`<concept>`

The <concept> element is the top-level element for a topic that answers the question what is?

Usage information

Concepts provide background information that users must know before they can successfully work with a product or interface. Often, a concept is an extended definition of a major abstraction such as a process or function. It might also contain an example, image, or diagram.

Specialization hierarchy

The <concept> element is specialized from <topic>. It is defined in the concept module.

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: architectural attributes and universal attributes.

For this element, the @id attribute is required.

The following attributes are available on this element: universal attributes and the attributes defined below.

@DITAArchVersion (architectural attributes): Specifies the version of the DITA architecture that is in use. This attribute is in the namespace http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/. This attribute is specified in the topic and map modules, and it uses a default value of the current version of DITA. The current default is 2.0.
@id: For this element, the @id attribute is required.
@specializations (architectural attributes): Specifies the attribute-domain specializations that are included in the document-type shell. This attribute is set as a default within the document-type shell. The value varies depending on what domains are integrated into the document-type shell. For example, a grammar file that includes the specialized attributes @audience, @deliveryTarget, and @newBaseAtt would set the value to @props/audience @props/deliveryTarget @base/newBaseAtt.
@xmlns:ditaarch (architectural attributes): Declares the default DITA namespace. This namespace is declared as such in the RNG modules for <topic> and <map>, but it is specified as an attribute in the equivalent DTD-based modules. The value is fixed to http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/.

Example

This section is non-normative.

The following code sample shows a concept topic:

<concept id="concept">
  <title>DITA concept topic</title>
  <shortdesc>The concept topic answers the question <q>what is?</q></shortdesc>
    <conbody>
      <p>Concept topics provide background information that users must know
         before they can successfully work with a product or interface. Often,
         a concept is an extended definition of a major abstraction such as a
         process or function. It might also have an example or a graphic.</p>
    </conbody>
</concept>