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18-Opal
bfriesen18-Opal
18-Opal
October 2, 2013
Question

xref to a referenced topicgroup in a different ditamap

  • October 2, 2013
  • 6 replies
  • 2698 views

I will try my best to explain.


I have a ditamp that has torques specifications in it. I wanted every manual to have the same info in the same order. The way that was figured out to do it is to create a topicgroup in this ditamap and then reference the topicgroup from each ditamap. Seems to work well.


I now have a user that wants to create a xref to the torque specifications section. When we create the xref, big red letters state, missing cross reference text. When we publish it, is says the same thing. I expect this is a style sheet modification but need some guidance.



Thanks


Bryon

    6 replies

    P
    ptc-48751351-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    October 2, 2013
    When you author an empty <xref>, and the thing you're pointing to has a title, the xref will be populated with that title (usually). But a topicgroup doesn't have a title, so Arbortext doesn't know what to put inside the xref. Hence the warning. The warning is generated text from the stylesheet, so you could change it, but you'll still need to figure out - either in the authoring or in the stylesheet - what the text of the link should be.

    Chris
    Chris Nitchie
    (734) 330-2978
    chris.nitchie@oberontech.com<">mailto:chris.nitchie@oberontech.com>
    www.oberontech.com

    [cid:image001.jpg@01CE6901.A84DFC50]

    [cid:image005.png@01CE6903.8131DC70]<">https://twitter.com/oberontech>

    [cid:image006.png@01CE6903.8131DC70]<">http://www.linkedin.com/company/oberon-technologies>






    B
    18-Opal
    bfriesen18-OpalAuthor
    18-Opal
    October 2, 2013

    Thanks for the response, Is there a way to do what I would like with out making any modifications?



    Bryon

    P
    ptc-48751351-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    October 2, 2013
    Not without modifying something. You might be able to do it without XML changes by modifying your stylesheet to add a rule specifically for <xref type="topicgroup"> that generates some content for the link.

    Chris
    Chris Nitchie
    (734) 330-2978
    chris.nitchie@oberontech.com<">mailto:chris.nitchie@oberontech.com>
    www.oberontech.com

    [cid:image001.jpg@01CE6901.A84DFC50]

    [cid:image005.png@01CE6903.8131DC70]<">https://twitter.com/oberontech>

    [cid:image006.png@01CE6903.8131DC70]<">http://www.linkedin.com/company/oberon-technologies>






    B
    18-Opal
    bfriesen18-OpalAuthor
    18-Opal
    October 2, 2013

    Thanks, for the help Chris, I am very slow with styler. I have a document open with a xref that works and an xref that does not work. When clicking inside either xref, they both take me to the same context under the xref element. xref everywhere else is highlighted green. Do I need to add a condition? or does it need to done at the same level as other contexts under the xref eleemnt.


    xref[@type='topicgroup'] If I create a context like this do I need to give it conditions


    Thanks for your time and support


    D
    DavidA.Helfinst1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    October 3, 2013
    It looks like you are trying to create a topic xref to a topicgroup in a ditamap. It is not possible for a topic to reference a map directly, and it is not allowed in DITA. The reason is that the map is only the container for the information created and not the information itself. As a result there is no id that the xref in a topic can go to to find something like a title. The same thing about the link itself. Because map content is not directly retained in the composition process, once again, no link information is available for the xref.
    This is especially true of topicgroups. Topicgroups are as if they are invisible after composition as they are only there to group content in the map and not to add to content in the map.

    The suggestion would be to create the xrefs to the first topic of the group.

    Thanks.

    - Dave H.

    Dave Helfinstine
    -
    B
    18-Opal
    bfriesen18-OpalAuthor
    18-Opal
    October 3, 2013

    Thanks for the response David, that we what we will do.



    Bryon

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