While starting the process of updating my listing of DITA Tools, I ran across the fact that Samalander is seeking beta testers for a wide-range of largely DITA-related products. Since the tools listing is one of the more popular pages on this site, there are clearly people out there who would be interested in hearing about this, hence this post. If you are looking to convert your DITA to ePub, CHM, Eclipse Help or just cleaning up your existing code, you might want to sign-up with Samalander in order to test out some of these new tools that they are developing.
You can find all of the information on the beta products seeking testers here, and here’s a quick run-down of the types of tools seeking testers (content derived from the Samalander website):
Sanity-Checker Version 1.1.0 Beta
Checks for a variety of problems that arise when valid, well-formed DITA XML is read by FrameMaker or oXygen. The problems include the “Gray-Screen-Of-Death” FrameMaker crash related to missing scope attributes, allowable size ranges for graphics, improved table analysis including total width ranges, report value of or report missing optional attributes (for example “author” on all topics), detects useless/illegal IDs FrameMaker reports as OK, and several others.
Syntax-Fixer Module Beta
Syntax-Fixer is a variation on Sanity-Checker. Where Sanity-Checker flags link problems in the Sanity-Check report, Syntax-Fixer will make suggestions on how to fix syntax problem if a fix is available.
Modules Supporting DITA Conversion
Modules being tested include:
- DITA-to-ePub
- DITA-to-CHM Help
- DITA-to-Eclipse
- Delete-Useless-IDs (fixes an issue with duplicate IDs in FrameMaker-based DITA output)
- Readable-IDs Module (converts all IDs to a unique but human-readable format)
To apply for these beta products, contact Samalander via their Contact Us form.
