Event archive · Berlin · 30–31 October 2017
Inside the branch-and-merge test kitchen.
Bluestream’s DITA Europe 2017 announcement paired conference sponsorship with Rik Page’s planned demonstration of branch, merge, and release management.
Branch & merge
Release Management’s biggest challenge?
Rik Page · announced sessionThe 2017 announcement
Archive · Published 4 September 2017. Event invitations and roles reflect the original publication period; the event has passed.
Bluestream is pleased to be a sponsor of the CIDM DITA Europe 2017 event, which takes place October 30-31 in Berlin, Germany. We look forward to meeting up with our customers and partners in Europe and to making new connections. You can find our table in the Exhibit Hall, so please come by and say, “Guten Tag!”
Be sure to catch Bluestream’s Rik Page in the Test Kitchen,
Branch and Merge – Release Management’s biggest challenge?
Successful release management has to overcome many obstacles but perhaps the biggest challenge with DITA content is effectively dealing with the branch and merge of Topics. Bluestream’s XDocs 50 brings a fresh and streamlined approach to branch and merge management. Users can now easily identify changes in the branch content and effortlessly manage changes.
At the test kitchen you will see first-hand how this new functionality works and how your documentation production processes can be simplified.
Learn more about DITA Europe on the website
From the website,
“Join colleagues from around the world for two days of career-empowering knowledge, practices, networking, and practical solutions. With insights from over 30 speakers, an exhibit hall packed with the best content management solutions, and the very best in industry networking, CMS/DITA Europe is designed with your specific needs in mind—providing strategies you can use immediately as you create and manage technical content, and expanding your professional network with information development experts from around the world.“
Editorial context · October 2026
The announced Berlin program
The demonstration was described as a look at identifying changes in branch content and managing those changes within XDocs.
What a useful branch-and-merge demonstration should reveal
- Show the differenceChoose two branches with a meaningful difference, rather than two nearly identical files. Explain which product release each branch supports.
- Expose the decisionInclude a change that should move and another that should stay. Ask the presenter to explain the selection rather than simply accepting every change.
- Inspect the resultRead the merged topic in context. Check that the surrounding procedure, references, and publication still fit the target release.
The important question is applicability
A correction can be valid and still be inappropriate for a different release. For example, a newer product may use different prerequisites or a changed workflow. Treat the merge interface as support for an editorial decision, with product applicability and approval responsibilities made explicit. This is a practical way to use the historical session’s theme in a current evaluation.
Archive source: Bluestream in Berlin, 4 September 2017.