self has developed a Windows-based application that serves as an interface to the Ant build utility, for the sole purpose of processing DITA documents. WinANT allows a user to select build characteristics using normal Windows interface devices such as dropdown lists, radio buttons, tabs and browse buttons. When all the required settings are in place, the program creates the Ant build file, creates a ditaval file (if required), creates a batch file, and then executes the batch file to trigger the Ant build. When Ant has finished the processing, WinANT displays the generated output file. The settings can be saved (as a build file) and later recalled.
http://www.helpml.com/winant_setup.exe
FAR HTML: FAR HTML is a collection of file and HTML Help utilities for authors. If you need to quickly manipulate HTML files, or create and edit HTML Help 1.x or MS Help 2.x projects then FAR will save you lots of time. You can safely use FAR HTML and MS Workshop side by side. Download the full working version of FAR HTML free today. FAR can be used in conjunction with the HTMLHelp2 plug-in to test context-sensitive callbacks once they have been compiled into Microsoft HTML Help.
http://www.helpware.net/FAR/index.html
Plus HTML Plug-in: An updated plug-in for Microsoft HTML Help generation from DITA sources is also available at Yahoo. See the dita-plus.zip download.
Yahoo DITA plug-ins site (you'll need a yahoo account): http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/files/Demos/
Eclipse Help: Eclipse Help documentation and links to downloads are available at:
Eclipse User Assistance http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/guide/ua.htm

Eclipse Help http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/extension-points/org_eclipse_help_toc.html

OASIS DITA Help Proposals for Further Development

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DITA Help Implementation Scenarios: Tony Self has shared several models for how organizations producing Help from DITA sources can manage their tools workflow.
http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/Implementation_Scenarios
DITA Help features to consider: Tony Self has a list that was reviewed favorably by the DITA Help Subcommittee.
http://www.hyperwrite.com/Articles/showarticle.aspx?id=65
DITA Help APIs: Tony Self offered several models for context-sensitive Help callback conventions.
http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/Help_API
Char James-Tanny HAT Matrix:Char James-Tanny has a feature matrix for Help Authoring Tools (HATs). It is a useful compendium of Help features across Help applications.
http://hat-matrix.com/compare_hats/
Help Metadata in DITA Attributes: Tony Self has proposed the idea that we can embed Help context IDs and other related information in the metadata in topic and topicref attributes.
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-help/download.php/28362/dita-proposalcsh1.html
DITA Target Window Specification: Tony Self offered a proposal for specifying in DITA a target Help window.
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-help/download.php/28363/dita-proposalcsh-win.html
DITA Help in a DITA Exchange Package (DXP): Eliot Kimber is working on a standard for compiled DITA called the DITA Exchange Package (DXP). This may be a way to bundle DITA Help sources and/or output conveniently.
http://ditadxp.sourceforge.net/