Reply To: Metadata in prolog or in CMS

[Derek Read]

I think the most obvious would be to ask which tools (other than the CMS) will be consuming your DITA files and if they will need access to the metadata.

If the answer is 'yes' then:
– Keeping it inside the DITA files will allow access by any tool that can read the file.
– Keeping the metadata in Trisoft may require it to be injected into the files (presumably by Trisoft) when needed by your other tools, unless Trisoft can provide another means for doing that (in which case Trisoft and the other tools would likely need to be able to communicate directly in some fashion).

The most obvious tool here is the DITA Open Toolkit. There are potentially three locations you might wish to run it:
1) Running the copy that is installed and integrated with Trisoft.
2) Running the copy that is installed and integrated with XMetaL Author Enterprise.
3) Running another copy you install and configure yourself.

I assume you will be using #1, and in this case you should check with Trisoft for capabilities regarding consumption of metadata stored in the CMS vs directly in your DITA documents.

For other tools you will need to consult with the maker.

You should also check with Trisoft to see what additional benefits they can demonstrate for you based on where you keep metadata. It may be that certain functionality works better if this data is stored separately in the CMS (perhaps searching, etc).

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