param

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Version 1.2

Document
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Version 1.2

The parameter (<param>) element specifies a set of values that may be required by an <object> at runtime. Any number of <param> elements may appear in the content of an object in any order, but must be placed at the start of the content of the enclosing object. This element is comparable to the XHMTL <param> element, and its attributes' semantics derive from their HTML definitions. For example, the type attribute differs from the type attribute on many other DITA elements.

Contains

Note: These models represent only the default document types distributed by OASIS. Actual content models will differ with each new document type.
Doctype Content model
topic, map, concept, ditabase, glossary, glossentry, glossgroup, reference, task, bookmap, classifyMap, subjectScheme, machineryTask, learningAssessment, learningBookmap, learningContent, learningMap, learningOverview, learningPlan, learningSummary no content

Contained by

Doctype Content model
topic (base), map (base), topic (technical content), map (technical content), concept, ditabase, glossary, glossentry, glossgroup, reference, task (strict), task (general), bookmap, classifyMap, subjectScheme, machineryTask, learningAssessment, learningBookmap, learningContent, learningMap, learningOverview, learningPlan, learningSummary object

Inheritance

- topic/param

Example

See object.

Attributes

Name Description Data Type Default Value Required?
name The name of the parameter. CDATA #REQUIRED Yes
value Specifies the value of a run-time parameter specified by the name attribute. CDATA #IMPLIED No
valuetype Specifies the type of the value attribute. Allowed values are:
data
A value of data means that the value will be evaluated and passed to the object's implementation as a string.
ref
A value of ref indicates that the value of the value attribute is a URL that designates a resource where run-time values are stored. This allows support tools to identify URLs that are given as parameters.
object
A value of object indicates that the value of valuetype is an identifier that refers to an object declaration in the document. The identifier must be the value of the ID attribute set for the declared object element.
CDATA #IMPLIED No
type This attribute specifies the content type of the resource designated by the value attribute only in the case where valuetype is set to "ref". This attribute specifies for the user agent the type of values that will be found at the URI designated by value. Note that this differs from the type attribute on many other DITA elements. CDATA #IMPLIED (No default type) No
univ-atts attribute group (includes select-atts, id-atts, and localization-atts groups) A set of related attributes, described in univ-atts attribute group      
global-atts attribute group (xtrf, xtrc) A set of related attributes, described in global-atts attribute group      
class A common attribute described in Other common DITA attributes