Auto-insert data into a DITA XML file

Specialist technique

This tutorial generates DITA XML topics from data with a Python script. It is useful when you maintain DITA content whose product data (names, versions) changes often; the same approach for reStructuredText is covered in automatically insert data into a reStructuredText file.

Objective

We want to automate the generation of the following DITADITA XMLA structured, modular XML authoring architecture built around the concept/task/reference typology and content reuse via conrefs and ditamaps.View in glossary → 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>

1. Install the following programs and libraries:

   $ 
   sudo apt install libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev python3-lxml

2. Create the following Python script populate-xml.py:

   #!/usr/bin/python3
   # coding: utf8
   from lxml import etree
   root = etree.Element('topic')
   root.set('id', 'produits-et-versions')
   
   title = etree.SubElement(root, 'title')
   title.text = "Produits et versions"
   
   topic = etree.SubElement(root, 'body')
   
   products = ['dianthus', 'geum', 'prunus']
   versions = ['1.0', '1.5', '2.3']
   
   
   for p in products:
       P = str.capitalize(p)
       product = etree.SubElement(topic, 'p')
       product.text = P
       list = etree.SubElement(topic, 'ul')
       for v in versions:
           version = etree.SubElement(list, 'li')
           version.text = v
   
   try:
       with open('modele.dita', 'w') as file:
           file.write('<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8"?>\n')
           file.write('''<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA 1.2
           Topic//EN"
           "/usr/share/dita-ot/dtd/technicalContent/dtd/topic.dtd">\n''')
   
           file.write(etree.tostring(root, pretty_print=True).decode('utf-8'))
   
   except IOError:
       print('Erreur d\'écriture')
       exit(1)

3. Make the script executable, then run it:

   $ 
   chmod +x populate-xml.py
   $ 
   ./populate-xml.py

   The modele.dita file is created and contains the desired data.

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

Related articles

• Auto-insert data into a reStructuredText file
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