DrupalCon London 2011: MAKING DRUPAL DOCUMENTATION MODULAR, REUSABLE AND OPEN SOURCE
Problem:
Drupal is modular, reusable and open source, but that's not the case for our documentation. The documentation in code falls under the GPL license and we have a few angels that contribute to our community documentation but on the documentation that we make for our users and customers we are failing to collaborate.
Proposed solution:
In this presentation we'll explain how we could turn Drupal documentation into modular, reusable units on which we can collaborate. We'll explain what single sourcing is and how we could from a single set of topics make documentation for different purposes and topics. From a shared topic repository we would be able to create manuals, online help, built in help, training materials, training curricula and FAQ's for RFP's.
We'll give an introduction to DITA (Darwin Information Type Architecture), an Oasis XML standard started at IBM and how it's used in industries with modular products to publish documentation in a range of formats in minutes in stead of days while saving up to 60% of translation costs.
We'll than explore how we could implement a documentation tool chain for Drupal that would take advantage of a DITA like architecture. We'll talk about:
The conditional text GSoC
The core initiative for an improved built-in help system
the DITA Drupal module and explain how we want to make Drupal a platform for community authored DITA documentation that does not require knowledge about DITA from it's contributors.
Drupal is modular, reusable and open source, but that's not the case for our documentation. The documentation in code falls under the GPL license and we have a few angels that contribute to our community documentation but on the documentation that we make for our users and customers we are failing to collaborate.
Proposed solution:
In this presentation we'll explain how we could turn Drupal documentation into modular, reusable units on which we can collaborate. We'll explain what single sourcing is and how we could from a single set of topics make documentation for different purposes and topics. From a shared topic repository we would be able to create manuals, online help, built in help, training materials, training curricula and FAQ's for RFP's.
We'll give an introduction to DITA (Darwin Information Type Architecture), an Oasis XML standard started at IBM and how it's used in industries with modular products to publish documentation in a range of formats in minutes in stead of days while saving up to 60% of translation costs.
We'll than explore how we could implement a documentation tool chain for Drupal that would take advantage of a DITA like architecture. We'll talk about:
The conditional text GSoC
The core initiative for an improved built-in help system
the DITA Drupal module and explain how we want to make Drupal a platform for community authored DITA documentation that does not require knowledge about DITA from it's contributors.