DITA 1.3: Branch filtering / branch flagging

["Robert D Anderson" <robander@us.ibm.com>]

One more on branch filters...

A couple of suggested edits to branch filtering topics explicitly group flagging in with the described filtering capability. For example, on the following page, Eliot's revision adds "or flag" to a description of branch filtering: "...the <ditavalref> element can be used to reference a DITAVAL document in order to filter or flag only a subset of content ..."
http://ditaweb.com/oasis-dita/#/00074601-DA$00073796-DB$Branch%20filtering

Previously none of the branch filter topics mentioned flagging - only filtering. I can say that filtering was the only use case I imagined or presented to the TC when working on the original language. It's clear from my quick sampling of prior reviewers that some assumed flagging was included, while others assumed it was excluded.

The current language does not address it either way, so making this explicit in any manner needs TC approval. A few (maybe not exhaustive) options:

• Require that <ditavalref> add branch level support for flagging as well as filtering. This would be done by incorporating wording tweaks like the one above, and we might want to add a new example with flagging.
• Allow (but do not require) flagging. Essentially, state that processors MAY support flaging for conditions specified with <ditavalref>, but leave filtering as the primary purpose.
• State that branch filtering is explicitly for filtering, and is not intended to add support for branch level flagging.

Thanks,

Robert D Anderson
IBM Authoring Tools Development
Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit (http://www.dita-ot.org/)