Getting Started with DHQauthor Schema: a user's guide to setting up

Quick list (what you want to do):

• Download DHQauthor Schema package from Download Central
• Identify your validation tool of choice
• Validate a sample document using the schema
• Run the "proof" stylesheet on the sample
• Create a new document using the schema and the proof stylesheet

Covered here:

More info on DHQauthor

See the DHQauthor Schema page. Also:

• Tag Library: detailed documentation of the tag set
• Schema Requirements document: what the design must address
• DHQ Garage for help with tools and technologies

Also see Issues and Suggestions if you wish to track ongoing discussion of modeling.

Download DHQauthor Schema

The DHQauthor Schema package is available in .zip format from the Download Central page.

Documentation (and links to further documentation) on DHQauthor is available at the DHQauthor Schema page.

Identifying your validation tool(s)

In order to create and edit XML documents in the DHQauthor format, you will need to identify and use a piece of software that can support the Relax NG schema definition language. We have several such options described in the DHQ Garage.

Additionally, a second (optional) schema component is a Schematron validation layer, provided by the DHQauthor-ready.sch Schematron. This module tests rules about a document that are either not enforceable using Relax NG, or which we choose to validate in this layer for other reasons, such as that we wish to allow exceptions to them in special circumstances. Support for Schematron is distinct and separable from support for Relax NG, although a number of XML tools and editing environments support both.

We recommend that authors and editors begin a document by validating it to the Relax NG DHQauthor schema, and then as a document nears completion, move to include validation using DHQauthor-ready.sch for checking against additional constraints.

Documents to validate

Sample documents

Try sample documents available on Download Central.

Creating and validating your own document

The quickest and most effective way of learning to use DHQauthor is to use it for real work: start creating and validating a DHQauthor document in your editor of choice.

Stylesheets to try

Support for XSLT stylesheets in standards-conformat tools is described in the DHQ Garage. Stylesheets suitable for proofing your work are available from Download Central.)

FAQ for newcomers to XML

Please add your questions to the FAQ --

What is the DHQauthor schema?

The DHQauthor schema is a set of rules for tagging a document in such a way that it can be processed consistently and predictably by appropriately configured software. It can be regarded as a kind of "contract", which is followed both by the routines that we use to process and produce DHQ (in its various forms and formats), and applications that authors can use to create these documents (for example, structured XML editors).

Not all the rules a document must follow can be formalized using a schema; there will always be editorial requirements and matters of style that have to be checked the old-fashioned way. But as regards the basics of a document's tagging, the DHQauthor Relax NG schema, with the supplementary DHQauthor-ready Schematron, will get you most of the way.

DHQ also maintains other sets of constraints internal to our publishing system, but these are managed on higher validation "layers". Authors will not have to worry about these, as they address requirements for our system best handled by the editors.

Must authors use DHQauthor to submit papers to DHQ?

No: using this format is not required for submission to DHQ. Authors who choose to, however, are likely to have better control over how their work will appear, as well as, quite possibly, more timely production, with less possibility for editorial error. See the Submission Guidelines for more on this topic.

For documents submitted in other formats such such TEI XML, HTML or Word, authors can expect their papers to be converted to DHQ XML format by us. Since DHQauthor closely resembles TEI in most respects, those conversions at least will be easy. Other formats may be more challenging to rework for our internal requirements.

WendellPiez - 23 Jun 2008