DITA Map Document Type (Framework)

DITA maps are documents that collect and organize references to DITA topics to indicate the relationships between the topics. They can be used as a container for topics used to transform a collection of content into a publication and they offer a sequence and structure to the topics. They can also serve as outlines or tables of contents for DITA deliverables and as build manifests for DITA projects. DITA maps allow scalable reuse of content across multiple contexts. Maps can reference topics or other maps, and can contain a variety of content types and metadata.

For much more detailed information, resources, and instructions, see the DITA Authoring chapter.

File Definition

A file is considered to be a DITA map document when one of the following conditions are true:

The root element name is one of the following: <map>, <bookmap>.
The public ID of the document is -//OASIS//DTD DITA Map or -//OASIS//DTD DITA BookMap.
The root element of the file has a @class attribute that contains the value map/map and a @DITAArchVersion attribute from the http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/ namespace. This enhanced case of matching is only applied when the Enable DTD/XML Schema processing in document type detection option from the Document Type Association preferences page is selected.

Default Document Templates

There are a variety of default DITA map templates available when creating new documents from templates and they can be found in various folders inside: Framework Templates > DITA Map.

The default templates for DITA map documents are located in the [OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR]/frameworks/sita/templates/map folder.

Default Schema for Validation and Content Completion

Default schemas that are used if one is not detected in the DITA map document are stored in the various folders inside DITA-OT-DIR/dtd/ or DITA-OT-DIR/schema/.

Default CSS

The default CSS files used for rendering DITA content in Author mode are stored in the various folders inside: [OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR]/frameworks/dita/css/.

By default, these default CSS files are merged with any that are specified in the document. For more information, see Configuring and Managing Multiple CSS Styles for a Framework.

Default XML Catalogs

The default XML Catalogs for the DITA map document type are as follows:

[OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR]/frameworks/dita/catalog.xml
DITA-OT-DIR/catalog-dita.xml

Transformation Scenarios

Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin includes numerous built-in transformation scenarios that allow you to transform DITA maps to a variety of outputs, such as WebHelp, PDF, ODF, XHTML, EPUB, and CHM. All of them are listed in the DITA Map section in the Configure Transformation Scenario(s) dialog box.

For more information, see the DITA Map Transformation Scenarios section.