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Subject: RE: [dita] references to ditabases without an explicit topicid
As nobody else seems inclined to respond... My personal expectation would be that if I reference a file in the map, I expect that the whole file will show up in the XHTML / PDF / etc unless I say otherwise. I think it would be a shock to reference a DITA combination file, and find only the first topic in my output. Anybody else want to voice an expectation? Robert D Anderson IBM Authoring Tools Development Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit (507) 253-8787, T/L 553-8787 "Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com> wrote on 07/13/2006 05:12:54 PM: > Robert, > > Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I'm not sure > it gives me a complete answer to my question. > > What should a topicref with an href to a file with no > specific topicID specified do when the file is a ditabase > document that contains more than one unnested topic? > > Your answer makes it clear what should happen as far as > linking goes. But I'm still unclear on what should happen > about including the topics in, say, a PDF. > > paul > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Robert D Anderson [mailto:robander@us.ibm.com] > > Sent: Thursday, 2006 July 13 14:58 > > To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org > > Subject: Re: [dita] references to ditabases without an > > explicit topicid > > > > Hi Paul - maybe somebody else can give a more authoritative > > answer, but from my experience... > > > > The toolkit does not break files up when creating XHTML. So, if you > > reference "file.dita", or "file.dita#first-topic", or > > "file.dita#last-topic", the full file will generate XHTML. > > Once the spec > > fully explains how to use the chunk attribute, I expect that > > the toolkit > > will add support for that attribute as a way to break apart > > topics when > > generating XHTML. > > > > The main impact of that "file name equals first topic" > > assumption, at least > > today, comes about when linking. If you reference > > "file.dita", then any > > generated links are added after the body of the first topic. > > If there are > > sub-topics, they appear below those links. Any generated > > links to this file > > will pull the title from the first topic in the file. This is > > true whether > > it's a <dita> mixed file, or of a single topic type. So, this > > demonstrates > > the behavior that links to/from "file.dita" are treated as > > links to/from > > the first topic. > > > > If you give a topic ID in your reference, then links will be > > placed after > > the body of that topic, regardless of what type of file it is > > or what else > > is included. Generated links to this file will get the title from the > > specific topic. > > > > In terms of conref - my understanding is that conref="file.dita" is > > supposed to go to the first topic in the file. In a <dita> > > mixed file, this > > means the first child of <dita>. In a single-type file, this > > will bring in > > that main topic and anything nested inside it. This > > clarification was made > > after we wrote the conref code, and I haven't thought about > > it in a long > > time, so I can't say for sure if the toolkit code was updated > > to work this > > way. If not, we should open a bug report on it. > > > > Does that help? > > > > Robert D Anderson > > IBM Authoring Tools Development > > Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit > > (507) 253-8787, T/L 553-8787 > > > > "Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com> wrote on 07/12/2006 02:29:41 PM: > > > > > Our developers are trying to understand what it means > > > to have a reference to a ditabase from a topicref in > > > a map where the href value does not include a fragment > > > identifier (e.g., "path" rather than "path#topicid"). > > > Specifically, is just the first topic picked up or > > > all the topics? > > > > > > The DITA 1.0 Architectural Spec doesn't seem to > > > address this. > > > > > > In the DITA 1.0 Language Specification, there are > > > a few references that seem to address this issue: > > > > > > In the Language Spec. in the descriptions for the > > > conref attribute on topic, concept, reference, and > > > task elements it says in part: > > > > > > During output processing, a lookup process will pull the > > > contents of the first topic into the calling topic markup > > > that has the conref attribute. > > > > > > And a bit later in the same description it says: > > > > > > Target elsewhere in the same file: > > > conref="#topicid" > > > > > > First topic in a different file: > > > conref="filename.xml" > > > > > > Specific topic in different file: > > > conref="filename.xml#topicid" > > > > > > And in the href description for the link element in a > > > topic, it says: > > > > > > Target elsewhere in the same file: > > > conref="#topicid" > > > > > > First topic in a different file: > > > conref="filename.dita" > > > > > > Specific topic in different file: > > > conref="filename.dita#topicid" > > > > > > There is nothing specific about this one way or another in the > > > other href descriptions for the elements topicref and xref. > > > > > > Using the DITA Open Toolkit, for html output, only one link > > > appears in the index.html file, but all of the topics from > > > the ditabase were included in the other .html file. > > > > > > Can someone confirm what is the expectation when one encounters > > > an href to a ditabase without a fragment identifier on a topicref. > > > Should just the first topic from the ditabase be included or > > > should all of the topics from the ditabase be included? > > > > > > paul > >
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