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IETP & IETM

S1000D content is authored once and delivered many ways. The interactive, on-screen form of that delivery is the IETP — the Interactive Electronic Technical Publication. A single interactive manual is an IETM — an Interactive Electronic Technical Manual. Both replace the printed book with a navigable, searchable, screen-oriented presentation.

The two terms are close, and many vendors use them as synonyms. The useful distinction is one of scope.

TermStands forBest read as
IETMInteractive Electronic Technical ManualOne interactive manual for a product or system.
IETPInteractive Electronic Technical PublicationThe interactive delivery format and viewer that presents the content.
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S1000D prefers the term IETP. The specification describes the output as a set of information for the description, operation, and maintenance of a product, arranged and formatted for interactive screen presentation. "IETM" remains the common general industry word for the same idea. This site uses IETP for the delivered output and IETM when referring to an individual manual.

The historical classes of interactivity​

Before S1000D became dominant, IETMs were described by class — a rough scale of how interactive the content is. The scale runs from a page image of a printed book up to a system that adapts to the equipment in front of the user. The classes came out of early US military specifications and a 1990s classification of electronic manuals.

ClassNameWhat it is
1Electronically indexed page imagesScanned pages with a hyperlinked index and table of contents. Still book-shaped.
2Electronic scrolling documentA document with added hyperlinks for figures, tables, and references. A hyperlinked PDF is the typical example.
3Linearly structured IETMThe book structure is dropped. Content follows its own logic, with hyperlinking throughout. Closer to a website than a PDF.
4Hierarchically structured IETMContent is tagged (SGML or XML) and held in a database, authored specifically for interactive screen display, with rich cross-referencing.
5Integrated database systemA Class 4 system joined to expert-system or diagnostic logic that can change what is shown based on data. Largely theoretical in practice.
info

S1000D produces a Class 4-style IETP. Its content is XML, tagged at the data module level, and stored in a database (the CSDB). That is the defining shape of a Class 4 IETM. Class 5 — content driven by a live expert system — remains rare and is mostly aspirational. A Class 0 is sometimes listed below Class 1 for raw page images with no index; it is not really an electronic technical manual.

The class scale is a teaching aid, not a strict modern standard. From Issue 2, S1000D introduced a functionality matrix that describes an IETP by the specific capabilities it offers — search, navigation, applicability filtering, multimedia, conditional content — rather than by a single class number. The industry has broadly moved from "which class is it?" toward "which capabilities does it provide?". Use the classes to understand the history; use capabilities to describe a real system.

How S1000D content feeds an IETP viewer​

An IETP is not the source of the content. It is a view onto the Common Source Database (CSDB). The same data modules that can be rendered as a page-oriented PDF are instead rendered for the screen, with the cross-references and metadata turned into live, clickable behaviour.

The flow below follows a single publication from stored objects to the reader's screen.

The viewer does the work that paper cannot.

  • Navigation. The publication module sets the order and hierarchy. The viewer turns that into a contents tree the reader can browse.
  • Cross-references become links. A reference from one data module to another, or to a figure (an ICN), is rendered as a clickable link instead of a "see page 47" instruction.
  • Search. Because the content is tagged XML, the viewer can search the actual text and metadata, not a flat image of a page.
  • Applicability filtering. S1000D records which content applies to which version of a product. An IETP can use that data to show the reader only the steps that match their specific configuration. See Applicability.
  • Multimedia. A data module can reference video, animation, or audio (also stored as ICN objects). The viewer plays them inline.
tip

The same CSDB content drives both the IETP and the PDF. You do not author an "interactive version" separately. You author data modules once, then choose the output. This is the "source once, use many" principle applied at the delivery stage.

Where the toolchain fits​

The open-source s1kd-tools that this site documents work on the source side of this flow. They help you create, validate, and assemble the data modules and publication modules that an IETP viewer then presents. The tools build the CSDB content and the publication structure; a separate IETP viewer renders that structure for the screen.

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Rendering the final interactive viewer is usually a separate product. Many commercial IETP viewers exist, and they consume standards-based S1000D output. An example illustrative output package format is a zipped bundle of the published data modules and graphics that a viewer can load — the exact package format depends on the viewer and the project's business rules.

In short​

  • IETP = the interactive, screen-oriented delivery; IETM = one interactive manual.
  • The old class scale (1 to 5) describes increasing interactivity, from a page image up to an adaptive, expert-system-driven manual. S1000D content is Class 4 in shape; Class 5 is largely theoretical.
  • Modern practice describes an IETP by its capabilities (the functionality matrix), not by a single class number.
  • The IETP is a view onto the CSDB. The same validated data modules feed both the IETP and the PDF; the viewer adds navigation, live links, search, applicability filtering, and multimedia.

Sources​