- Trial Edition| The Build Process | |
Ant is an XML based scripting language, used to compile and run other programs. Each successful run of a DITA OT Ant build actually produces a version of the DITA map (or topic) being transformed in one of OT's supported output formats. The default Ant build scripts provided by OT may not be adequate to meet the full documentation project needs. The DITA information developer/designer may need to modify some of the default constructs, or even override the default script by another self written one.
The Ant elements and attributes used by DITA OT are summarized here below.
| Ant element | Content & Attributes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| <project> | contains: <task> | the first or root element of any buildfile (mandatory) |
| <target> | contains: <task>; contained by: project | maps directly to the broad goals set forth in a build's requirements specification; consists of tasks that do the actual work of accomplishing the target goal. Must be one of the DITA-OT targets listed in |
| <task> | <data> | the smallest buildfile bilding block; performs the actual work such as compiling source code, package classes, retreive CVS file revisions, copy files and/or directories; corresponds to a java object; can do whatever its implementor design it to (including deleting the build file and all project directories) |
| property | a name-value pair that is a type of <dataelement> | |
| DataType | a class of elements that represent complex sets of data, such as fileset and path; and the other type of <dataelement> |