Examples: Key definitions for variable text

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

Key definitions can be used to store variable text, such as product names and user-interface labels. Depending on the key definition, the rendered output might have a link to a related resource.

In the following example, a "product-name" key is defined. The key definition contains a child keyword element nested within a keydefelement.

<map>
  <keydef keys="product-name">
    <topicmeta>
     <keywords>
       <keyword>Thing-O-Matic</keyword>
     </keywords>
    </topicmeta>
  </keydef>
</map>
A topic can reference the "product-name" key by using the following markup:
<topic id="topicid">
  <p><keyword keyref="product-name"/> is a product designed to ...</p>
</topic>

When processed, the output contains the text "Thing-O-Matic is a product designed to ... ".

In the following example, the key definition contains both a reference to a resource and variable text.

<map>
  <keydef keys="product-name" href="thing-o-matic.dita">
    <topicmeta>
     <keywords>
       <keyword>Thing-O-Matic</keyword>
     </keywords>
    </topicmeta>
  </keydef>
</map>

When processed using the key reference from the first example, the output contains the "Thing-O-Matic is a product designed to ... " text. The phrase "Thing-O-Matic" also is a link to the thing-o-matic.dita topic.