Re: [dita] History Question: Why does <data> not include <cite>?

[Erik Hennum <ehennum@us.ibm.com>]

Hi, Eliot:

I believe the thought was that the <data> element should provide extensibility for properties attached to content in the flow. The concern about adding content elements was the risk of abuse -- using data as a method of adding content to the flow rather than properties of the content in the flow.

With that in mind, <data> itself can refer to resources relevant to the topic or part of the body flow within the topic. The <ph> element can provide a description about the related resource. But, it seems a little odd to embed a link in a description when the resource is identified by the <data> element.


With that as background, maybe you could provide an example that makes the use case clear?


Erik Hennum
ehennum@us.ibm.com


ekimber ---09/02/2009 10:06:39 AM---I may have asked this question before, but I'm wondering what the historical reason is for <data> no

From:	ekimber <ekimber@reallysi.com>
To:	dita <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Date:	09/02/2009 10:06 AM
Subject:	[dita] History Question: Why does <data> not include <cite>?

---

I may have asked this question before, but I'm wondering what the historical
reason is for <data> not allowing <cite> and <xref>)?

In work I'm doing now I'm finding it annoying to not be able to use <cite>
in metadata without wrapping it in <ph>, where my requirement is to capture
metadata that includes mentions of other publications.

For example, I am modeling articles where the article has a "disclaimer"
paragraph that makes reference to the source of the article (e.g., a
citation of another publication).

This information is clearly metadata and, in the primary print presentation,
is presented after the article content (including any nested topics).

The workaround is to use <ph> within <data> to hold <cite> but that seems
like a silly requirement: why not just allow it directly since it can't be
kept out entirely?

Hmph.

I suspect there was some concern about having links in metadata, but I
wanted to make sure there wasn't some more compelling reason for the current
design. If there's not a more compelling reason I will likely push for
allowing <cite> and <xref> in <data> in DITA 1.3.

Thanks,

Eliot
----
Eliot Kimber | Senior Solutions Architect | Really Strategies, Inc.
email:  ekimber@reallysi.com <mailto:ekimber@reallysi.com>
office: 610.631.6770 | cell: 512.554.9368
2570 Boulevard of the Generals | Suite 213 | Audubon, PA 19403
www.reallysi.com <http://www.reallysi.com>  | http://blog.reallysi.com
<http://blog.reallysi.com> | www.rsuitecms.com <http://www.rsuitecms.com> 


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