Reply To: hrefs and ID strings truncated in generating XHTML

[Derek Read]

I can reproduce what you are seeing with both DITA OT version 1.4.2.1 (included with XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0) and DITA OT version 1.5.4 (included with 7.0).

However, it isn't clear to me if this is really a bug in the DITA OT or whether it should even be supported. The DITA Language Reference is not entirely clear to me, as it states the following (see the text I've coloured blue):

[quote=http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/CS01/langspec/langref/topicref.html]
A pointer to the resource represented by the . References to DITA content cannot be below the topic level: that is, you cannot reference individual elements inside a topic. References to content other than DITA topics should use the format attribute to identify the kind of resource being referenced.

DITA 1.2 rewrites that paragraph, but that sentence is the same:

[quote=http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/os/spec/langref/topicref.html#topicref]A pointer to the resource represented by the . See The href attribute for detailed information on supported values and processing implications. References to DITA content cannot be below the topic level: that is, you cannot reference individual elements inside a topic. References to content other than DITA topics should use the format attribute to identify the kind of resource being referenced.

See also [url=http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/os/spec/common/thehrefattribute.html]3.4.2.1 The href attribute[/url] (which does not clarify things for me).

The ambiguity for me stems from the fact that it is not clear what “topic level” means. If it means “the referenced topic file in its entirety” then the Language Reference is saying you can't reference any elements, including , inside the file (as you are doing). However, if it is referring to the actual topic elements (anything with @class=”- topic/topic “) then what you are doing seems to be allowed and you should file a bug report here: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=132728

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