Norm Walsh has just released the 9th version of DocBookNG, code named: IPA

This release includes:

• Added citerefentry and citebiblioid to the list of elements that can appear in bibliography entries; removed titleabbrev.

• Reduced the content model of a bunch of inlines (command and others that were way to broad).

• Added link, xref, superscript, and subscript to the list of “ubiquitous” inlines.

• Added date to the list of publishing inlines.

• Added some inlines to computeroutput and userinput.

• Added some new exclusions (preventing admonitions and formal objects from being nested; removing some of the same from footnote).

• Removed the highlights element. A candidate for the role attribute if I ever saw one.

• Fixed bug that didn't allow sect1 in article when numbered sections are included.

Check it out!

BTW, Norm, I know always bug you about this, but can you please create a version of IPA for Simplified DocBook?

Michael Smith has announced the 1.68.0 release of the DocBook XSL stylesheets!

Here is the content of the announcement:

Version 1.68.0 of the DocBook XSL stylesheets is now available for download from the DocBook SourceForge site:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/

This release adds some significant new features, particularly for FO/PDF output.

As with all DocBook Project dot-0 releases, this release should be considered somewhat unstable and will likely be followed by a stable 1.68.1 release within the next two weeks (to correct problems reported with the dot-0 release).

Among the user-visible changes:

FO

• Moved footnote properties to attribute-sets.
• Added support for side floats, margin notes, and custom floats.
• Added new parameters body.start.indent and body.end.indent to the set.flow.properties template.
• Added support for xml:id
• Added support for refdescriptor.
• Added support for multiple refnamedivs.
• Added index.entry.properties attribute-set to support customization of index entries.
• Added set.flow.properties template call to each fo:flow to support customizations entry point.
• Add support for @floatstyle in figure
• Moved hardcoded properties for index division titles to the index.div.title.properties attribute-set.
• Added support for table-layout="auto" for XEP.
• Added index.div.title.properties attribute-set.
• $verbose parameter is now passed to most elements.
• Added refentry to toc in part, as it is permitted by the DocBook schema/ DTD.
• Added backmatter elements and article to toc in part, since they are permitted by the DocBook schema/DTD.
• Added mode="toc" for simplesect, since it is now permitted in the toc if simplesect.in.toc is set.
• Moved hard-coded properties to nongraphical.admonintion.properties and graphical.admonition.properties attribute sets.
• Added support for sidebar-width and float-type processing instructions in sidebar.
• For tables with HTML markup elements, added support for dbfo bgcolor PI, the attribute-sets named table.properties, informaltable.properties, table.table.properties, and table.cell.padding. Also added support for the templates named table.cell.properties and table.cell.block.properties so that tabstyles can be implemented. Also added support for tables containing only tr instead of tbody with tr.
• Added new paramater hyphenate.verbatim.characters which can specify characters after which a line break can occur in verbatim environments. This parameter can be used to extend the initial set of characters which contain only space and non-breakable space.
• Added itemizedlist.label.markup to enable selection of different bullet symbol. Also added several potential bullet characters, commented out by default.
• Enabled all id's in XEP output for external olinking.

HTML

• Added support for refdescriptor.
• Added support for multiple refnamedivs.
• Added support for xml:id
• refsynopsisdiv as a section for counting section levels

Images

• Added new SVG admonition graphics and navigation images.

Thanks Michael, Bob, Jirka, and everyone who contributed to this release!

Please give the stylesheets a try, and report any problems ASAP!

The OASIS DocBook TC approved the release of DocBook v4.4 as a Committee Draft this week!

The next step is to go for OASIS Standard, but I imagine that process will take longer than the Committee releasing DocBook v5.0...

You can see the specifics on Norm's blog: http://norman.walsh.name/2005/01/28/docbook44 , read the specification at: http://www.docbook.org/specs/cd-docbook-docbook-4.4.html and get the schemas at: http://www.docbook.org.

Enjoy!

