DITA output as .dita files

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chuck_agari
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 2:40 pm

DITA output as .dita files

Post by chuck_agari »

Background:

We have a partner who we give branded documentation source files to. They said they wanted "DITA-based XML," as that is their authoring and publishing methodology. Which is one reason we settled on Flare, because it purports to output DITA.

They are saying the DITA output I've been sending them is problematic, and that they are having to do a lot of work to get it converted to their system. So they sent me a couple of samples so I could see what they are doing.

As an initial test, I simply imported a .ditamap file as a new, test project, which I defined as having DITA as its default target. I dind't make any changes or customizations, and once the import was finished, I generated DITA output. And I've been spending some time comparing one of the source files to the corresponding output file.

What's interesting--and nice--is that at first glance, it looks like Flare is doing a good job of not mucking up the code. Flare is formatting the code better, making it easier to read and easier to see the structure. And I'm sure I'll find more than the possibly minor differences that I've found so far (how do I change the DTD declaration in the DOCTYPE element from Flare's OASIS//DTD to out partners DTD? I'm not sure why Flare changed this.), but my real question is thus:

The source topic files had .xml extensions. The Flare output topic files have .dita extensions. I found nothing in either the project settings nor the target settings that suggested that filename extensions could be controlled/customized. Can they be? Can I have the extensions of topic files in the DITA target be .xml?
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