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Subject: Specialization by example - tlotermtopic - basic structure

From: Michael Priestley <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>
To: "dita-lightweight-dita@lists.oasis-open.org" <dita-lightweight-dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2015 14:51:48 -0400

Taking Don's example, and ignoring the metadata portions for now - just the basic section structures.

I wanted to capture:
- whether a content model is a sequence or a choice
with a new attribute - collection-type - "borrowed" from map)
if there is no collection-type, then it inherits the content model from its ancestor (including what elements are allowed - no need to define them all every time)
- which elements are required vs optional
(defaults to required in a sequence, default to optional in a choice)
using the importance attribute with restricted values
- when a title/label or other content is intended to be generated vs author-edited vs template-only (eg prompt text) or documentation
with a new attribute contentrole with restricted values (editable, prompt, generate, doc)

Still to capture:
- metadata attribute specialization
- global/domain specializations of ph element, data element, props attribute
- constraints definition, including use of predefined constraints, or new constraints such as a global element removal, addition, or substitition
- show how conref could be used to assemble topic types and reuse domains from existing elements in other specification topics

<topic id="termdef_term" outputclass="termdeftopic"
<title outputclass="tloterm">Structured Content</title>
<body outputclass="tlotermbody" collection-type="sequence">
<section outputclass="tlowhat">
<title contentrole="generate">What is it?</title>
<p>...</p></section>
<section outputclass="tlowhy">
<title contentrole="generate">Why is it important?</title>
<p>...</p></section>
<section outputclass="tloessay">
<title contentrole="generate">Why does a technical writer need to know this?</title>
<p>...</p></section>
<section outputclass="tlosummary" collection-type="sequence">
<title contentrole="generate">Summary:</title>
<p>...</p></section>
</body>
</topic>

In this example, all the sections have titles to be generated. All of them have content models that are inherited from <section>, so allow more than <p>, except for <tlosummary> that requires a single <p> element (I could also have expressed this by saying it was collection-type="choice" and making the <p> importance="required" explicitly).

Some things we could validate for:
- if importance is set with a parent that doesn't have collection-type set
- if outputclass is set with a parent that doesn't have outputclass set (unless it's also listed wherever/however we define domain specializations)

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
Enterprise Content Technology Strategist
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/michael-priestley