Using Profiling with DITA Documents
DITA documents support the
Arbortext Editor profiling feature. The values for profiling attributes are displayed in Column view, the Document Map, and in the
Modify Attributes dialog box. However, you can only change profiling values in the
Apply Profiles dialog box. Attempting to change attribute values in Column view or the Document Map invokes the
Apply Profiles dialog box. In the
Modify Attributes dialog box, profile values are read only and a button
is available to invoke the
Apply Profiles dialog box.
Each of the default DITA document types has an associated profiling configuration file (.pcf) that includes the following profiling categories and values based on standard DITA attributes:
DITA Attribute | Profiling Category | Profiling Values |
audience | Audience | • Novice • Expert |
platform | Platform | • MS-Windows • Unix/Linux |
product | Product | • Project-X • Project-Y • Project-Z |
otherprops | Other | • Blue • Green |
You can change the profiling categories and values associated with these attributes as desired. You can also add additional profiling categories. Note that while multiple values for a single attribute are usually separated by semicolons in .pcf files, the DITA standard uses spaces to separate multiple values. By default, the DITA document types .pcf files use spaces to separate multiple values for a single attribute to match the standard.
The default .pcf files also contain the following set profile groups:
• Windows Expert — Sets Platform to MS-Windows and Audience to Expert.
• Unix Novice — Sets Platform to Unix/Linux and Audience to Novice.
Extending Profiling Support
Following are some recommended ways to extend the default profiling support:
• DITA standard otherprops attribute — You can use this attribute for a custom profiling category.
• Other DITA standard attributes — While other DITA standard attributes are not intended for use as profiling metadata, you can use a standard DITA attribute of type CDATA for a custom profiling category.
• Specialized DITA attribute — You can specialize the DITA standard props attribute to create whatever attributes you require for profiling categories.
• Namespaced attribute — You can establish an XML namespace for profiling attributes and add that namespace to the root element of your DITA documents.
It is recommended that you modify the template and sample documents for the DITA document type for which you are extending profiling to add the namespace declaration. For example, following is the root element for the DITA Topic template document:
<topic id="topic1">
Following is the root element with an example namespace declaration:
<topic id="topic1" xmlns:custProf="http://www.acme.com/namespaces/profiling>
You can then use attributes defined in the namespace in your .pcf file for profiling categories. Note that you must add the namespace before the attribute. For example: custProf:security.
You can use a namespaced attribute on any element in your document, even those that do not have the standard DITA metadata attributes.
For more information on configuring profiling, refer to Customizing your Site’s Profiling Configuration in the Customizer's Guide.
DITAVAL Files and Profiling
The DITA standard also provides support for conditional processing through
DITAVAL files. You can use both DITAVAL files and profiling files with your DITA documents. However, DITAVAL files take precedence and any rules defined in a DITAVAL files are applied before any profiling takes effect.
You can use an existing .pcf files as the basis for DITAVAL files in the following ways:
• When you choose either > > or
Edit DITAVAL File to work with a DITAVAL file, the
DITAVAL Editor Dialog Box opens containing the profiling information from any
.pcf file associated with the current topic or map.
• When working directly with a DITAVAL file in Arbortext Editor, you can choose > to import set profile groups in a .pcf file to the current DITAVAL file.
• When editing a DITAVAL file in the DITAVAL Editor dialog box, you can use the Import Profiles button to import profile settings and set profile groups from a .pcf file to the current DITAVAL file.
Profile Shading
You can configure colored shading to differentiate between profile groups, attributes, and values. See
Using Shading for Profiled Elements for further information on configuring shading for profile values.
Profile shading is displayed as follows for DITA documents, when profile shading is activated:
• Topic references and element content are displayed in the color set for their profile/value.
• A profiled element is indicated by the icon
in Document Map and Column View views
Shading is activated via the set showprofileshading command.
The Apply Profiles dialog box displays any profile shading that is configured for the document type instance. Refer to Profile Shading for guidelines on how profile shading is displayed in the dialog box.
Related information