Metadata attributes
Metadata attributes specify properties of the content that can be used to determine how the content is processed. Specialized metadata attributes can be defined to enable specific business-processing needs, such as semantic processing and data mining.
Metadata attributes typically are used for the following purposes:
- Filtering content based on the attribute values, for example, to suppress or publish profiled content
- Flagging content based on the attribute values, for example, to highlight specific content on output
- Performing custom processing, for example, to extract business-critical data and store it in a database
The base DITA vocabulary includes five specializations of the
@props attribute as domains:
@audience, @deliveryTarget,
@platform, @product, and
@otherprops. These five attributes are included in
all the map and topic document-type shells
that are provided with the
specification.
Metadata attributes fall into the following categories.
- Architectural attributes
- The
@class,@DITAArchVersion, and@specializationsattributes provide metadata about the DITA source itself, such as what version of the grammar is used. These attributes are not intended for use in authored content. - Filtering and flagging attributes
-
The
@propsattribute and its specializations are intended for filtering. This includes the five specializations added to the OASIS document-type shells:@audience,@deliveryTarget,@platform,@product, and@otherprops.These attributes plus the
@revattribute are intended for flagging. - Other metadata attributes
- The
@statusand@importanceattributes, many of the attributes available on the<ux-window>element, as well as custom attributes specialized from@base, are intended for application-specific behaviors. Such behaviors include aiding in search and retrieval, as well as controlling how a user assistance window is rendered. - Translation and localization attributes
- The
@dir,@translate, and@xml:langattributes are intended for use with translating and localizing content.