DocBook XML export from Booktype

We are adding a new export/publish format to www.booktype.pro: DocBook XML.

This repo contains sub-set of DocBook elements that we will use. The typical workflow for authors and publishers using Booktype would be:

Create a book by importing DOCX or EPUB or starting it in the browser.
Edit the book in the browser - alone or in teams.
Export the book to DocBookXML (other output formats are PDF, EPUB, MOBI, XHTML site, ...)

It is important to note that the DocBook XML structure is not limiting the book creation and editing process. On export, the existing book will be converted into valid DocBook XML. We are using DocBook version 5.1.

Information about DocBook:

http://docbook.org/tdg51/en/html/docbook.html
The complete reference: http://docbook.org/tdg51/en/html/chunk-part-d64e10384.html

Information about Booktype:

https://booktype.pro
Features: https://booktype.pro/en/booktype/screenshots/
Try it online at https://omnibook.pro/

You can find the lists of all elements of our sub-set with detailed descriptions in the elements folder.

Here an example of a book content skeleton:

<book xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
  <title>Booktype goes DocBook</title>
  <info>
    <legalnotice><para>GNU Open Documentation</para></legalnotice>
    <author xml:base="https://booktype.pro"><givenname>The Booktype Team</givenname></author>
    <publisher>
      <publishername>Sourcefabric Publishing</publishername>
      <city>Prague</city>
      <uri>https://sourcefabric.org</uri>
    </publisher>
  <dedication><para>This book is dedicated to you.</para></dedication>
  <part label="###Frontmatter"> 
    <title>Part title for table of contents</title> 
    <chapter label="ChapterTitleFromToC" id="chapterURL">
      <info>
        <title>Foreword</title>
      </info>
      <section role="h1">
        <title>Heading</title>
        <para>...</para>
        ...
      </section>
      <section role="h2">
        <title>Subheading</title>
        <para>...</para>
        ...
      </section>
      <section role="h3">
        <title>Subsubheading</title>
        <para>...</para>
        ...
      </section>
      ...
    </chapter>
    <chapter label="ChapterTitleFromToC" id="chapterURL">
      ...
    </chapter>
  </part>
</book>

Features in Booktype and corresponding DocBook elements

Book - the wrapper around everything

The book element of DocBook contains also the book metadata from Booktype

Book element

Parts

Book parts are called sections in Booktype. The part element is wrapped around all chapters inside the part.

Part element

Chapters

A chapter is - well - a chapter in the book. It will be listed in the table of contents.

Chapter element

Sections (inside chapters)

The sections are defined inside the Booktype editor as H1, H2, H3 and so forth.

Section element

Paragraph

We are using the para element for normal paragraphs. Another paragraph element of DocBook (formalpara) is used for a special feature, the info box (see below).

Also, paragraph alignment is described in this document.

Paragraph element

Links

Booktype supports external links as well as internal references. Both can be represented in DocBook's link element.

Link element

Image

For images we are using the figure element in DocBook. This is wrapped around the mediaobject element. And the entire thing needs to be packed in a sectionelement.

Figure (images) element

Table

Table element

Lists

The Booktype editor supports ordered and unordered lists. In DocBook, these are represented in itemizedlist (unordered) and orderedlist (ordered).

Unordered list element

Ordered list element