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The following information describes DITA, DITA information types for development of information and links to other recources.

What is DITA

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing and delivering technical information.

DITA Information Types

DITA classifies information into three basic topic types:

• Task
• Concept
• Reference

A Task topic is intended for a procedure that describes how to accomplish a task. A Task topic lists a series of steps that users follow to produce an intended outcome. The steps are contained in a taskbody element, which is a specialization of the generic body element. The steps element is a specialization of an ordered list element.

Concept information is more objective, containing definitions, rules, and guidelines.

A Reference topic is for topics that describe command syntax, programming instructions, and other reference material, and usually contains detailed, factual material.

Note: For examples of each topic type, see Architecting Content for DITA Technical Report.

Resources

• OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture Web site OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. The purpose of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee (TC) is to define and maintain the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and to promote the use of the architecture for creating standard information types and domain-specific markup vocabularies.

• DITA News Web site provides a list of links.

• IBM introduction to DITA Web page provides an introductory level introduction about DITA.

• Architecting Content for DITA Technical Report by Julio Vazquez describes how an author can apply the DITA architecture when developing information for a product. Look here for details on DITA information types.