map

The <map> element is used to define a map which describes the relationships among a set of resources, such as DITA topics. Maps consist of references to topics and other resources organized into hierarchies, groups, and tables. Maps provide a way to express these relationships in a single common format that can be used for different outputs.

The containing element for a map is the <map> element, which can take title and id attributes. Within the map, use the <topicref> element to add and organize references to the topics, and the <topicgroup> and <reltable> elements to provide non-hierarchical relationships. You can use the <map> element to set default attribute values for all <topicref> elements in the map.

While the title attribute on a map is optional, the title attribute is required if the map is being used to provide Eclipse help navigation files. The title attribute of the map becomes the <toc> label attribute in Eclipse output, which is used when the navigation file is set as primary (appearing at the top level of the navigation rather than consumed by other navigation files).

Contains

( (topicmeta) (optional) then (navref or anchor or topicref or (topichead or topicgroup) or reltable) (any number) )

Contained by

Inheritance

map/map

Attributes

Name	Description	Data Type	Default Value	Required?
title	An identifying title for the map. Used in Eclipse output as the <toc> label. May be used or ignored by other processes.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
id	This attribute may be used for debugging purposes, for example to identify which map a link was generated from.	ID	#IMPLIED	No
anchorref	Identifies a location within another map file where this map will be anchored (added at runtime, using Eclipse navigation integration). For example, `anchorref="map1.ditamap/a1"` causes this map to be pulled into the location of the anchor point a1 in the other map1.ditamap.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
%topicref-atts; (collection-type, type, scope, locktitle, format, linking, toc, print, search, chunk)	A set of related attributes. See %topicref-atts;.	parameter entity	PE not applicable	Not applicable
%select-atts; (platform, product, audience, otherprops, importance, rev, status)	A set of related attributes, described at %select-atts;	parameter entity	PE not applicable	Not applicable
DITAArchVersion	Designates the version of the architecture that is in use.	CDATA	"1.0" (version dependent; will increase)	Yes
%global-atts; (xtrf, xtrc)	A set of related attributes, described at %global-atts;	parameter entity	PE not applicable	Not applicable
class	A common attribute described in Other common DITA attributes

Example

In this example, there are six topicrefs. They are nested and have a hierarchical relationship. The file bats.dita is the parent topic and the other topics are its children. The hierarchy could be used to generate a PDF, a navigation pane in an information center, a summary of the topics, or related links between the parent topic and its children.

<map title="Bats" id="mybats"> Bats
 <topicref href="bats.dita" type="topic"
  <topicref href="batcaring.dita" type="task"></topicref>
  <topicref href="batfeeding.dita" type="task"></topicref>
  <topicref href="batsonar.dita" type="concept"></topicref>
  <topicref href="batguano.dita" type="reference"></topicref>
  <topicref href="bathistory.dita" type="reference"></topicref>
 </topicref>
</map>