data-about

The <data-about> element identifies the subject of a property when the subject isn't associated with the context in which the property is specified. The property itself is expressed by the <data> element. The <data-about> element handles exception cases where a property must be expressed somewhere other than inside the actual subject of the property. The <data-about> element is particularly useful as a basis for specialization in combination with the <data> element.

Important: Do not use the <data-about> element to identify the object of a property. The href attribute of the <data> element serves that purpose.

Example

The full properties of a cited book can be maintained conveniently in the prolog:

<topic id="questions">
    <title>Questions and answers</title>
    <prolog>
        <data-about name="book" href="urn:isbn:0156983508">
            <data name="title">The World Doesn't End</data>
            <data name="author">
                <data name="firstname">Charles</data>
                <data name="lastname">Simic</data>
            </data>
            <data name="published" datatype="year">1989</data>
            ...
        </data-about>
        ...
    </prolog>
    <body>
        ...
       <lq href="urn:isbn:0156983508">In a forest of question marks ...
       </lq>
       ...
    </body>
</topic>

Contains

Doctype	Content model
ditabase, topic, task, reference, concept, glossary, map, bookmap	( ( data) then ( data or data-about) (any number) )

Contained by

Doctype	Parents
bookmap	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, map, topicref, relcell, topicmeta, linktext, searchtitle, person, organization, summary, printlocation, bookpartno, booknumber, topichead, topicgroup, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as, organizationname, otherinfo, addressdetails, locality, localityname, administrativearea, thoroughfare, emailaddress, url
map	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, map, topicref, relcell, topicmeta, linktext, searchtitle, topichead, topicgroup, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as
ditabase	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, navtitle, searchtitle, abstract, body, section, example, prolog, metadata, linktext, linkinfo, conbody, prereq, context, cmd, info, tutorialinfo, stepxmp, choice, choptionhd, chdeschd, choption, chdesc, stepresult, result, postreq, refbody, refsyn, proptypehd, propvaluehd, propdeschd, proptype, propvalue, propdesc, glossterm, glossdef, uicontrol, screen, b, u, i, tt, sup, sub, codeph, codeblock, var, oper, delim, sep, pt, pd, fragref, repsep, msgph, msgblock, filepath, userinput, systemoutput, coords, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as
topic	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, navtitle, searchtitle, abstract, body, section, example, prolog, metadata, linktext, linkinfo, uicontrol, screen, b, u, i, tt, sup, sub, codeph, codeblock, var, oper, delim, sep, pt, pd, fragref, repsep, msgph, msgblock, filepath, userinput, systemoutput, coords, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as
task	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, navtitle, searchtitle, abstract, body, section, example, prolog, metadata, linktext, linkinfo, prereq, context, cmd, info, tutorialinfo, stepxmp, choice, choptionhd, chdeschd, choption, chdesc, stepresult, result, postreq, uicontrol, screen, b, u, i, tt, sup, sub, codeph, codeblock, var, oper, delim, sep, pt, pd, fragref, repsep, msgph, msgblock, filepath, userinput, systemoutput, coords, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as
concept	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, navtitle, searchtitle, abstract, body, section, example, prolog, metadata, linktext, linkinfo, conbody, uicontrol, screen, b, u, i, tt, sup, sub, codeph, codeblock, var, oper, delim, sep, pt, pd, fragref, repsep, msgph, msgblock, filepath, userinput, systemoutput, coords, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as
reference	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, navtitle, searchtitle, abstract, body, section, example, prolog, metadata, linktext, linkinfo, refbody, refsyn, proptypehd, propvaluehd, propdeschd, proptype, propvalue, propdesc, uicontrol, screen, b, u, i, tt, sup, sub, codeph, codeblock, var, oper, delim, sep, pt, pd, fragref, repsep, msgph, msgblock, filepath, userinput, systemoutput, coords, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as
glossary	data-about, data, title, shortdesc, desc, p, note, lq, q, sli, li, itemgroup, dthd, ddhd, dt, dd, fig, pre, lines, ph, alt, stentry, draft-comment, fn, indexterm, index-base, cite, xref, entry, author, source, publisher, copyrholder, category, prodname, brand, series, platform, prognum, featnum, component, navtitle, searchtitle, abstract, body, section, example, prolog, metadata, linktext, linkinfo, conbody, glossterm, glossdef, uicontrol, screen, b, u, i, tt, sup, sub, codeph, codeblock, var, oper, delim, sep, pt, pd, fragref, repsep, msgph, msgblock, filepath, userinput, systemoutput, coords, index-see, index-see-also, index-sort-as

Inheritance:

- topic/data-about

Attributes

Name	Description	Data Type	Default Value	Required?
href	A hyperlink to an external Web page (URL) or other non-DITA resource, or to another DITA topic in the same file or in another file. The format attribute identifies the format of the target. Non-DITA targets use standard URL syntax. DITA topics are targetted as follows: Target elsewhere in the same file: href="#topicid" First topic in different file: href="filename.dita" Specific topic in different file: href="filename.dita#topicid" If the URL contains an ampersand character, the ampersand symbol (&) should be used to indicate that character	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
format	The format attribute identifies the format of the resource being cross referenced. See The format attribute for details on supported values.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
type	Describes the target of a cross-reference. See The type attribute for detailed information on supported values and processing implications.	CDATA	#IMPLIED (Processed as if the target were of type "topic", or inherited from an ancestor)	No
scope	The scope attribute identifies the closeness of the relationship between the current document and the target resource. Set scope to `local` when the resource is part of the current set of content. Set scope to `peer` when the resource is part of the current set of content but is not accessible at build time. Set scope to `external` when the resource is not part of the current information set and should open in a new browser window. See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information on -dita-use-conref-target. The processing default is `local`. If no value is specified, but the attribute is specified on an ancestor within a map or within the related-links section, the value will inherit from the closest ancestor.	(local \| peer \| external \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
%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, outputclass	Common attributes described in Other common DITA attributes.