When possible, applications should treat the referenced topicset as an
independent unit. For example, an application that renders DITA for a dynamic navigation
platform might generate a reusable navigation structure for
each topicset, and each topicsetref is
retained as a reference to that structure. This differs slightly from the processing of the
conref attribute, which results in a literal copy of the referenced
content.
For situations that do not support reusing a topic set as an independent unit, such as a rendered
PDF, applications MAY resolve the
topicsetref element as for other
topicset (or topicref) elements that
have the format attribute set to "ditamap".
As with other cases where the attribute format="ditamap" is specified or
used as a default, the use of topic references nested inside of
topicsetref is undefined.
Inheritance+
map/topicref mapgroup-d/topicsetref
Example
The sql-tutorial.ditamap file contains a
topicset element that groups together several topics that
collectively comprise an overview of SQL.
DITA map that contains a topicset element
<!-- Excerpt from sql-tutorial.ditamap -->
<topicset id="sqlbasics" href="sqlOverview.dita">
<topicref href="sqlSelection.dita"/>
<topicref href="sqlJoin.dita"/>
<topicref href="sqlFilter.dita"/>
<!-- ... -->
</topicset>
Another map can include that topic set, in addition to content related to
programming with JDBC.
DITA map that contains a topicsetref element
<topichead navtitle="Mastering JDBC">
<topicsetref href="sql-tutorial.ditamap#sqlbasics"/>
<topicref href="jdbcPrepare.dita"/>
<!-- ... -->
</topichead>
A reader of the JDBC information will see the content integrated as a single unit.
Result of the reuse
<topichead navtitle="Mastering JDBC">
<topicset id="sqlbasics" href="sqlOverview.dita">
<topicref href="sqlSelection.dita"/>
<topicref href="sqlJoin.dita"/>
<topicref href="sqlFilter.dita"/>
<!-- ... -->
</topicset>
<topicref href="jdbcPrepare.dita"/>
<!-- ... -->
</topichead>
Attributes
The following attributes are available on this element: , (with narrowed definitions
of href, format, and type, given below),
, , , keys, and keyref.
- href
- A pointer to the topicset represented by
topicsetref. See for detailed information on
syntax.
- format
- The format attribute identifies the format of the resource being
referenced. For the topicsetref element, this attribute
defaults to "ditamap", because the element typically references a branch of a map. See
for details on other supported
values.
- type
- Describes the target of a reference. For the topicsetref
element, this attribute defaults to "topicset". See for detailed information on other
supported values and processing implications.