There are many “common attributes” that occur on every DocBook element. They are summarized here for brevity and to make the additional attributes that occur on many elements stand out.
Name | Type | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
annotations | text | |||||
dir |
| |||||
remap | text | |||||
revisionflag |
| |||||
role | text | |||||
version | text | |||||
xml:base | anyURI | |||||
xml:id | ID | |||||
xml:lang | text | |||||
xreflabel | text |
annotations
Identifies one or more annotations that apply to this element
dir
Identifies the direction of text in an element:
ltr
Left-to-right text
rtl
Right-to-left text
lro
Left-to-right override
rlo
Right-to-left override
remap
Provides the name or similar semantic identifier assigned to the content in some previous markup scheme
revisionflag
Identifies the revision status of the element:
changed
The element has been changed.
added
The element is new (has been added to the document).
deleted
The element has been deleted.
off
Revision markup has been explicitly turned off for this element.
role
Provides additional, user-specified classification for an element
version
Specifies the DocBook version of the element and its descendants
xml:base
Specifies the base URI of the element and its descendants
xml:id
Identifies the unique ID value of the element
xml:lang
Specifies the natural language of the element and its descendants
xreflabel
Provides the text that is to be generated for a cross-reference to the element
The common attributes include a collection of “effectivity attributes.” These attributes are available for authors to identify to whom a particular element applies. Effectivity attributes are often used for profiling: building documents that contain information only relevant to a particular audience.
For example, a section might be identified as available only to
readers with a “top-secret” security
clearance or a paragraph might be
identified as affecting only users running the implementation provided
by a particular vendor
.
Name | Type |
---|---|
arch | text |
audience | text |
condition | text |
conformance | text |
os | text |
revision | text |
security | text |
userlevel | text |
vendor | text |
wordsize | text |
arch
Designates the computer or chip architecture to which the element applies
audience
Designates the intended audience to which the element applies; for example, system administrators, programmers, or new users
condition
Provides a standard place for application-specific effectivity
conformance
Indicates standards conformance characteristics of the element
os
Indicates the operating system to which the element is applicable
revision
Indicates the editorial revision to which the element belongs
security
Indicates something about the security level associated with the element to which it applies
userlevel
Indicates the level of user experience for which the element applies
vendor
Indicates the computer vendor to which the element applies
wordsize
Indicates the word size (width in bits) of the computer architecture to which the element applies
The names of the effectivity attributes are suggestive of
several classes of common effectivity information. The semantically
neutral condition
attribute was
added to give authors a place to put values that don’t fit neatly into
one of the other alternatives.
In authoring environments where many different kinds of effectivity information are required, it’s not uncommon to see local extensions that add new attributes. It’s also not uncommon to see attributes used without regard to the class of information suggested by the name.