The first quarter of 2021 ends later this week. The end of the first quarter brings with it the first large update to DoX CMS this year. I will use this opportunity to clarify in advance what changes this update will include.
There will be four major changes:
- Local editing of content,
- Mass generation of element identifiers,
- Partial translations based on tags, and
- The ability to edit publications after review.
For each of these additions, I will focus on how it will be implemented and how you can use it.
Towards the end, I will also mention some smaller changes and reveal some of our plans going ahead.
Local editing of content
Once this update hits, you can connect your computer to a network drive where you can directly edit both topics that are reserved to you and topic trees. The changes that you make are saved in DoX CMS. However, you can make them with the software of your choice, provided that it is suited for editing the file types in question.
(As the format of the files remains the same, MS Word and the like remain unsuitable for the task and we cannot recommend you using them.)
To do this, you must add a new network drive to your computer in its file browser. On Windows devices, the command to do so is available when you click ‘My Computer’ with the right mouse button. You must then add the web address for your company’s copy of DoX CMS and add ‘/WebDav’ at the end. This lets you log in with your usual user credentials for this copy.
This network drive contains the topics that are reserved to you in the file type used for them (.dita or .html) and a folder for topic trees in .dita format. Whatever changes you make to them here will also show in the main system.
This enables you to, for example, open the contents of more than one topic at a time without the need for separate tabs for each of them. You can simply select all the relevant topics in your file browser.
This is but the initial test for how the functionality of our system can be extended in this direction. For the time being, this option has limited applications. However, should there be a demand for more applications, at least the files related to styles and most attachment files can be made available through this network drive.
Mass generation of element identifiers
The Editor view and its text editor will soon include a new feature which lets you generate idenfifiers for all elements in the selected topic(s). Of course, only elements that may have identifiers will be affected.
This feature is a part of the system that lets you request partial translations which is explained below. As you may use it independently of the latter, though, the two are discussed separately.
The identifiers that this feature adds are all random numbers with up to three digits. If you constanly need to use internal references or content references, this feature that adds identifiers with a single click ought to ease your workload. It works particularly well for internal references within a single topic.
To add identifiers in the Editor view, you must first select the relevant topics. You may select all topics at once to add identifiers to all the elements in each of them, too.
This feature will not change existing identifiers. They will remain as they are.
The comprehensive use of unique identifiers that you get as a result can also be tapped by other new features going forward. One example is the option to request partial translations based on selected tags.
Partial translations based on tags
Going forward, DoX CMS lets you request partial translations of topics if only the content related to specific tags will be needed in some language(s).
You can thus send files with only the content related to the specified tags and no tags at all to the translator(s). This option lets you filter out all content marked with other tags from your translation projects.
A prerequisite for you to use this feature is that all elements have identifiers thanks to the new feature discussed above, for example.
As the translated content arrives back, the translation manager will replace the parts with the same identifiers from the initial revision that it made in that language. The content related to other tags will thus remain as part of the content without being translated but you can filter it out with by selecting the proper tags for publications.
We will also add a new column in the Editor view, and it lets you see which tags have been used for partial translations for any given topic. This lets you survey whether the content that you need is already translated.
Anyone who actively uses tags to condition content and only needs the content related to some to be translated can thus use this option to save in translation costs. You will not need to either explain to the translator(s) which content to ignore or to remove parts of the translation file yourself.
There will be room left for further development of language revisions going forward, and we already have plans for that. This system can readily be complemented with additional advancements.
The ability to edit publications after review
Until now, users have been unable to reject publications sent to review and to remove them from that menu. With this update, they may do exactly that.
Publications in the Approval or Approved state are locked which makes it impossible to directly edit them. Should changes be required, you used to need to make a new revision of the publication to add them.
Simply put, we are just adding the option to return publications to the Normal state. Thus far, their workflow has been unidirectional. You could only approve publications senf to be reviewed, or leave it hanging. This change lets you reject them and return them to be edited accordingly.
Other changes
The list of changes above does not include all the updates to the system’s interface or its functionality.
The home page will have a different layout. When you log in, there will be a separate tab for the content that is reserved to you as part of your home page.
You may now see comments related to parts of a publication without the need to select that part of the publication in the Review menu.
If the numbering of titles in your company’s copy of DoX CMS does not abide by the ISO-2145 standard by now for some reason, it will change to fit the standard for everyone with this update.
Further development
The primary focus of our development at this time is the interface for VAD and its integration with DoX CMS. It is high time that we made this system a reality, and you can expect news on it soon.
We’ve already done quite a bit to improve the future interface of DoX CMS.
Both English and Finnish messages and command names will be more informative to help users understand what these functions do. We are also using this opportunity to fix outdated warnings when you remove content and the like.
At the same time, we will change the icons for each command. We are transitioning to only using the Streamline Icons icon library and our own variants of their icons that complement it. You will no longer need to remember the functions associated with recurring icons based on their order. Each command in a given view will have its own icon. For example, all commands related to revisions will be differentiated clearly from similar commands related to the primary content. Some examples of our new icons are provided above.
In terms of functionality, a major upcoming update to DoX CMS will be a new system to process attachments. This change will let the system use hidden identifiers for attachment files, for example. As a result, documents will no longer immediately lose attached images when their location changes, among other things.
On a sligtly longer time scale, we have planned to redo the text editor. This will let us add new features to it without the nagging awareness that they must be done again once we complete this major overhaul of the editor.