Laurent Godard announced on the docbook-apps list about the freely-available ooo2dbk tool to transform OpenOffice.org documents to DocBook:

ooo2dbk is a tool allowing the transformation of OpenOffice.org documents to docbook. Based on Eric Bellot's work, it has been widely extended and allow enhanced export

http://indesko.com/sites/en/downloads/ooo2dbk___generating/view

Supporting XML docBook V4.3, it allows to generate both article and book documents A lot of features are available such as handling preface and appendix elements, metadatas as OOo user fields also

ooo2dbk is an independant script allowing then batch processing of OpenOffice.org documents

I contributed some code to the xmerge project a few years ago, but haven't had time to play with it for a while. It would be interesting to see where the filter is at now, and contrast it with the ooo2dbk tool...

Norm Walsh has published a new DocBook NG release: "Hard Cider"

DocBook NG is a preview of DocBook V5.0 using the RelaxNG schema.

Details are available at http://norman.walsh.name/2005/01/18/hardcider and the schema is available at http://docbook.org/docbook-ng/hardcider/index.html.

Norm has also created a DTD version so folks with DTD-based validating editors can try it out.

From Norm's post:

In addition to the DTD, there are a number user-visible changes in the “Hard Cider” release:

• Allow <colophon> at the end of an <article>, RFE #1070458.

• Allow navigation components (<index>, <glossary>, etc.) at the end of sections.

• Allow xml:space (with the value “preserve”) on verbatim environments.

• Make <revnumber> optional in <revision>, RFE #1055480.

• Added “protocol” to the list of class values on <systemitem>.

• Add <citation> and <citetitle> to <attribution>.

• Added <alt> and <annotation>.

• Added rowheader to <table> and <informaltable>.

• Made <title> required on <preface>. It always should have been.

• Added <contractsponsor>, <contractnum>, and <mediaobject> to the content of <info>.

• Allow text where a proper date used to be required (<pubdate> and friends).

• Allow endterm on <link>.

• Allow <refsection> as a “start” element.

• Allow <initializer> in <paramdef>.

Most of these changes make DocBook NG more compatible with DocBook V4.x.

The Simplified DocBook NG release is still at the "Bourbon" version. I mentioned to Norm at XML 2004 that I'd like to take a stab at updating it, so I'll try to get some spare time to go and sample some Cider!

I'm very excited with the direction of DocBook v5.0 since it's using RelaxNG. The hard part is getting Relax NG adopted and supported out there. The best editor I've used with Relax NG support is Oxygen. Most of the projects I'm on are also "standardized" on W3C schema, so getting Relax NG accepted is a tough battle...

Michael Fuchs posted the following announcement to the docbook-apps list:

The DocBook Doclet creates DocBook SGML or XML from Java source documentation or HTML files. It is helpful if you want to print reference handbooks of your API. Normally it is used with the Javadoc tool but it can also be used as a standalone application to convert HTML to DocBook. Additionally it comes with a Swing application to manage documentation projects and to transform the resulting DocBook files to PDF, Postscript, HTML and JavaHelp.

Changes:

• Generation of a XMI file, which can be used with Umbrello.
• Improvement of the strict DocBook style flavour.
• Support for DocBook 4.3 and 4.2
• Sorting of fields and methods.
• New synopsis section for public static methods.
• Many minor fixes and improvements.

dbdoclet can be obtained at http://www.dbdoclet.org

I've used dbdoclet in the past on some documentation projects. It works very well. Check it out!

If the article posted at: http://khason.biz/blog/2004/12/why-microsoft-can-blow-off-with-c.html has any truth, I think DocBook is safe:

My wife won't let me grow a beard, so I guess I won't try to invent any programming languages... :-)

Yikes! I've really dug myself a pretty deep hole for blog updates. With my week out for my grandad's funeral, the week at XML 2004, and the week at Thanksgiving, I've not been around enough to squeeze in my updates.

