Copyright © 2008 Dave Pawson
2008
| Revision History | |
|---|---|
| Revision 0.1 | 2008-02-08 |
| Initial release | |
| Revision 0.2 | 2008-02-20T18:01:28Z |
| Added ant build section | |
| Revision 0.3 | 2008-02-21 |
| Added brief catalog section, and installation section | |
| Revision 1.0 | 2008-02-22 |
| Finished new material, first clean up. Waiting more typo reports now | |
| Revision 1.1 | 2008-02-23 |
| Editorial changes only | |
| Revision 1.2 | 2008-03-01 |
| Clarified directory layout. /docbook/docbook-website changed to /docbook/website. Was a mixture of the two. | |
| Revision 1.3 | 2008-05-20T15:52:53Z |
| Updated to clarify use of catalogManager.properties, catalog.xml and installation of docbook-xsl directory | |
| Revision 1.4 | |
| Added content on statics, newlayout, webtoc | |
Table of Contents
The subject of this document is the Website publishing system. It is derived from the Docbook publishing system, currently maturing into version 5 though with a history that goes back to the early '90s when it started life as a 'techdoc' publishing system based using SGML and DSSSL. The styling of Docbook into web and print formats developed using older technologies and more recently the W3C recommendation XSLT. You can read more about Docbook and its development community at docbook.org.
Who is this document for?
It's for a new non-geek user who wants to use Website to create a Website. Perhaps the user is:
fed up with using HTML to create a Website because of it's many language limitations and they want to find out if Website is any better. I know people can waste a lot of time with HTML tweaking their Websites to the last pixel. Website can free you from that kind of thinking, it's very liberating.
tired of how HTML mixes up structure and presentation and wants to get a clean break between the two. Then use different stylesheets to easily change the appearance of the Website rather than fiddling around with the HTML.
keen to learn XML and related technologies and, because Website is based on simplifed DocBook, feels there is an opportunity to learn some XML while doing something useful at the same time, namely creating a Website.
Website stylesheets build the navigation system for you automatically, once you have defined the structure. This is beneficial when you start to re-arrange and update the site.
Or a combination of all these reasons. For the more experienced user you may learn how other people do things.
I've been using Docbook Website since 16th April 2000, or so my Website tells me. I.e. I have a fair reason to like it, support it and talk about it.
Docbook is issued as an Oasis standard.
The Website schema was derived from simplified Docbook, itself a subset of the full Docbook schema. The Website schema is more stable (has less changes) due to its simplicity, but is widely used.
As of early 2008, Docbook 4.5 is the current Oasis standard, and Website is currently at releast 2.6. The Docbook stylesheets associated with these are at release 1.73
The sources for the software are listed in Appendix A
In discussing Website, I have not discussed more general Docbook markup, nor stylesheet usage; these are covered with authority in two books. Docbook, the definitive guide by Norm Walsh Leonard Muellner. Norm, whose hard work and longstanding support of Docbook make all this possible, and DocBook XSL: The Complete Guide, by Bob Stayton, another stalwart on the Docbook comittee who knows the stylesheets well. Both are excellent books; available in print and online. My advice? Buy the books for reading/shelf reference and use the online versions for searching! But I am biased
If you make a success of your site, why not ask on the docbook-apps mailing list to have your site added to the growing list at the Docbook wiki?