Quick Start #

DAPS runs on any modern Linux system. It has not been attempted to port DAPS to Windows* or Mac OS X* yet.

When installing DAPS as an RPM package (on any SUSE-based system), dependencies on other software packages are automatically resolved during installation. No additional action is required.

For installing DAPS from the sources on other Linux distributions, refer to https://github.com/openSUSE/daps/blob/main/INSTALL.adoc where the respective requirements are covered in detail.

In addition to DAPS, you need the following software:

To add further components like version management or a workflow mechanism for your projects, use DAPS in combination with the following software:

Together with the software components mentioned above, DAPS can be used as a fully-fledged authoring and content management system for documentation projects based on DocBook.

For DAPS to work out of the box, it requires a certain organization of your DocBook XML files and images within your documentation directory. For details, refer to Section 5.1, “Directory Structure”. You can generate the necessary structure with the DAPS initialization script, daps-init. For instructions on how to make existing DocBook projects compatible with DAPS, refer to Section 12, “Migration of Existing DocBook Projects”.

There are a few ways to install DAPS on openSUSE. To always stay up-to-date with the latest version of DAPS install the daps package from the Documentation:Tools repository as outlined below.

You may also use the daps package that shipped with your version of openSUSE. However, you then might miss the latest features and bug fixes in DAPS.

The quickest way to install DAPS is using the zypper command.

Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, DAPS is also available for SUSE Linux Enterprise. The DAPS package is provided by the SUSE Software Development Kit (SDK), a free extension for SUSE Linux Enterprise. You need to install it as add-on (or extension). You can install the SDK (without any physical media) as an extension after the registration of your system at SUSE Customer Center. If you prefer to install from a physical medium, proceed as follows:

For the latest status update and installation instructions, refer to https://github.com/openSUSE/daps/blob/main/INSTALL.adoc.

For installation and configuration of an FO formatter (for generating PDF output), refer to its installation instructions (or to your system administrator). For FOP, you usually only need to install the respective FOP package. However, not all FOP packages contain the hyphenation pattern files. Using the hyphenation patterns is recommended.

DAPS requires your XML files and images to be organized in a specific structure within your documentation directory. Example 1, “Directory Structure” shows the required structure including the key files for a DAPS documentation project. You can also create multiple documentation directories for individual documentation projects, but they all need the substructure outlined below.

YOUR_DOC_DIR/1
  |--DC*2
     |--images/
     |   |--src/3
     |      |--dia/
     |      |--eps/
     |      |--fig/
     |      |--jpg/
     |      |--pdf/
     |      |--png/
     |      |--svg/
     |--xml/4
         |--MAIN*.xml5
         |--*.xml

Important: Structure of the xml and image/src/* Directories

Avoid subdirectories within the xml and image/src/* directories. Referencing or including files from subdirectories within those directories can lead to unpredictable results with DAPS.

The following key files define a documentation project so that it can be processed by DAPS:

DAPS supports the following types of images:

DAPS requires you to use a specific directory structure for images. All images that you reference from your DocBook files must be stored in a subdirectory of the project directory named images/src/file_extension. For example, PNG files must be stored under images/src/png. If you used daps-init to set up your project, the appropriate directories should already exist. For a more detailed reference to the directory structure, see Section 5.1, “Directory Structure”.

For details, see Section 5.3, “File Name Requirements”.

As your images need to be located in a defined directory structure, DAPS automatically finds the path to your images. Therefore, referencing images in your XML sources is very straightforward: you must not include any path in the fileref attribute—the file name is enough.

Furthermore, DocBook allows you to reference more than one image to distinguish between different output formats. For example, you can add two references pointing to the same file, but using different images widths for PDF and HTML output. Use the role attribute to specify the output format, for example fo or html.

<figure>
  <title>Main Window</title>
  <mediaobject>
    <imageobject role="fo">
      <imagedata fileref="graphic.svg" width="70%"/>
    </imageobject>
    <imageobject role="html">
      <imagedata fileref="graphic.png" width="75%"/>
    </imageobject>
  </mediaobject>
</figure>

DAPS supports various different output formats, including also “exotic” formats like man pages or simple text. Table 1 gives an overview.

Independent of the individual output format you want to create, you need to specify the DC file to use:

tux:~> daps -d PATH_TO_DC_FILE OUTPUT_FORMAT

For example:

tux:~> daps -d DC-daps-example pdf

At the end of the transformation process, DAPS shows a message where to find the generated output.

If your current directory is not the documentation directory where the DC file is located, also specify the (absolute or relative) path to the DC file. For example:

tux:~> daps -d /svn/daps/example/DC-daps-example pdf

The following table lists the main output formats and their characteristics, and the DAPS subcommands to generate them. Refer to Section 11.1 for the commands' basic syntax.

The number of output formats may be extended in the future, depending on the output formats that are supported by DocBook stylesheets. For an overview of all output formats, run daps help. The available output formats are listed below Subcommands › Generate Books.

DAPS allows you to fine-tune the output in many ways . For example, you can include remarks or a DRAFT watermark in your output, or you can build parts of your documentation project only. Find some examples in the sections below.

Instead of always building your complete documentation project (set, book, or article), DAPS also allows you to build only individual parts. The “starting point” of your documentation project is usually defined by the root element of the MAIN file that is referenced in the respective Doc Config. To build only a part of your documentation project, use the --rootid option to specify the ID of an individual book, article, glossary, appendix, part, or chapter.

For example, if you have set up your working environment with daps-init and an example book, use the following command to build the first chapter of the book:

tux:~> daps -d DC-daps-example pdf --rootid=cha.template.examples

For publishing a pre-release version of a document that you can send to a proofreader for review, use the --draft option to mark the document accordingly. For example:

tux:~> daps -d DC-daps-example pdf --draft

This command creates a color PDF that has a DRAFT watermark printed on each page.

If you used remark elements in your XML files (for editorial remarks or questions to the proofreader), you can include the remarks in the output with the --remarks option:

tux:~> daps -d DC-daps-example pdf --remarks

When generating PDFs with FOP, the contents of the remark elements is shown in italics within the text. XEP supports conversion of remark elements into PDF annotations. This feature is enabled in DAPS by default, but if you want XEP to treat remark elements like FOP does, you can change the respective DAPS parameter. In HTML, HTML-single and EPUB output, the contents of the remark elements is shown in red within the text.

Note: Availability of Advanced Output Options

Advanced output options are only supported for selected formats. For example, --draft and --remarks are only available in HTML, HTML-single, PDF, and EPUB output.

Using the --remarks option automatically turns draft mode on.

By default, DAPS adds a string to the base name of the output file to flag output formats generated with special options. Example file names are *_draft_en.pdf or *_remarks_*_draft_en.pdf.

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