Question about forward key references (issue 12007)

["Ogden, Jeff" <jogden@ptc.com>]

The ad hoc group that is working on the Indriect reference/keyref proposal (issue 12007) needs some feedback from the larger DITA TC.

 

The issue is how important is it to be able to reference a key before it is defined? Or stated another way, how important is it to allow forward references?

 

Consider the following simple example where a topic that uses a key reference is referenced from two different maps:

 

<topic  id=”topic1”>

   . . .

   <xref  keyref=”mykey”/>

   . . .

</topic>

 

<map id=”one”>

   <keydef  keys=”mykey”  href="”www.google.com”/>

  <topicref  href="”topic1.dita”/>

</map>

 

<map id=”two”>

   <topicref  href="”topic1.dita”/>

   <keydef  keys=”mykey”  href="”www.google.com”/>

</map>

 

Here <keydef> is a specialization of topicref that just defines a key name and an associated reference. It allows a map author to supply or override a reference in a topic (or in a map) when the topic (or map) uses key references.

 

The question we need feedback on is if it is important that the map two case work and produce the same result as the map one case, or is it OK if in the map two case that the key reference in topic1 is undefined and is treated as an error.  The question probably isn’t very interesting for such small and trivial examples, but for larger and more complex examples there are pros and cons to allowing or not allowing both cases.  Our ad hoc group would very much like to learn of use cases that require or would benefit from allowing forward references.

 

Please send use cases and other comments to the DITA TC list or to me (jogden@ptc.com) before the end of the day this Thursday, 6 December.

 

If anyone wants to look at a draft of the entire proposal for issue 12007, it is posted on the OASIS DITA TC site.  See: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/download.php/26282/IssueNumber1207v6.html

 

Thanks!

 

   -Jeff