Adding Breadcrumbs to Webhelp output

[Jen]

Hi Guys,
We are currently using XMetal Author 8.0 but may be upgrading to XMetal 11.0. One of the main features we would like would be the presence of breadcrumbing in the output of our Webhelp. I am just wondering if there would be anyway to implement this ?
Thanks for your time,
Jen.

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[Derek Read]

The DITA Open Toolkit has documented a feature like this but from the various discussions that I see (that include the DITA OT developers) the feature was never actually implemented as part of the DITA OT. The DITA OT documentation says the feature works for all HTML outputs (so that would include WebHelp) but it contains no code to actually do this.

I see that someone created a plug-in that others claim does this, but it only works with older versions of the DITA Open Toolkit (apparently version 1.6 and possibly earlier). Those old versions have limitations that might make using them impossible, particularly if your DITA version is 1.2, uses bookmaps, or perhaps other “new” DITA features (among many other fixes that have happened over time).

We did have some clients try a plug-in that also did something similar but I believe it also required a specific DITA OT version (1.5). See: http://forums.xmetal.com/index.php?topic=732.0

The DITA OT 2.0 documentation for the ANT parameters it supports says discusses “breadcrumbs” but that parameter doesn't actually do anything:
http://www.dita-ot.org/2.0/readme/ant-parameters-common-html-transtypes.html

And here are some pages that discuss breadcrumbs (or at least mention them in a relevant discussion, including people that work directly on the DITA OT):
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/dita-ot-users/breadcrumbs/dita-ot-users/Pjw1embjYLI/OGgh_gtgzWkJ
https://github.com/dita-ot/dita-ot/issues/1130
https://github.com/dita-ot/dita-ot/issues/952

If this is an important feature for you please consider providing feedback to the DITA Open Toolkit project so they are aware.

If you have not looked at related links perhaps that is an option? These are supported by the DITA Open Toolkit when generating HTML outputs.

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