The structured nature of XML documents makes them ideally suited for automated tracking. SiberSafe includes the following features for managing XML content:
XML files are chunked into fragments based on the granularity definition that is applied. Individual fragments can be managed, tracked and versioned. XML documents thus appear as a hierarchy of fragments and reusable entities.
SiberSafe provides powerful index and search capabilities that enable users without intimate knowledge of the repository to locate content quickly and intuitively.
By specifying which document types will be indexed, and which elements in XML documents, the administrator can tailor the indexing process to meet the operational needs and experience level of their users.
Based on criteria such as keyword, phrase, author, creation date range, attribute/value pairs, etc., the search function will locate content in the latest version of all files in the repository, or all historical revisions that provide a match.
Search results include information about each XML fragment that matched the criteria and its place in the content hierarchy of the parent document, enabling the user to locate the precise content required.
Conditional inclusion produces structurally identical variants of the same content, useful when different audiences need content that differs only in some parts. This functionality is implemented via conditional fragments, which are fragments of XML content labeled with one or more audience interest tags. The combination of a fragment's audience interest tags and their respective values determines the audience for which the fragment is intended. Thus, SiberSafe offers not only single source publishing to different formats (such as PDF, HTML, CHM Help, and many others), but also single source content for different target audiences (such as user types, hardware platforms, etc.).
See the demo on conditional inclusion
XML documents are not always independent and self-contained. They can reference graphics files, EPS files, even other XML files, which become a virtual part of the document that references them. SiberSafe displays all re-use dependencies so the user can see which assets are referenced from within a particular XML document, and which XML documents reference a particular asset. SiberSafe's recursive versioning helps the user detect changes in their documents even when they are applied to a file referenced by the document rather than to the document itself.
SiberSafe also tracks references to external content and remote content, including links to other web sites and other documents. This allows document managers to track all document dependencies.
SiberSafe's context-aware link management GUI ensures that all created links are valid. The user selects the link target for inclusion in the document they are editing. SiberSafe generates the link using the appropriate link element according to the DTD or schema being used. That link can then be inserted in the document itself. SiberSafe also requires that all links in a document, fragment, or entity be valid prior to insertion into the repository. This ensures that any user creates only valid links.
Prolog management gives SiberSafe administrators full control over how the code preceding the root element of any XML document will be generated. DTDs or schemas, stylesheets and external entities can be specified in the centrally-defined prolog template and, once configured, these references will appear in the prolog of every document retrieved from the SiberSafe repository. Some editing tools make automatic prolog modifications that can invalidate referential integrity, so SiberSafe strips these when XML documents get checked into the repository. The correct generation of XML document prologs is therefore guaranteed, because it is driven by the central configuration rather than by the content submitted to the repository. Different prolog management configurations can be assigned to different granularities, making it possible to assign different prolog templates to different XML documents. Prolog Management ensures that teams using different tools in different editing environments can interoperate without having to worry about documents being valid in each different context.
SiberSafe enables users to edit XML content such as fragments and entities which are not valid XML documents. SiberSafe creates valid documents from fragments and entities by wrapping the fragment or entity with the required XML document framework. The user can then edit the fragment or entity using a validating XML editor and, when the edit is complete, SiberSafe strips away the wrapping when the content is checked back in. This allows users not necessarily familiar with the requirements of XML to collaborate on large XML documents.
To support applications that derive content from a database, or that serve content according to audience interests dependent on a condition (age, net worth, currency, etc), different variants can be declared based on relationship to a value (<, <=, =, >=, >). All required variants of documents such as insurance policies, targeted marketing material, custom reports, etc. can be automatically generated via SiberSafe's publishing framework.
Document sets often require a common index term catalog so readers can find specific content more easily across the entire set. SiberSafe enables authoring teams to define and use terms in a central index term catalog. The user marks content for inclusion in the index via an easy-to-use GUI, navigating the index term catalog and automatically inserting the selected index term hierarchy (e.g. baking, pastry, jelly filled) in the document, using the elements and attributes for index term specified in the DTD or Schema associated with the document being edited.
See the white paper on Index Term Management
Release management enables parallel development on projects that share common content. SiberSafe allows the documentation manager to branch a project, so that a new project team can start a parallel development effort while the original team continues towards their original delivery schedule. This situation often arises when a product is released. It may be necessary for one team to deal with documentation issues on the released product, and another team to start work on the documentation and training material for the next version of the product. Release management tracks the divergences and integrations of changes between different projects and project branches.
See the white paper on Release Management
See the Release Management demo
The document administrator can specify what document variants are valid selections for authors requesting publishing of that document. This reduces the confusion that might arise if too many variants are offered to the author when the publishing request is made.
SiberSafe Integrated Task Analysis – available for both SiberSafe XML CMS and SiberSafe DITA Edition – streamlines the entire task analysis process. The linked items in its integrated repository make it easy to identify reusable content and to determine the structure of required information deliverables, even before product development is complete. It’s an innovative and highly efficient approach to documentation development and maintenance.
Download the Integrated Task Analysis datasheet.
The SiberSafe Stream Deletion utility makes it possible to remove repository streams that are no longer in use, optimizing the database and freeing disk space.
The new History Compression and Inheritance Elimination utilities help minimize history-related performance degradation. You can choose the date from which to keep information about object changes and remove all preceding history records. The Inheritance Elimination utility enables history compression for databases initially created in SiberSafe 5.0 or earlier.
