Using a ditavalref element in a reference to a map is equivalent to setting filtering conditions for the referenced map.
In the following example, other.ditamap is referenced by a root map. The ditavalref element indicates that all of the content in other.ditamap should be filtered using the conditions specified in the some.ditaval document.
<topicref href="parent.dita"> <topicref href="other.ditamap" format="ditamap"> <ditavalref href="some.ditaval"/> </topicref> </topicref>
<map> <topicref href="nestedTopic1.dita"> <topicref href="nestedTopic2.dita"/> </topicref> <topicref href="nestedTopic3.dita"/> </map>
<topicref href="parent.dita"> <topicgroup> <ditavalref href="some.ditaval"/> <topicref href="nestedTopic1.dita"> <topicref href="nestedTopic2.dita"/> </topicref> <topicref href="nestedTopic3.dita"/> </topicgroup> </topicref>
For the purposes of filtering, this map also could be rewritten as follows.
<topicref href="parent.dita"> <topicref href="nestedTopic1.dita"> <ditavalref href="some.ditaval"/> <topicref href="nestedTopic2.dita"/> </topicref> <topicref href="nestedTopic3.dita"> <ditavalref href="some.ditaval"/> </topicref> </topicref>
Filtering based on the ditavalref element applies to the containing element and its children, so in each case, the files nestedTopic1.dita, nestedTopic2.dita, and nestedTopic3.dita are filtered against the conditions specified in some.ditaval. In each version, parent.dita is not a parent for the ditavalref, so it is not filtered.