Generating Chrome

Generating central catalog and chat layout configurations using the ast-chrome transtype and customizing overridable chrome elements.

Templates Overview

The ast-chrome transformation type generates the global chrome.json file. This file provides default layouts for pages and components when individual document sets do not supply custom header or footer templates via --args.hdr or --args.ftr:


dita --input=path/to/document.ditamap \
     --format=ast-chrome \
     --output=path/to/output

Publish the generated chrome.json to data-store via its REST API:


curl -X PUT --data-binary @path/to/output/chrome.json \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     http://<data-store>/api/chrome

See Publishing chrome.json in the data-store guide for authorization and validation details (AUTH_TOKEN, size limits, and error responses).

Overridable Chrome Elements

The chrome.json configuration file organizes layout templates and UI strings into overridable component blocks:

docs-page (Documentation Portal Catalog)
  • title — Main heading title for the documentation catalog portal (default: "Documentation").
  • description — Subtitle text for the catalog portal (default: "Documentation Portal").
  • header (docs-page.header) — Fallback top navigation bar AST layout for the catalog landing page.
  • card (docs-page.card) — Template AST node structure for individual document set cards in the landing page grid.
chat-bot (AI Assistant Portal)
  • title — Title heading for the AI Assistant chat interface (default: "AI Assistant").
  • description — Subtitle description for AI chat (default: "AI Assisted Documentation Search").
  • header (chat-bot.header) — Top navigation header layout for the AI Assistant view, including conversation controls.
  • card (chat-bot.card) — Welcome card layout containing initial prompt suggestions.
  • form (chat-bot.form) — Prompt submission bar layout containing the question input field and send button.
texts (Internationalization & UI Strings)
  • noResults — Text displayed when search queries yield zero results (default: "No results").
  • tableOfContents — Label for the topic navigation sidebar (default: "Table of contents").
  • menubarNavigation — Accessibility label for main navigation bar (default: "Menubar navigation").
  • expand / collapse — Labels for collapsible section controls.

Chrome Include Files as Examples

The plug-in includes reference XML templates that demonstrate how chrome layout components are defined before compilation into AST format:

chrome.content.docs-page.xml
Defines the documentation catalog portal title, description, and the document set card template (docs-page.card). Uses placeholders such as <document-title/> and <document-description/> to dynamically display metadata for discovered document sets.
chrome.navbar.chat-bot.xml
Defines the header navigation bar for the AI Assistant chat portal (chat-bot.header). Includes a Clear Chat button assigned @role="clear-chat" to reset conversation context, and a theme switcher button assigned @role="theme-toggle".
chrome.content.chat-bot.xml
Defines the AI Assistant welcome card (chat-bot.card) with quick prompt action buttons, as well as the submission form layout (chat-bot.form) containing the prompt input field (@id="user-input") and send button (@id="send-btn").