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   <title>2.&nbsp;Introduction</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="css/stylesheet.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.70.0"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="DocBook Framework (DBF)"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="DocBook Framework (DBF)"><link rel="prev" href="ch01s03.html" title="1.3&nbsp;Author Information"><link rel="next" href="ch02s02.html" title="2.2&nbsp;What you need"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">2.&nbsp;Introduction</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch01s03.html">Prev</a>&nbsp;</td><th width="60%" align="center">&nbsp;</th><td width="20%" align="right">&nbsp;<a accesskey="n" href="ch02s02.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="chapter" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="chapter-introduction"></a>2.&nbsp;Introduction</h2></div></div></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="section-why-another-framework"></a>2.1&nbsp;Why another framework for rendering docbook?</h2></div></div></div><p>The Velocity project used a simple HTML based format called
      <em class="firstterm">XDOC</em> for its documentation for a very long time.
      However, <em class="firstterm">XDOC</em> is not really popular outside the
      Apache world<sup>[<a name="d0e69" href="#ftn.d0e69">1</a>]</sup>, it renders somehow into HTML but no other formats (unless
      you consider a set of alpha and beta-level plugins for maven-1 and
      maven-2) and tool support for this format is not really there.</p><p>When an XML based format for documentation is considered, DocBook
      seems to be a natural choice. So we decided to take a stab at rendering
      the existing Velocity Docs that are end-user specific (Users Guide,
      Developers Guide, Reference and the likes) through DocBook.</p><p>What we wanted to have, was a framework, that...</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>...renders multiple documents into multiple formats with an
          uniform look without having to copy a large number of stylesheets,
          images and other supporting files around.</p></li><li><p>...separates the render framework and the actual documentation
          to render. It should be sufficient to install the framework only
          once and then reference it.</p></li><li><p>...uses the standard DocBook XML and XSL zip files available
          for download. Many of the open source DocBook frameworks use heavily
          hacked versions and we want to be able to keep up with releases
          without having to patch the released files every time.</p></li><li><p>...uses current versions of the DocBook reference files, the
          libraries and supporting tools.</p></li><li><p>...render all formats without connecting to the Internet.
          Using the Apache XML resolver, it should be possible to use the
          framework completely standalone. See
          <code class="uri">http://xml.apache.org/commons/components/resolver/resolver-article.html</code>
          for an explanation.</p></li><li><p>...has some documentation so you understand what happens when
          a format gets rendered and how.</p></li><li><p>...that can be customized easily (if you consider customizing
          complex XSL style sheets 'easy').</p></li><li><p>...that is platform independent and uses 100% pure Java. No
          external programs should be needed or called.</p></li><li><p>...that is driven by Apache ant and could be easily embedded
          into larger builds.</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="footnotes"><br><hr width="100" align="left"><div class="footnote"><p><sup>[<a name="ftn.d0e69" href="#d0e69">1</a>] </sup>And not even in the Apache world...</p></div></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch01s03.html">Prev</a>&nbsp;</td><td width="20%" align="center">&nbsp;</td><td width="40%" align="right">&nbsp;<a accesskey="n" href="ch02s02.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">1.3&nbsp;Author Information&nbsp;</td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top">&nbsp;2.2&nbsp;What you need</td></tr></table></div></body></html>