Chunking

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Version 1.3 Part 2: Technical Content Edition

Document
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Version 1.3 Part 2: Technical Content Edition
Version
1.3
Author
OASIS DITA Technical Committee

Content can be chunked (divided or merged into new output documents) in different ways for the purposes of delivering content and navigation. For example, content best authored as a set of separate topics might need to be delivered as a single Web page. A map author can use the chunk attribute to split up multi-topic documents into component topics or to combine multiple topics into a single document as part of output processing.

The chunk attribute is commonly used for the following use cases.

Reuse of a nested topic
A content provider creates a set of topics as a single document. Another user wants to incorporate only one of the nested topics from the document. The new user can reference the nested topic from a DITA map, using the chunk attribute to specify that the topic should be produced in its own document.
Identification of a set of topics as a unit
A curriculum developer wants to compose a lesson for a SCORM LMS (Learning Management System) from a set of topics without constraining reuse of those topics. The LMS can save and restore the learner's progress through the lesson if the lesson is identified as a referenceable unit. The curriculum developer defines the collection of topics with a DITA map, using the chunk attribute to identify the learning module as a unit before generating the SCORM manifest.