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Subject: RE: [dita] processor requirments w.r.t. metadata elements


For e.g. <audience> the lang spec says
 
The audience element may be used to provide a more detailed definition of values used throughout the map or topic on the audience attribute.
 
If someone goes to the trouble of providing e.g. audience type, job, experience level, etc. they would have a reasonable expectation of those distinctions having an effect and not just being provided as human-readable information for the guidance of authors (and any other readers who access the XML source files for content).
 
It seems to me that processors are not required to act on metadata elements but that adopters who put information in those elements expect them to, and therefore may have to look to making their own enhancements to out of the box processing.
 
    /Bruce


From: Ogden, Jeff [mailto:jogden@ptc.com]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 9:37 PM
To: Su-Laine Yeo; seth.park@freescale.com; dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [dita] processor requirments w.r.t. metadata elements

When metadata elements and attributes may, should, or must be used has never been completely clear to me based on what is said in the DITA 1.0 and 1.1 specifications, but these statements from the DITA 1.1 Architecture Spec. have always left me with the impression that the elements and attributes were equivalent and so should be able to be used interchangeably:

 

From the “Conditional Processing” section in Chapter 4 on “DITA processing”:

 

For a topic or topicref, the audience, platform, and product metadata can be expressed with attributes on

the topic or topicref element or with elements within the topic prolog or topicmeta element. While the

metadata elements are more expressive, the meaning of the values is the same, and can be used in

coordination: for example, the prolog elements can fully define the audiences for a topic, and then

metadata attributes can be used within the content to identify parts that apply to only some of those

audiences.

 

The values from the enumerated attributes of the audience metadata element have the same

meaning when used in the audience attribute of a content element. For instance, the user value

has the same meaning whether appearing in the type attribute of the audience element for a topic

or in the audience attribute of a content element. The principle applies to the type, job, and

experience level attributes of the audience element.

 

This attribute [platform] is equivalent to the platform element for the topic metadata.

 

This attribute [product] is equivalent to the prodinfo element for the topic metadata.

 

This attribute [otherprops] is equivalent to the othermeta element for the topic metadata.

 

From the section on "Topic properties in topics and maps" in Chapter 3 on “DITA markup”:

 

The properties of a topic (including metadata attributes and metadata elements) can be specified in the

topic itself or in references to the topic within maps.

 

Within a topic, properties can be expressed using metadata attributes on the topic element or using

publication, management, or metadata elements in the topic prolog.

 

Now having said this, Arbortext Editor doesn’t allow filtering based on metadata elements.  But I’ve always thought that we should.

 

   -Jeff

 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Su-Laine Yeo [mailto:su-laine.yeo@justsystems.com]

> Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:23 PM

> To: seth.park@freescale.com; dita@lists.oasis-open.org

> Subject: RE: [dita] processor requirments w.r.t. metadata elements

>

> The draft DITA 1.2 spec currently says: "Although metatdata elements

> exist with similar names, such as the <audience> element, processors

> are not required to perform conditional processing using metadata

> elements." This is new text (that I wrote) in an attempt to clarify the

> situation for DITA users who often ask things like, "What is the

> difference between the <audience> element and the @audience attribute?"

>

> The DITA 1.1 spec does not say anything about whether processors should

> apply conditional processing rules to metadata elements. In its

> discussion of conditional processing it repeatedly refers to attributes,

> and only attributes. Given this background, I think the new text just

> says explicitly what the DITA 1.1 spec implies by omission. The DITA OT

> has never done conditional processing using metadata elements.

>

> Having said that, even the proposed clarification may not give enough

> guidance. Consider the following questions:

> 1) If a processor only applies conditional processing on attributes and

> *never* applies them to metadata elements, is that a bug?

> 2) If a processor *always* applies conditional processing to both

> attributes and metadata elements, is that a bug?

>

> I would say no to the first, and yes to the second.

>

> Regards,

> Su-Laine

>

> Su-Laine Yeo

> Solutions Consultant

> JustSystems Canada, Inc.

> Office: 778-327-6356

> syeo@justsystems.com

> www.justsystems.com

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: seth.park@freescale.com [mailto:seth.park@freescale.com]

> Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 4:27 PM

> To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org

> Subject: [dita] processor requirments w.r.t. metadata elements

>

> Is the statement "processors are not required to perform conditional

> processing using metadata elements" true?

>

> -author undisclosed

 



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