Here's a list of many DocBook updates I've not been able to announce at web speed:

• New DocBook Stylesheets available! Version 1.67.2 fixes a table bug introduced in the 1.67.1 release. It's available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/.
• Great DocBook Dinner at XML2004. Norm Walsh, Jirka Kosek, Mark Johnson, Derek Dees, Bob DuCharme, Eduardo Gutentag, (and I think I'm leaving someone out... Gary Cornelius?) met at the Lebanese Taverna for dinner. Great food and a great time had by all!
• DocBook NG release: Gin. Just before the XML 2004 conference, Norm Walsh released the 7th DocBook NG release! Details at: http://norman.walsh.name/2004/11/11/gin.
• Firefox DocBook-Outliner extension. David Holroyd posted a quick extension to Firefox that provides a TOC-like navigation sidebar while viewing DocBook XML documents. Details available at: http://www.badgers-in-foil.co.uk/projects/docbook-css/outliner/
• DocBook DSSSL 1.79 released. Peter Eisentraut posted a number of bug fixes and updated translations as part of this release. Details available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/.

I hope to be much more consistent with DocBook updates now that I'm home for a while... I'd will also post some of the more interesting findings from the XML 2004 conference. Stay tuned!

Norm Walsh has already extended this invite, but just in case any DocBook interested parties haven't read his blog (yeah, right), here are the details:

• Date: Wednesday, 17 Nov 2004
• Time: 7:00pm EST
• Place: XML 2004
  meet in lobby of Marriott Wardman Park hotel

Hope to see you there!

I'm please to report two new Candidate Releases for DocBook today!

Norm Walsh has released Simplified DocBook 1.1 CR2 and DocBook 4.4 CR2 on docbook.org.

I've been doing a fair amount of testing and customization layers around Simplified DocBook 1.1. If you find any problems, please let Norm or I know.

For my customization layers, I've been using Tatu Saloranta's dtdflatten to create a flattened version, validating the DTD with Kohsuke Kawaguchi's msv (multischema validator), and then compiling it for use in Arbortext Epic (use the compile_doctype in the editor's command-line interface).

I'm also having fun trying to create my customization layer in Relax NG, based on the Simplified DocBookNG "Bourbon" release.

If schemas are making you work too hard, you need to be RelaxNG! :-)

Busy day today! Norm Walsh has announced the sixth release of DocBook NG, dubbed "Frangelico" (see http://norman.walsh.name/2004/10/18/frangelico), and Tim Bray has a post about the new NeoOffice/J patch 3 release (see http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/10/17/NeoOfficePatch3)

It's interesting to see that Norm has included XLink and extendedLink in this version. I hope to get some testing in on this one. I think it's also time for another run at Simplified DocBook NG, which is still at the "Bourbon" release. Wish Norm could hire me to do that!

NeoOffice/J is amazingly cool. I tried using the X11 version of OpenOffice on the Mac, but it was slow and painful. NeoOffice/J has all of the functionality, and is fast. Check it out!

Steve Whitlatch posted to the docbook-apps list on OASIS about a new tool he has developed for DocBook XSL support!

Here's the announcement in it's entirety:

Several months back, I had some discussion on this list about creating a Java GUI that would allow users a mostly point-and-click interface to creating customization layers for use with the DocBook XSL stylesheets. Well, I wrote the application and here it is.

Announcing the first public release of DocBook XSL Configurator! Actualy two releases, one for version 1.65.1 of the DocBook XSL stylesheets and one for version 1.66.1.

They are available for download from Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/db-xsl-cfg

DocBook XSL Configurator versions 0.5.2_1651 and version 0.5.3_1661 are alpha, since they have not been widely tested, but I know of no bugs and consider the software fully operational.

