audience

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 audience metadata element indicates, through the value of its type attribute, the intended audience for a topic.

Since a topic can have multiple audiences, you can include multiple audience elements. For each audience you specify, you can identify the high-level task they are trying to accomplish with the job attribute, and the level of experience expected with the experiencelevel attribute. The audience element can be used to provide a more detailed definition of values used throughout the map or topic on the audience attribute.

Many of the attributes on the audience element have enumerated values, which can be restricted by using constraints or extended by using associated attributes. For instance, the othertype attribute can be used to extend the audience type enumeration.

Content models

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

Inheritance

- topic/audience

Example

For a command reference topic for experienced programmers, the following might be an appropriate indication of that audience:

<audience type="programmer" job="programming" experiencelevel="expert"/>

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: Universal attribute group and the attributes defined below.

type
Indicates the kind of person for whom the content of the topic is intended. Note that this differs from the type attribute on many other DITA elements. Beginning with DITA 1.2, values in this attribute are not limited to a small number of choices; the following values were used in DITA 1.0 and DITA 1.1, and are still provided as sample values: user, purchaser, administrator, programmer, executive, services, other, and -dita-use-conref-target.
othertype
Indicates an alternate audience type, when the type is not available in the type attribute value list. This value is used as the user-provided audience when the type attribute value is set to "other."
job
Indicates the high-level task the audience for the topic is trying to accomplish. Different audiences might read the same topic in terms of different high-level tasks; for example, an administrator might read the topic while administering, while a programmer might read the same topic while customizing. Beginning with DITA 1.2, values in this attribute are not limited to a small number of choices; the following values were used in DITA 1.0 and DITA 1.1, and are still provided as sample values: installing, customizing, administering, programming, using, maintaining, troubleshooting, evaluating, planning, migrating, other, and -dita-use-conref-target.
otherjob
If the job attribute value is "other" the value of this attribute is used to identify a kind of job other than the default ones provided by the job attribute.
experiencelevel
Indicates the level of experience the audience is assumed to possess. Different audiences might have different experience levels with respect to the same topic; for example, a topic might require general knowledge from a programmer, but expert knowledge from a user. Beginning with DITA 1.2, values in this attribute are not limited to a small number of choices; the following values were used in DITA 1.0 and DITA 1.1, and are still provided as sample values: novice, general, expert, and -dita-use-conref-target.
name
Used to associate the audience element with values used in the audience attribute.