Setting parameters with plug-ins

To ensure that output is always generated with the same settings, you can create a plug-in to define a new output format that automatically sets certain DITA-OT parameters.

You might want to build a transformation type that ensures that certain DITA-OT parameters are used. For example, consider the following scenario.

Draft PDFs

You want to ensure that PDFs generated for internal review have the following characteristics:

Use company style sheets
Make draft comments visible to the reviewers, as they contain queries from the information developers
Print the file names of the graphics underneath figures, so that graphic artists can more quickly respond to requested changes

To accomplish this, you can create a new plug-in. In the Ant script that defines the transformation type, specify the DITA-OT parameters. For example, to render draft comments and art labels, add <property> elements to specify the DITA-OT parameters:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<project name="com.example.draft.pdf">
  <target name="dita2draft.pdf.init">
    <property name="customization.dir"
              location="${dita.plugin.com.example.draft.pdf.dir}/cfg"/>
    **&lt;property name="args.draft" value="yes"/&gt;**
    **&lt;property name="args.artlbl" value="yes"/&gt;**
  </target>
  <target name="dita2draft.pdf"
          depends="dita2draft.pdf.init, dita2production.pdf, dita2pdf2"/>
</project>

Last modified: 13 February 2024