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.

Contains

no content

Contained by

metadata

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. 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	(user \| purchaser \| administrator \| programmer \| executive \| services \| other)	#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.	installing \| customizing \| administering \| programming \| using \| maintaining \| troubleshooting \| evaluating \| planning \| migrating \| other	#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.	(novice \| general \| expert)	#IMPLIED	No
name	Used to associate the audience element with values used in the audience attribute	CDATA	#REQUIRED	Yes
%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
%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

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"/>