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DITA Version 1.1

Architectural Specification

OASIS Standard

1 August 2007

This Version:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/OS/archspec/archspec.html

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/OS/archspec/archspec.pdf

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/OS/archspec/archspec.zip (DITA source; see archspec.ditamap)

Previous Version:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/CS01/archspec/archspec.html

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/CS01/archspec/archspec.pdf

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/CS01/archspec/archspec.zip (DITA source; see archspec.ditamap)

Latest Version:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/archspec/archspec.html

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/archspec/archspec.pdf

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/archspec/archspec.zip (DITA source; see archspec.ditamap)

Technical Committee:

OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC

Chair(s):

Don Day

Editor(s):

Michael Priestley and JoAnn Hackos

Related Work:

This specification replaces or supercedes:

OASIS DITA Version 1.0 Architectural Specification

This specification is related to:

OASIS DITA Version 1.1 Language Specification (http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/OS/langspec/ditaref-type.html)

OASIS DITA Version 1.1 DTDs (http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/OS/dtd/ditadtd.zip)

OASIS DITA Version 1.1 Schemas (http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/OS/schema/ditaschema.zip)

Declared XML Namespace(s):

[none]

Abstract:

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) 1.1 specification defines both a) a set of document types for authoring and organizing topic-oriented information; and b) a set of mechanisms for combining and extending document types using a process called specialization.

Status:

This document was last revised or approved by the OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC on the above date. The level of approval is also listed above. Check the "Latest Version" or "Latest Approved Version" location noted above for possible later revisions of this document.

Technical Committee members should send comments on this specification to the Technical Committee’s email list. Others should send comments to the Technical Committee by using the “Send A Comment” button on the Technical Committee’s web page at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita.

For information on whether any patents have been disclosed that may be essential to implementing this specification, and any offers of patent licensing terms, please refer to the Intellectual Property Rights section of the Technical Committee web page (http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita/ipr.php.

The non-normative errata page for this specification is located at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita.

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Table of Contents

1.0 About the DITA 1.1 Specification

2.0 An introduction to DITA

    2.1 Definitions and background concepts

        2.1.1 Basic concepts

        2.1.2 Terminology

    2.2 Naming conventions and file extensions

    2.3 DTD organization

    2.4 XML Schema organization

3.0 DITA markup

    3.1 DITA topics

        3.1.1 What are topics?

        3.1.2 Why topics?

        3.1.3 Information typing

        3.1.4 Transitional text

        3.1.5 Generic topics

            3.1.5.1 Topic structure

            3.1.5.2 Topic content

            3.1.5.3 Topic modules

        3.1.6 Concepts

        3.1.7 Tasks

        3.1.8 Reference

        3.1.9 Glossary

        3.1.10 Topic domains

    3.2 DITA maps

        3.2.1 What are maps?

        3.2.2 Why DITA maps?

        3.2.3 Common DITA map attributes and metadata

        3.2.4 DITA map structure

        3.2.5 DITA map modules

        3.2.6 Inheritance of attributes and metadata in maps

        3.2.7 Bookmap

        3.2.8 Map domains

            3.2.8.1 The xNAL domain

    3.3 Metadata elements and common attributes

        3.3.1 Common metadata elements

            3.3.1.1 Publication metadata elements

            3.3.1.2 Management metadata elements

            3.3.1.3 Metadata qualification elements

        3.3.2 Common attributes

            3.3.2.1 Identifier and content referencing attributes

            3.3.2.2 Metadata attributes

            3.3.2.3 Miscellaneous Attributes

            3.3.2.4 Architectural attributes

        3.3.3 Topic properties in topics and maps

            3.3.3.1 Metadata inheritance between maps and topics

4.0 DITA processing

    4.1 IDs and references

    4.2 Navigation behaviors

    4.3 Content inclusion (conref)

    4.4 Conditional processing (profiling)

    4.5 Chunking

    4.6 Translation

        4.6.1 The xml:lang attribute

        4.6.2 The dir attribute

        4.6.3 All elements with translation properties

5.0 DITA specialization

    5.1 What is specialization?

    5.2 Why specialization?

    5.3 Structural versus domain specialization

    5.4 Specializing foreign or unknown content

    5.5 Data extensibility

    5.6 Limits of specialization

    5.7 Specialization in content

        5.7.1 Why specialization in content?

        5.7.2 Specialization of attributes

        5.7.3 The class attribute

        5.7.4 Class attribute syntax

        5.7.5 The domains attribute

        5.7.6 Specialization validity

        5.7.7 Generalization

            5.7.7.1 Attribute generalization

            5.7.7.2 Foreign generalization

    5.8 Specialization in design

        5.8.1 Why specialization in design?

        5.8.2 Modularization and integration of design

        5.8.3 Integration

        5.8.4 Modularization in DTDs

        5.8.5 Modularization in schemas

    5.9 Specialization in processing

        5.9.1 Using the class attribute

        5.9.2 Processing specialized attributes

        5.9.3 Processing foreign content

        5.9.4 Modularization and integration of processing

        5.9.5 Customization

        5.9.6 Modularization in CSS

        5.9.7 Modularization in XSLT