Adding parameters to existing XSLT steps

You can pass parameters from the Ant build to existing XSLT steps in both the pre-processing pipeline and certain DITA-OT transformations. This can be useful if you want to make the parameters available as global <xsl:param> values within XSLT overrides.

1. Create an XML file that contains one or more Ant <param> elements nested within a <dummy> wrapper element.

   <dummy> *&lt;!-- Any Ant code allowed in xslt task is possible. Example: --&gt;* <param name="paramNameinXSLT" expression="${antProperty}" if="antProperty"/> </dummy>

2. Construct a plugin.xml file that contains the following content:

   <plugin id="*plugin-id*"> <feature extension="*extension-point*" file="*file*"/> </plugin>

   where:

   • plugin-id is the plug-in identifier, for example, com.example.newparam.

   • extension-point is the DITA-OT extension point, for example, dita.conductor.xhtml.param. This indicates the DITA-OT processing step where the parameters will be available.

   • file is the name of the XML file that you created in step 1, for example, insertParameters.xml.

3. Use the dita install subcommand to install the plug-in.

   Note: For more information, see Installing plug-ins.

The plugin.xml file passes the parameters to the specified transformation or pre-processing module.