Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When I convert my DITA map to XHTML, some topics do not show up in the generated XHTML pages. What is the problem?

A: You probably forgot to specify chunk="to-content" on some topicrefs. Please refer to Controlling the contents of the HTML pages generated by ditac for more information.

Note that as of version 1.1.0_02, XMLmind DITA Converter detects this case and reports a warning.

Q: I use XMLmind DITA Converter to generate HTML Help. In order to implement contextual help, my application needs to be able to address specific sections in the generated .chm file. How can I do this?

A: We don't know how this can be done in the case of HTML Help. In the case of a multi-page HTML file, a specific section of a file generated by XMLmind DITA Converter is addressed by using a URL having a fragment.

• The filename and contents of a generated HTML page are controlled by specifying the chunk attribute (and optionally, the copy-to attribute) on topicref elements..
• The qualified ID of a descendant element of a topic is transformed as follows: topicID/descendantID becomes topicID__descendantID in the generated content. (The separator string being used comprises two underscore characters.)

  Example: let's suppose a topic having "parameters" as its id attribute, containing a table having "default_values" as its id attribute, has been converted to HTML. The generated HTML page which contains the topic is called userguide.html.

  • URL "userguide.html#parameters" allows to address the topic.
  • URL "userguide.html#parameters__default_values" allows to address the table.

Q: XMLmind DITA Converter fails to convert my DITA document. It reports many "topic X and topic Y have the same ID Z" errors. My DITA document is processed without any problem by the DITA Open Toolkit. Could you fix this bug?

A: Sorry but we don't think this is a bug. Let's call it a specificity. See also Limitations and implementation specificities.

Though not mandated by the DITA standard, XMLmind DITA Converter checks that all the topics which compose the document to be converted have distinct IDs. If this is not the case, a fatal error is reported (as of v1.2).

This requirement allows to generate easy-to-read, predictable, link targets. See this other FAQ.