I added a DocBook XSL customization layer to my DocBook Kit that outputs an HTML/PHP version of the document that automatically integrates with a WordPress blog. The stylesheet also (optionally) adds a link to the downloadable PDF of the document. An example document integrating with this blog can be seen here.

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When I started writing XMPP: The Definitive Guide, I switched from LaTeX to DocBook as my writing tool, mainly because DocBook was O’Reilly’s suggested format. After a few months of writing with DocBook, I started getting quite attached to the format: not only does it force you to separate presentation from content, the strict XML format allows you to easily write tools to transform and validate your document. For example, for the XMPP book, we had several short Python scripts that checked whether the stanzas used in the book were well-formed, whether all web URLs were valid, ... Today, I use DocBook for practically all of my documents. Because getting a DocBook environment up requires putting together quite a few pieces from different places, I created a “DocBook kit” to be able to start writing a new DocBook project without much hassle.

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