Fw: [dita] Proposal for <title> element in <topicref>

[Michael Priestley <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>]

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
Lead IBM DITA Architect 
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
----- Forwarded by Michael
Priestley/Toronto/IBM on 03/27/2012 11:53 AM -----

From:      
 Eliot Kimber <ekimber@rsicms.com>
To:      
 Rob Hanna <rob.hanna@Innovatia.net>,
Michael Priestley/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA, dita <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>,

Date:      
 03/27/2012 10:16 AM
Subject:    
   Re: [dita] Proposal
for <title> element in <topicref>

---

Per the brief discussion we had on the phone last
week, when I asked a
similar question, the response was that the behavior would be as for
navtitle and @locktitle, namely that the topicref's <title> would
replace
the topic's title IFF @locktitle is yes, otherwise it would be ignored.

I would expect the <title> to contribute to navigation only if @locktitle
is
yes and there is no explicit navtitle on the topicref or on the topic.

That is, even with @locktitle, a topic's explicit navtitle still takes
precedence over a topicref's <title> when the topicref has no separate
navtitle.

That is, I think, consistent with the general principle that navtitle
overrides title for navigation and the presumption that if the topic author
put in a navtitle they did so for a good reason.

Cheers,

E.

On 3/27/12 8:59 AM, "Rob Hanna" <rob.hanna@Innovatia.net>
wrote:

> How do you envision the <title> element rendered in the output?
Will it be
> used solely for navigation or will it replace the topic title as well?
If it
> is solely for navigation, should we create a navtitle element instead?
> 
>  
> 
> Rob Hanna, CIP
> Senior Information Architect, Innovatia Inc.
> STC Associate Fellow
> Certified Information Professional - AIIM
> Tel: +1 (506) 674-5660 | Fax: +1 (289) 997-3263 | Cell: +1 (416) 723-4183
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> From: dita@lists.oasis-open.org [dita@lists.oasis-open.org] on behalf
of
> Michael Priestley [mpriestl@ca.ibm.com]
> Sent: March 27, 2012 9:38 AM
> To: dita
> Subject: [dita] Proposal for <title> element in <topicref>
> 
> Problem: 
> <topicref> has a number of ways to express title information,
but currently
> all are bound to specific output expressions:
>         @navtitle is bound to navigation output;
in addition it is an
> attribute, which makes it hard to process through translation workflows
that
> need to put additional attributes on translatable content elements
>         navtitle, linktext, searchtitle are elements,
but all bound to
> specific outputs; in addition, they are all stored inside <topicmeta>,
making
> them less accessible to authors, and more parallel to <topic>'s
title
> alternatives, which are inside the prolog
> 
> Proposal: 
> Add a <title> element as the first, optional child of <topicref>
to be
> parallel to <topic>; allowing easy access to a title element
without adding a
> <topicmeta> container, and allowing a generic title to be stored
without
> associating it with a particular output deliverable.
> 
> Potential second proposal:
> It might also be useful to add a repeatable <titlealt> element
inside both
> map's topicmeta and topic's <titlealts> element; this would
provide the basis
> for creating output-specific alternate titles. Unfortunately we couldn't
> easily change the existing alternate titles to be specializations
of this base
> element, but it could be the basis for any new specializations. For
example
> someone could specialize to create a <print-title>, <mobile-title>,
> <audible-title>, etc. - whatever they find they need.
> 
> Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
> Lead IBM DITA Architect
> mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
> http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
<http://dita.xml.org/blog/25>

-- 
Eliot Kimber
Senior Solutions Architect, RSI Content Solutions
"Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
Main: 512.554.9368
www.rsicms.com
www.rsuitecms.com