Configuring Inline Applicability

With Arbortext Editor, you can access the applicability groups (e.g. options and choices) for a product and assign inline applicability to the elements in a topic that describes that product. When the topic is published, only content that matches the given inline applicability filter will be output.

For example, a product definition includes a set of four tire choices: {Tire Options=Standard, Racing, TankTread, Monster}. An information topic about the product can apply to three of those choices — it has the root applicability setting appl:applic=”Standard||Racing||TankTread”. The root applicability is usually configured for the topic in its source repository.

The topic’s author wants the topic to include different pieces of information based on the type of tire included in each possible product configuration.

A paragraph in the topic can be configured with different inline applicability settings:

<p>Universal paragraph text for all product configurations.
<note appl:applic="Standard">Note text for Standard tires.
</note>
<note appl:applic="Racing">Note textfor Racing tires.
</note>
<note appl:applic="TankTread">Note text for TankTread tires.
</note>
</p>

When the topic is published, it is output based on the applicability filter applied to the publishing action:

• No applicability filter applied — topic is included, paragraph includes all notes

• Filter for Standard — topic is included, paragraph only includes the first note

• Filter for Racing — topic is included, paragraph only includes the second note

• Filter for TankTread — topic is included, paragraph only includes the third note

A publishing action an applicability filter for Monster filters the topic out completely as the topic’s root applicability does not include the Monster choice.

If the topic’s root applicability is not set, i.e. it applies to all four tire choices, the topic is included in the publishing action. It does not include any notes in output since none of them are applicable to the Monster tire.

The example assumes that the applicability syntax defined for the current environment defines appl:applic as the attribute that represents inline applicability settings.

For more information, see Confirm Applicability Syntax.

Before configuring inline applicability in a topic, you must ensure that your Arbortext Editor environment is set up appropriately. For more information, see Working with Inline Applicability.

To assign inline applicability to an element in a topic:

1. Open the topic in Arbortext Editor, connecting to the repository via the PTC Server connection.

2. Select the element in the topic to which you want to assign inline applicability.

This menu option is only available if you have enabled the applicability UI. For more information, see Enable Applicability Interface.

4. In the Add to Expression group, select the options that will generate the applicability expression you want to apply to the element:

The dialog box displays the options and choices defined for the product on the content server.

Choose the Show Root option to display and select the root applicability defined for the current topic.

You can select a choice then click Not to specify that content does not apply for this choice.

◦ Use the Between Items group to specify whether the selections made from a single option group should be separated with an And or an Or operator.

◦ Use the Between Groups group to specify whether the selections made from multiple option groups should be separated with an And or an Or operator.

The format of the operators in expressions can be defined for your environment. For more information, see Set Format of Applicability Expressions.

Click (Add) to add the expression to the Logical Expression list, surrounded by parentheses.

5. Click Verify to check the expression is correct as a logical expression, and that it references valid options.

6. Click OK to assign the inline applicability defined with the entries in the Logical Expression list to the applicability attribute of the current element. The dialog box closes.

You can also click Apply to assign the inline applicability to the element and leave the dialog box open.

For example, a product has the options {Axle Options=3044, 3065} and {Tire Options=Standard, Racing, TankTread, Monster}.

Some selections made in the Apply Inline Applicability dialog box for an element are listed below: