metadata

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Version 1.3 Part 1: Base Edition

Document
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Version 1.3 Part 1: Base Edition
Version
1.3
Author
OASIS DITA Technical Committee

The metadata section of the prolog contains information about a topic such as audience and product information. Metadata can be used by computational processes to select particular topics or to prepare search indexes or to customize navigation. Elements inside of metadata provide information about the content and subject of a topic; prolog elements outside of metadata provide lifecycle information for the content unit (such as the author or copyright), which are unrelated to the subject.

Beginning with DITA 1.2, the metadata element is available inside topicmeta in maps, although the contents of metadata are still available directly inside topicmeta. As with the prolog, the metadata element within topicmeta allows you to group elements that describe the content or subject of the target. The primary purpose for enabling the metadata element within maps is to allow easier reuse between topics and maps.

Content models

See appendix for information about this element in OASIS document type shells.

Inheritance

- topic/metadata

Example

Metadata within a topic:

<prolog>
  <metadata>
    <audience type="user" job="using" experiencelevel="novice"/>
  </metadata>
</prolog>

Metadata within a map:

<topicref href="metadata.dita" navtitle="metadata element">
  <topicmeta>
    <metadata>
      <keywords>
        <indexterm>metadata element</indexterm>
      </keywords>
    </metadata>
  </topicmeta>
</topicref>

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: Universal attribute group and mapkeyref.