DocBookbased

DocBookbased is a term used to describe documentation produced with the DocBook XML schema and a DocBook-centric workflow. It denotes a category of documentation practices in which DocBook serves as the canonical source format, from which other deliverables are generated.

DocBook is an XML version of the DocBook SGML standard, originally developed for technical documentation and maintained by the OASIS standards group. DocBookbased projects typically use the DocBook XML DTD, along with DocBook XSL stylesheets and additional processing tools, to publish content to multiple formats.

In a DocBookbased workflow, authors write content in DocBook XML using elements such as book, article, section, and para. The content is stored in a version-controlled repository and undergoes transformations via XSLT processors (and sometimes LaTeX or ASCII/HTML pre-processors) to produce HTML, PDF (via dblatex or XSL-FO), ePub, and man pages. Build pipelines may integrate with continuous integration, translations, and automated validation.

Benefits include stable long-term structuring, wide tool support, and consistent multi-format publishing. Drawbacks include a steeper learning curve compared with lightweight markup and potentially verbose markup for complex documents. DocBookbased remains popular in open-source projects and in organizations requiring formal, multi-format technical documentation.

See also: DocBook, XML, XSLT, docbook2X, dblatex.