conref push scenario

Here is the conref push scenario that I sent to
Sowmya ...

-------- Original Message --------

  
    

      Subject: 
      Re: [dita-adoption] Groups - DITA 1.2 feature article: conref
push (conref_push_2.doc) uploaded
    

    

      Date: 
      Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:07:27 -0400
    

    

      From: 
      Kristen James Eberlein <>
    

    

      To: 
      Sowmya Kannan <>
    

    

      References: 
      "><>
"><>
    

  

Good question. I think conref push is going to be
used often when topics are reused between different authoring teams or
product documentation groups. Here's one scenario:

There are two information sets (A and B), each of which is owned by
different teams. The A information set is for an integrated development
environment (IDE); the B information set is for a product that use the
IDE as base for their product. The A information set contains a topic
about "Installing the IDE."

Now, the process for installing the IDE will be almost
identical for both A and B. However, there will be one extra GUI window
that people installing B will encounter.

Version whatever of A gets released to market in 1Q2010. Product B
won't be released for several months, and the contents of the
B-specific GUI window are not nailed down. The writing team for A does
know, however, that team B will need to reuse the installation topic
and so makes sure that it has the necessary @id attributes.

This enables team B to later push a step into that installation topic.

Sure, there are other ways that this could be handled:

  
Team B could create a new installing topic,
and then copy-and-paste content from the team A installation topic.
(Yuck.)

    

  
Team B could create a new installing topic,
and then conref content in from the team A installation topic.

  
The original installation topic could have
contained the B-specific material which could be filtered out when team
A builds the information set. (This does assume that the B-specific
material could have been written at the same time as the A material.)

Does this help? Do you think that the article
needs to have a handful of scenarios for when conref push is going to
be most useful?

Best,

Kris

Sowmya Kannan wrote:
Hi Kris, 

Great article on conref push! 

Would it be possible to add a few scenarios where an author would use a
conref push as opposed to solving the problem in some other way? For
example,  if all steps in topics X, Y, and Z  already contain the @id
attribute, then creating a conref push would be an easy way to add a
new step at  a specific location in these topics. But if the topics X,
Y, and Z lacked the required @id attributes and I had to go in and add
them to support conref push to include a a new step, can't I just use a
vanilla conref in each of these topics to include the additional step. 

Hope I did not completely confuse the issue:-). 

  

Thanks 

Sowmya 

  

  

  

   wrote: 

  The document revision named DITA 1.2 feature
article: conref push 

(conref_push_2.doc) has been submitted by Kristen Eberlein to the OASIS
    

DITA Adoption TC document repository.  This document is revision #1 of 

conref_push.doc. 

    

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View Document Details: 

    http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/document.php?document_id=34627
    

    

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    http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/34627/conref_push_2.doc
    

    

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