Can DITA facilitate the reuse of standardized agricultural documentation modules across different crop varieties and research projects?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

DITA is an effective framework for facilitating the reuse of standardized agricultural documentation modules across different crop varieties and research projects. By defining specialized DITA structures, agricultural organizations can create modular and reusable content components that capture information common to multiple crops and research endeavors. This approach streamlines content development, enhances consistency, and reduces duplication of effort.

Modular Content Components

With DITA, agricultural documentation can be organized into modular components, such as topics and maps. These components can be designed to capture standardized information applicable to various crop varieties, farming practices, and research projects. For example, a DITA topic might contain information about soil preparation techniques that can be reused for different crops. By creating a library of these modular components, organizations can easily assemble documentation tailored to specific needs.

Content Reuse through Conref

DITA offers a powerful feature called “conref” (conditional referential) that allows content reuse. Agricultural organizations can use conref to reference and include standardized content from one location into multiple documents. This means that information about a particular crop variety or research method can be authored once and reused across various documentation sets. Any updates or changes to the source content automatically propagate to all instances where it’s referenced, ensuring consistency.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA facilitates content reuse through conref:


<topic id="soil-preparation">
  <title>Soil Preparation</title>
  <body>
    <p>Prepare the soil by tilling to a depth of 6 inches.</p>
    <p>Conduct a soil pH test to determine acidity levels.</p>
  </body>
</topic>

<topic id="crop-specific">
  <title>Crop-Specific Information</title>
  <body>
    <p>For tomatoes, follow the soil preparation steps in <conref href="soil-preparation"/></p>
    <p>For carrots, follow the same soil preparation steps as for tomatoes in <conref href="soil-preparation"/></p>
  </body>

In this example, the <topic id=”crop-specific”> references the <topic id=”soil-preparation”> using conref, allowing the same soil preparation instructions to be reused for different crops.