Auto-insert data into a DITA XML file

We want to automate the generation of the following DITA file:

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA 1.2 Topic//EN"
        "/usr/share/dita-ot/dtd/technicalContent/dtd/topic.dtd">
<topic id="products-and-versions">
  <title>Products and versions</title>
  <body>
    <p>Dianthus</p>
    <ul>
      <li>1.0</li>
      <li>1.5</li>
      <li>2.3</li>
    </ul>
    <p>Geum</p>
    <ul>
      <li>1.0</li>
      <li>1.5</li>
      <li>2.3</li>
    </ul>
    <p>Prunus</p>
    <ul>
      <li>1.0</li>
      <li>1.5</li>
      <li>2.3</li>
    </ul>
  </body>
</topic>

Install the following programs and libraries:
Terminal window
```
$ sudo apt install libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev python3-lxml
```
Create the following Python script populate-xml.py:
```
code/populate-xml.py
```
Make the script executable, then run it:
Terminal window
```
$ chmod +x populate-xml.py
$ ./populate-xml.py
```
The template.dita file is created and contains the desired data.

This approach minimizes the risk of errors and reduces the effort involved in updating.

Auto-insert data into a DITA XML file

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