Conditional processing (profiling)

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

Conditional processing, also known as profiling, is the filtering or flagging of information based on processing-time criteria.

DITA defines attributes that can be used to enable filtering and flagging individual elements. The audience, deliveryTarget, otherprops, platform, and props attributes (along with specializations of props) allow conditions to be assigned to elements so that the elements can be included, excluded, or flagged during processing. The rev flagging attribute allows values to be assigned to elements so that special formatting can be applied to those elements during processing. A conditional-processing profile specifies which elements to include, exclude, or flag. DITA defines a document type called DITAVAL for creating conditional-processing profiles.

Processors SHOULD be able to perform filtering and flagging using the attributes listed above. The props attribute can be specialized to create new attributes, and processors SHOULD be able to perform conditional processing on specializations of props.

Although metadata elements exist with similar names, such as the audience element, processors are not required to perform conditional processing using metadata elements.