You can get a good idea of what DocBook XSL Configurator is and what it does from the following:

*******************************************
DocBook XSL Configurator
------------------------
	DocBook XSL Configurator is a Java application used to create 
	DocBook XSL FO customization layers. The application presents 
	users with a tabbed pane containing several tables. Each row 
	in each table contains several cells, one of which is editable 
	and contains the text of the default setting for a specific 
	DocBook XSL FO parameter. Users create projects containing paths 
	to DocBook XML, common-customization XSL, an external XSLT 
	processor, etc. Users then click through the tables, select 
	DocBook XSL FO parameters they want to include in a customization 
	layer, edit those parameters, include the customization layer in a 
	project, write out the customization layer as an XSL file, and 
	apply the XSL to the project's XML using the project's specified 
	XSLT processor.

  	DocBook XSL Configurator version 0.5.3_1661 is an alpha release.
	It supports version 1.66.1 of the DocBook XSL FO parameter set. 
	It does not yet support the DocBook XSL HTML parameter set.

	Default FO parameter settings, help text, and guidelines for 
	attribute sets ("property sets") are taken from the DocBook 
	XSL package's FO documentation. Attribute set defaults are 
	just guidelines. 

	DocBook XSL Configurator also includes a "From the Wild" table 
	that provides users with nifty little snippets of XSL intended 
	to help with formatting not implemented in the DocBook XSL FO 
	parameter set. Currently, the number of these snippets is very 
	small; however, the "From the Wild" snippet collection has the 
	potential to grow very large and be very helpful.


Target Audience
---------------
	If you are a beginner with DocBook XSL, DocBook XSL Configurator 
	can help you a great deal by bringing all the DocBook XSL FO 
	parameters together, with help, in a GUI. You don't have to switch 
	windows seeking help, and you don't have to manually type out the 
	file containing the XSL FO customization layer. 

	If you are an expert with DocBook XSL, this application may still 
	be of use to you. You may benefit from the speed with which you 
	can create and edit customization layers; you may find that DocBook 
	XSL Configurator projects help you organize documentation sets; or, 
	you may find the application useful for saving customization layers 
	and associating them with specific DocBook XML instances.


Requirements and Use
--------------------
	DocBook XSL Configurator should work with any Java runtime 
	environment compatible with Sun's Java Virtual Machine version 
	1.4.2 or later. However, each version of DocBook XSL Configurator 
	needs a specific version of the DocBook XSL stylesheets. For 
	example, DocBook XSL Configurator version 0.5.3_1661 needs DocBook 
	XSL stylesheet version 1.66.1. Running a version of DocBook XSL 
	Configurator with a version of the DocBook XSL stylesheets for 
	which it was not intended could produce errors. 

	Running DocBook XSL Configurator requires no adjustments to your 
	CLASSPATH, and the DocBookXSLConfigurator.jar file can be placed 
	anywhere in the file system. 

	To use DocBook XSL Configurator, you first build a project. The 
	project contains information DocBook XSL Configurator uses to 
	help create a PDF or PS file from a valid DocBook XML file. The 
	process would go something like this:

	1) Select New Project from the File menu.
		A New Project dialog appears.

	2) Navigate through the dialog, providing the following:
		- the name of an XSLT processor
		- the entire option string to be passed to the xslt processor
		- location of the DocBook XSL stylesheet to use
		- location of a common-customization XSL file
		- an FO processor command string 
		- a PDF viewer command string
		- a PS viewer command string

	   DocBook XSL Configurator uses the information provided to 
	   run the programs in your tool chain as external subprocesses.

	3) Click through the tables, selecting check boxes for the 
	   parameters you want included in your XSL customization layer, 
	   and edit the parameter settings as necessary.

	4) Save the project. 

	5) Select parameters and edit them as you like. Then, select Write XSL from
           the Execute menu. 
		DocBook XSL Configurator presents you with a dialog. Choose 
		a name and a location for the file to save. This is your 
		XSL customization layer. Make certain that the filename 
		and path match with those used when you created the project.
		Keep the same name and path of this file when you update it. 
		Whenever you wish to change this customization layer, adjust 
		your selections and edited parameters in the GUI, and then 
		overwrite this file by selecting Write XSL from the 
		Execute menu.

