Open review comments regarding @rev attribute

["Kristen Eberlein" <keberlein@sdl.com>]

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00035.html (Su-Laine Yeo)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00036.html (Kris Eberlein)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00037.html (Michael Priestley)
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00039.html (Su-Laine Yeo)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00041.html (Michael Priestley)

 

Snippet from Su-Laine’s original e-mail:

 “The draft DITA 1.2 spec deepens my confusion. It says, “DITA defines five attributes that are specifically intended to enable filtering or flagging of individual elements. Those attributes are @audience, @platform, @product, @otherprops, and @props.” But then a few paragraphs later under a section titled “Conditional processing attributes” it lists six attributes including @rev.

So is @rev a conditional processing attribute or not?”

Outcome of list and TC discussion

The @rev attribute is a conditional processing attribute; conditional processing attributes are attributes used for filtering and flagging. The @rev attribute can be used for flagging only.

 

Analysis of DITA 1.2 spec draft

The @rev attribute is addressed in (at least) the following topics in the draft:

1.     2.1.2.3.2.1 Conditional processing attributes: http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cd03/spec/archSpec/conditional-processing-attributes.html#conditional-processing-attributes

2.     2.1.3.6 Conditional processing (profiling): http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cd03/spec/archSpec/condproc.html#condproc

3.     3.4.1.5 select-atts attribute group: http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cd03/spec/common/select-atts.html#select-atts

The first topic addresses the issue correctly (relevant text highlighted):

“Metadata attributes typically are used for the following purposes:

• Filtering content based on the attribute values, for example, to suppress or publish profiled content
• Flagging content based on the attribute values, for example, to highlight specific content on output
• Performing custom processing, for example, to extract business-critical data and and store in it a database

Typically @audience, @platform, @product, @otherprops, @props, and specializations of the @props attributes are used for filtering; the same attributes plus the @rev attribute are used for flagging. The @status and @importance attributes, as well as custom attributes specialized from @base, are used for application-specific behavior, such as identifying metadata to aid in search and retrieval.”

Work completed

1.     Revised the “Conditional processing (profiling)” topic to match “Conditional processing attributes”

2.     Add the following relationship table links

a.     “Conditional processing (profiling)” <---->“Conditional processing attributes”

b.    “Conditional processing (profiling)” & “Conditional processing attributes” <----> “select-atts attribute group” & “DITAVAL elements”

3.     Revised “select-atts attribute group” to clarify that @rev attribute cannot be used for filtering or version control.

Best regards,

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured Content Technologies Division l (t) + 1 (919) 682-2290 l keberlein@sdl.com

 

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail