Extension points
The DITA Open Toolkit provides a series of extension points that can be used to integrate changes into the
core code. Extension points are defined in the plugin.xml file for each plug-in. When plug-ins
are installed, the DITA-OT makes each extension visible to the rest of the toolkit.
General extension points These extension points enable you to extend the DITA-OT. You can add Ant targets or imports; add a Java library to the classpath parameter; add a new transformation type; extend a catalog file; add new diagnostic messages, and more.Pre-processing extension points You can use these extension points to run an Ant target before or after the pre-processing stage. If necessary, you can also run an Ant target before a specific pre-processing step — but this approach is not recommended.XSLT-import extension points You can use these extension points to override XSLT processing steps in pre-processing and certain transformation types. The value of the @file attribute in the <feature> element specifies a relative path to an XSL file in the current plug-in. The plug-in installer adds a XSL import statement to the default DITA-OT code, so that the XSL override becomes part of the normal build.XSLT-parameter extension points You can use theses extension points to pass parameters into existing XSLT steps in both the pre-processing pipeline and DITA-OT transformation. The parameters generally will be available as global <xsl:param> values with XSLT overrides.Version and support information You can use these extension points to define version and support information for a plug-in. Currently, the DITA-OT does not do anything with this information, but it might do so in the future.Extension points by plug-in The default plug-ins that ship with the DITA Open Toolkit include a series of extension points that can be used to modify various aspects of toolkit processing.