Fwd: [dita-comment] Classification domain and classification map: DITA T

Metadata is extremely important. We have not used the classification domain so far. To me the use-case is not really clear.

In a global, Git-based no-CMS environment fed by more than 20 technical writers it is difficult to identify topics for reuse. Editors like <oXygen> or FrameMaker donât have (AFAIK) a user-friendly faceted topic search function, at least not for technical writers who donât know what XPath or XQuery is. The classification maps can be a good overview of the topics that you have in the repository. In a perfect world these maps should be automatically generated by reading metadata from the topics. Modelling them by hand is not smart. If we understand them as faceted views on the content, they donât need to be DITA at all. HTML5 would maybe make more sense if the use case is to offer a convenient way to browse through the repository.

If the use case is to flavor topics with metadata for publication I would recommend to remove the domain entirely, because injecting metadata on container map or publication map level is IMHO no good practice at all and should be avoided. The metadata should be stored always on topic level. If this is really needed, that would be an edge case which should not blow up the core spec.

Stefan Eike
Head of Technical Documentation

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From: Shane Taylor <shane@taylortext.com>
Sent: Sonntag, 16. Januar 2022 17:54
To: Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>
Cc: DITA Users <dita-users@groups.io>; dita-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [dita-comment] Classification domain and classification map: DITA TC is considering removing this from DITA 2.0

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FWIW, my team is currently building an implementation of the classification domain to support adding classification metadata to built HTML topics. I agree that the current specification is imperfect, but I think there's enormous value is systematized metadata both for filtering and retrieval.

The current lack of support might be more reflective of the difficulty of this challenge and the lack of a unified standard for outputting classification metadata than the lack of value. I would hypothesize that were the DITA-OT to support a basic implementationâand the current proposals that reduce complexity of the classification domain would help with thisâthat others might be able to build support for specific implementations.

If there's interest, we might be able to contribute a baseline of support back to the DITA-OT.

Ideas to consider for spec changes/simplification:

move topicsubject into topicmeta
remove subjectref; allowing multiple topicsubject elements should be sufficient

Shane Taylor

On Tue, Jan 4, 2022 at 1:39 PM Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com> wrote:

The DITA TC is considering removing the classification domain and the classification map from DITA 2.0. The reasons why we are considering this:

The classification domain and the classification are little-used.

They are not supported by any out-of-the box processor or rendering engine.

The elements in the domain are difficult for authors to use.

The elements in the domain are poorly specified, and the spec contains no processing expectations for how applications could build support for the domain

If we remove it, we will make the classification domain available in our OASIS Open GitHub repository so that folks who are currently using it can integrate it into a custom document-type shell.

We also are considering replacing the domain with a single attribute that authors could specify on a <topicref> element to indicate that certain subjects apply to a topic and its children.

The DITA TC welcomes feedback. If you are using the classification domain/classification map, let us know.

--
Best,
Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee

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