Setting build parameters with <filepath>.properties</filepath> files Usually, DITA builds require setting a number of parameters that do not change frequently. You can reference a set of build parameters defined in a .properties file when building output with the dita command. If needed, you can override any parameter by specifying it explicitly as an argument to the dita command.
About <filepath>.properties</filepath> files

A .properties file is a text file that enumerates one or more name-value pairs, one per line, in the format name = value. The .properties filename extension is customarily used, but is not required.

  • Lines beginning with the # character are comments.
  • Properties specified as arguments of the dita command override those set in .properties files. For this reason, args.input and transtype can't be set in the .properties file.
  • If you specify the same property more than once, the last instance is used.
  • Properties not used by the selected transformation type are ignored.
  • Properties can reference other property values defined elsewhere in the .properties file or passed by the dita command. Use the Ant ${property.name} syntax.
  • You can set properties not only for the default DITA-OT transformation types, but also for custom plugins.
Create your .properties file. For example: Reference your .properties file with the dita command when building your output. dita -i my.ditamap -f html5 -propertyfile my.properties If needed, pass additional arguments to the dita command to override specific build parameters.

For example, to build output once with draft and required-cleanup content:

dita -i my.ditamap -f html5 -propertyfile my.properties -Dargs.draft=yes