Open review comments regarding @rev attribute

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00035.html
(Su-Laine Yeo)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00036.html
(Kris Eberlein)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00037.html
(Michael Priestley)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00039.html
(Su-Laine Yeo)

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/201007/msg00041.html
(Michael Priestley)

 

Snippet
from Su-Laine’s original e-mail:

 “The
draft DITA 1.2 spec deepens my confusion. It says, “DITA defines five
attributes that are specifically intended to enable filtering or flagging of
individual elements. Those attributes are @audience, @platform, @product,
@otherprops, and @props.” But then a few paragraphs later under a section
titled “Conditional processing attributes” it lists six attributes
including @rev.

So is @rev a
conditional processing attribute or not?”

Outcome
of list and TC discussion

The
@rev attribute is a conditional processing attribute; conditional processing
attributes are attributes used for filtering and flagging. The @rev attribute
can be used for flagging only.

 

Analysis
of DITA 1.2 spec draft

The
@rev attribute is addressed in (at least) the following topics in the draft:

1.    
2.1.2.3.2.1
Conditional processing attributes: http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cd03/spec/archSpec/conditional-processing-attributes.html#conditional-processing-attributes

2.    
2.1.3.6
Conditional processing (profiling): http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cd03/spec/archSpec/condproc.html#condproc

3.    
3.4.1.5
select-atts attribute group: http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/cd03/spec/common/select-atts.html#select-atts

The
first topic addresses the issue correctly (relevant text highlighted):

“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 and
     store in it a database

Typically
@audience, @platform, @product, @otherprops, @props, and specializations of the
@props attributes are used for filtering; the same attributes plus the @rev
attribute are used for flagging. The @status and @importance attributes, as
well as custom attributes specialized from @base, are used for
application-specific behavior, such as identifying metadata to aid in search
and retrieval.”

Work completed

1.    
Revised
the “Conditional processing (profiling)” topic to match “Conditional
processing attributes”

2.    
Add
the following relationship table links

a.    
“Conditional
processing (profiling)” <---->“Conditional processing
attributes”

b.   
“Conditional
processing (profiling)” & “Conditional processing attributes”
<----> “select-atts attribute group” & “DITAVAL
elements”

3.    
Revised
“select-atts attribute group” to clarify that @rev attribute cannot
be used for filtering or version control.

Best regards,

Kris

Kristen
James Eberlein l DITA
Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL
Structured Content Technologies Division l (t) + 1
(919) 682-2290 l 

 

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