Prolog elements

The prolog elements represent the metadata associated with a document. Most of the metadata in a topic prolog can also be authored in a DITA map, in the map's <topicmeta> element.

1. prolog
   The <prolog> element contains information about the topic as an whole (for example, author information or subject category) that is either entered by the author or machine-maintained. Much of the metadata inside the <prolog> will not be displayed with the topic on output, but may be used by processes that generate search indexes or customize navigation.
2. audience
   The <audience> metadata element indicates, through the value of its type attribute, the intended audience for a topic. Since a topic can have multiple audiences, you can include multiple audience elements. For each audience you specify, you can identify the high-level task (job) they are trying to accomplish and the level of experience (experiencelevel) expected. The audience element may be used to provide a more detailed definition of values used throughout the map or topic on the audience attribute.
3. author
   The <author> metadata element contains the name of the topic's author.
4. brand
   The <brand> element indicates the manufacturer or brand associated with the product described by the parent <prodinfo> element.
5. category
   The <category> element can represent any category by which a topic might be classified for retrieval or navigation; for example, the categories could be used to group topics in a generated navigation bar. Topics can belong to multiple categories.
6. component
   The <component> element describes the component of the product that this topic is concerned with. For example, a product might be made up of many components, each of which is installable separately. Components might also be shared by several products so that the same component is available for installation with many products. An implementation may (but need not) use this identification to check cross-component dependencies when some components are installed, but not others. An implementation may also (but need not) use the identification make sure that topics are hidden, removed, or flagged in some way when the component they describe isn't installed.
7. copyright
   The <copyright> element is used for a single copyright entry. It includes the copyright years and the copyright holder. Multiple <copyright> statements are allowed.
8. copyrholder
   The copyright holder (<copyrholder>) element names the entity that holds legal rights to the material contained in the topic.
9. copyryear
   The <copyryear> element contains the copyright year as specified by the year attribute.
10. created
    The <created> element specifies the document creation date using the date attribute.
11. critdates
    The <critdates> element contains the critical dates in a document life cycle, such as the creation date and multiple revision dates.
12. featnum
    The <featnum> element contains the feature number of a product in the metadata.
13. keywords
    The <keywords> element contains a list of key words (using <indexterm> or <keyword> markup) that can be used by a search engine.
14. metadata
    The <metadata> section of the prolog contains information about a topic such as audience and product information. Metadata can be used by computational processes to select particular topics or to prepare search indexes or to customize navigation. Elements inside of <metadata> provide information about the content and subject of a topic; prolog elements outside of <metadata> provide lifecycle information for the content unit (such as the author or copyright), which are unrelated to the subject.
15. othermeta
    The <othermeta> element can be used to identify properties not otherwise included in <metadata> and assign name/content values to those properties. The name attribute identifies the property and the content attribute specifies the property's value. The values in this attribute are output as HTML metadata elements, and have no defined meaning for other possible outputs such as PDF.
16. permissions
    The <permissions> prolog element can indicate any preferred controls for access to a topic. Topics can be filtered based on the permissions element. This capability depends on your output formatting process.
17. platform
    The <platform> metadata element contains a description of the operating system and/or hardware related to the product being described by the <prodinfo> element. The platform element may be used to provide a more detailed definition of values used throughout the map or topic on the platform attribute.
18. prodinfo
    The <prodinfo> metadata element in the prolog contains information about the product or products that are the subject matter of the current topic. The prodinfo element may be used to provide a more detailed definition of values used throughout the map or topic on the product attribute.
19. prodname
    The <prodname> metadata element contains the name of the product that is supported by the information in this topic.
20. prognum
    The <prognum> metadata element identifies the program number of the associated program product. This is typically an order number or a product tracking code that could be replaced by an order number when a product completes development.
21. publisher
    The <publisher> metadata element contains the name of the person, company, or organization responsible for making the content or subject of the topic available.
22. resourceid
    The <resourceid> element provides an identifier for applications that require them in a particular format, when the normal id attribute of the topic can't be used. Each resourceid entry should be unique. It is one of the metadata elements that can be included within the prolog of a topic, along with document tracking and product information, etc. The element has no content, but takes an id attribute and an appname attribute.
23. revised
    The <revised> element in the prolog is used to maintain tracking dates that are important in a topic development cycle, such as the last modification date, the original availability date, and the expiration date.
24. series
    The <series> metadata element contains information about the product series that the topic supports.
25. source
    The <source> element contains a reference to a resource from which the present topic is derived, either completely or in part. The element can contain a description of the resource; the href reference can be a string or a URL that points to it.
26. vrmlist
    The <vrmlist> element contains a set of <vrm> elements for logging the version, release, and modification information for multiple products or versions of products to which the topic applies.
27. vrm
    The vrm empty element contains information about a single product's version, modification, and release, to which the current topic applies.

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OASIS DITA Language Specification v1.1 -- Committee Draft 13 February 2007
Copyright © OASIS Open 2005, 2007. All Rights Reserved.