	6) Select Process XML from the Execute menu. 
		DocBook XSL Configurator runs the XSLT processor specified 
		in your project using the options supplied. You should 
		probably make certain that your XML is actually a valid DocBook 
		XML instance first. While the XSLT processor is running, you 
		can continue with your work. When it's finished, DocBook XSL 
		Configurator presents a dialog box containing any messages 
		produced by the XSLT processor. The dialog box is presented 
		regardless of errors detected.

	7) Select Process FO from the Execute menu. 
		DocBook XSL Configurator executes the entire FO processor 
		command string from your project settings. While the FO 
		processor is running, you can continue with your work. It 
		typically takes several minutes to complete. When it's 
		finished, DocBook XSL Configurator presents a dialog box 
		containing any messages produced by the FO processor.
		The dialog box is presented regardless of errors detected.

	8) Select 'Display PDF' or 'Display PS' from the View menu.
		As with 'Process XML' and 'Process FO', DocBook XSL 
		Configurator runs the project's command string as an 
		external subprocess. When running the PDF or PS viewer 
		command strings, DocBook XSL Configurator presents a 
		dialog box containing messages returned from the subprocess 
		only if it detects something went wrong.

	Alone, DocBook XSL Configurator will work only partially. To make 
	full use of it, you need the following:

	- a valid DocBook XML instance. If you are new to DocBook XML, 
	  you should begin with Norman Walsh and Leonard Muellner's book, 
	  DocBook: The Definitive Guide, available online at: 
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/documentation/reference/html/docbook.html

	- the DocBook XML DTD package installed. You can download it from:
	  http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/

	- the DocBook XSL package installed. You can download it from:
	  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=21935

	- some understanding of how the DocBook XSL package works with 
	  DocBook XML. Bob Stayton's book, DocBook XSL: The Complete 
	  Guide, available online at:
	  http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html, 
	  is probably the best resources available for learning 
	  DocBook XSL. 

	- an XSLT engine installed. DocBook XSL Configurator will work 
	  with any XSLT engine. I use xsltproc, which is part of the 
	  libxml2 package. You can download the libxml2 package from
	  http://xmlsoft.org/
	  You can download precompiled libxml2 binaries for Windows at:
	  http://www.zlatkovic.com/libxml.en.html

	- an FO processor installed

	- PDF and PostScript viewers installed
**********************************************

Nice work, Steve!

The latest release of the DocBook stylesheets has moved from the test release to production with version 1.66.1, available now from http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/.

An gracious member of the DocBook community also posted an RPM spec file at: http://www.madboa.com/geek/specs/docbook-style-xsl.spec.

To quote from the mailing list...

If you're running Fedora Core or Red Hat, it's easy to use:

   # the two wget invocations should each be on a single line; I
   # apologize for any line wrapping
   #
   cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES
   # download the source, e.g.,
   wget http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/docbook/docbook-xsl-1.66.1.tar.gz
   cd ../SPECS
   # grab my spec
   wget http://www.madboa.com/geek/specs/docbook-style-xsl.spec
   # build/install the package
   rpmbuild -bb docbook-style-xsl.spec
   rpm -Fvh ../RPMS/noarch/docbook-style-xsl-1.66.1-1.noarch.rpm

Fellow DocBook TC member Jirka Kosek also posted an older paper on the extensions used by DocBook stylesheets at: http://www.kosek.cz/temp/extensions-api.html

DocBook expert Bob Stayton has just released a new version of the DocBook Stylesheets at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/. The .0 is a test release, so expect a 1.66.1 release soon...

Lots of bug fixes and new features in this one! Here are the release notes:

Jirka Kosek has written another spectacular article for XML.com entitled "Automated Tree Drawing: XSLT and SVG."

What's really cool, is that he's embedded the tree markup in a DocBook document, and then used a customization layer for the DocBook Stylesheets to render it!

Here's an example from the article:

I think this would be extremely handy if you need to describe any kind of hierarchy. Hopefully, you are already using the industry standard DocBook or Simplified DocBook schemas for your computer hardware or software documentation...