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.

Example

For a command reference topic for experienced programmers, the following might be an appropriate indication of that audience:

<audience type="programmer" job="programming" experiencelevel="expert"/>

Contains

Doctype	Content model
ditabase, topic, task, reference, concept, glossary, map, bookmap	no content

Contained by

Doctype	Parents
ditabase, topic, task, concept, reference	metadata
bookmap	topicmeta, bookmeta
map	topicmeta

Inheritance:

- topic/audience

Attributes

Name	Description	Data Type	Default Value	Required?
type	Indicates the kind of person for whom the content of the topic is intended. Note that this differs from the type attribute on many other DITA elements. Allowable values are: user A user of the product purchaser A product purchaser administrator A product administrator programmer A programmer executive An executive services Someone who provides services related to the product other Use the value specified by the othertype attribute -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.	(user \| purchaser \| administrator \| programmer \| executive \| services \| other \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
othertype	Indicates an alternate audience type, when the type is not available in the type attribute value list. This value is used as the user-provided audience when the type attribute value is set to "other."	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
job	Indicates the high-level task the audience for the topic is trying to accomplish. Different audiences may read the same topic in terms of different high-level tasks; for example, an administrator may read the topic while administering, while a programmer may read the same topic while customizing. Allowable values are: installing, customizing, administering, programming, using, maintaining, troubleshooting, evaluating, planning, migrating, other, -dita-use-conref-target.	installing \| customizing \| administering \| programming \| using \| maintaining \| troubleshooting \| evaluating \| planning \| migrating \| other \| -dita-use-conref-target	#IMPLIED	No
otherjob	If the job attribute value is "other" the value of this attribute is used to identify a kind of job other than the default ones provided by the job attribute.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
experiencelevel	Indicates the level of experience the audience is assumed to possess. Different audiences may have different experience levels with respect to the same topic; for example, a topic may require general knowledge from a programmer, but expert knowledge from a user. Allowable values are: novice A first time user. general The most common user. expert An experienced user. -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.	(novice \| general \| expert \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
name	Used to associate the audience element with values used in the audience attribute	CDATA	#REQUIRED	Yes
%univ-atts; (%select-atts;, %id-atts;, %localization-atts;)	A set of related attributes, described at %univ-atts;	parameter entity	PE not applicable	Not applicable
%global-atts; (xtrf, xtrc)	A set of related attributes, described at %global-atts;	parameter entity	PE not applicable	Not applicable
class	Common attribute described in Other common DITA attributes.