Are there strategies for efficiently updating shared content across multiple film-related documents and productions?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Efficiently updating shared content across multiple film-related documents and productions is crucial to maintain consistency and streamline the content development process. DITA XML offers several strategies for achieving this, ensuring that changes made to shared content are reflected accurately across all relevant documents and productions.

Content Reuse

One of the key strategies in DITA for managing shared content is content reuse. DITA allows you to create modular and reusable content components, such as topics or elements, which can be shared across multiple documents. When a change is required, you only need to update the shared component, and those changes will automatically propagate to all documents that use it. This significantly reduces the risk of inconsistencies and saves time spent on manual updates.

Keyref and Conkeyref

DITA provides mechanisms like “keyref” and “conkeyref” to establish relationships between content. “Keyref” allows you to reference a shared element or topic by its unique key, ensuring that any updates to the referenced content are reflected wherever it’s used. “Conkeyref” extends this capability to conditional content, enabling you to manage variations in shared content efficiently. These mechanisms are invaluable for maintaining consistency while accommodating variations across different documents and productions.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA employs “keyref” to efficiently update shared content:


<topic id="shared_content">
  <title>Shared Content</title>
  <body>
    <p>This is shared content used across multiple documents.</p>
  </body>


<topic id="document_1">
  <title>Document 1</title>
  <body>
    <p>Here is content from the shared topic: <keyref keyref="shared_content"/></p>
  </body>


<topic id="document_2">
  <title>Document 2</title>
  <body>
    <p>Here is content from the shared topic: <keyref keyref="shared_content"/></p>
  </body>

In this example, the “shared_content” topic is referenced using “keyref” in both “Document 1” and “Document 2.” When updates are made to “shared_content,” they will automatically reflect in both documents, ensuring consistency.