Creating links in technical content greatly supports the user experience, but as technical content evolves, such links are getting harder to handle. Creating static links that are resolved while building the output will not work out in the end, as content creation is moving into the agile world. This is where a new paradigm is required, which enables authors to create semantically defined links, which will be resolved by querying the database of available topics, during runtime. This revolutionises the way we think about cross-references and hyperlinks.

1. D Y N A M I C L I N K R E S O L U T I O N
U S I N G ( M E TA ) D ATA
J A N G C O M M U N I C A T I O N , A M S T E R D A M

2. W H O ’ S TA L K I N G ?
• Jang F.M. Graat
• Physics, Psychology, Philosophy
• 25+ years in Tech Comm
• DITA and other reuse
• XML, XSLT, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL
• Greek Geek Philospher
• Mekon partner

3. C R O S S - R E F E R E N C E S
A . K . A . H Y P E R L I N K S

4. P R O B L E M # 1
TA R G E T S M U S T B E I D E N T I F I A B L E W H E N C R E A T I N G C R O S S - R E F S

5. P R O B L E M # 2
TA R G E T S M U S T B E A C C E S S I B L E W H E N C R E A T I N G C R O S S - R E F S

6. P R O B L E M # 3
TA R G E T S M A Y D E P E N D O N T H E U S E R ’ S P E R S O N A

7. P R O B L E M # 4
TA R G E T S M A Y D E P E N D O N T H E C O N T E X T

8. P R O B L E M # 5
TA R G E T S M A Y D I S A P P E A R W I T H O U T N O T I C E

9. D R I V E N T O E X T R E M E S
C R O S S - R E F E R E N C E S I N A G I L E C O N T E N T

10. B U I L D - T I M E S O L U T I O N S
N O T S C A L A B L E , N O T M A I N TA I N A B L E , N O T P E R S O N A L I S A B L E

11. D I T C H C R O S S - R E F S ?
R E L A T E D L I N K S D O N O T S E R V E T H E S A M E P U R P O S E

12. R U N T I M E ( R E ) S O L U T I O N
F I N D T H E TA R G E T W H E N I T I S N E E D E D

13. J A M E S , G E T M E A T O P I C
Q U E RY ( M E TA ) D A TA , I N D E X E S T O F I N D T H E R I G H T M A T C H

14. T I M E F O R A L I V E D E M O !

15. U S I N G K E Y S
A D D ( M E TA ) D A TA T O H Y P E R L I N K S A N D T O TA R G E T S

16. K E Y R E F E R E N C E
X R E F P O I N T S T O K E Y, N O T T O A S TA T I C TA R G E T
<xref keyref="myDynamicLink" !
outputclass="dynamic link”>

17. K E Y D E F I N I T I O N
K E Y S D E F I N E K E Y W O R D S T O M A T C H A G A I N S T
<keydef href=“fallback-topic” !
keys="myDynamicLink" !
outputclass=“dynamic link">!
<topicmeta>!
<keywords>!
<keyword>specialization</keyword>!
</keywords>!
</topicmeta>!
</keydef>

18. T O P I C M E TA D ATA
K E Y W O R D S D E F I N E D F O R ( O R I N ) T O P I C S
<topicref href=“specialization-reference“>!
<topicmeta>!
<keywords>!
<keyword>specialization</keyword>!
</keywords>!
</topicmeta>!
</topicref>

19. T O P I C M E TA D ATA
K E Y W O R D S C A N B E TA R G E T E D T O S P E C I F I C A U D I E N C E S
<topicref href=“specialization-tutorial“>!
<topicmeta>!
<keywords audience=“novice">!
<keyword>specialization</keyword>!
</keywords>!
</topicmeta>!
</topicref>

20. M AT C H M A K E R
F I N D I N G P O T E N T I A L TA R G E T S A N D R A N K I N G T H E M

21. R E S U LT I N A B R O W S E R
J U M P T O B E S T M A T C H , L I S T O T H E R S I N S I D E PA N E L

22. S A M E L I N K , O T H E R U S E R
O N LY O N E M A T C H A VA I L A B L E F O R T H I S A U D I E N C E

23. S E M A N T I C L I N K I N G
U S I N G S E M A N T I C S T O A U T O M A G I C A L LY C R E A T E L I N K S
<p>The <objectref>Book</objectref> object represents a
FrameMaker book. Its components may be <objectref>Doc!
</objectref> objects or nested <objectref>Book</objectref> !
objects, all of which are organized in a linked list of
<objectref>BookComponent</objectref> objects.</p>!
!
<p>All currently opened books are listed in a linked list starting!
with <objectref>app</objectref>.<propertyref>FirstOpenBook!
</propertyref>. If a book is selected in FrameMaker, <objectref>!
app</objectref>.<propertyref>ActiveBook<propertyref> points to
it.</p>

24. R E S U LT I N A B R O W S E R
N O M A N U A L L I N K I N G , O N LY X S LT WA S U S E D

25. X M L M E N T I O N D O M A I N
PA R T O F T H E U P C O M I N G D I TA 1 . 3 S TA N D A R D
<p>The <xmlelement>keydef</xmlelement> element is a
convenience element; it is a specialized type of a
<xmlelement>topicref</xmlelement> element with the !
following attributes:</p>!
<ul>!
<li>A required <xmlatt>keys</xmlatt> attribute</li>!
<li>A <xmlatt>processing-role</xmlatt> attribute with a !
default value of “resource-only”.</li>!
</ul>

26. A U T O - L I N K E D
A L L M E N T I O N S O F T H E E L E M E N T A R E L I S T E D

27. I N T E L L I G E N T S E A R C H
U S E A N Y C L U E S Y O U C A N F I N D

28. P E R S O N A L I S E D L I N K I N G
L O C A L , F U L LY C O N T E X T U A L , S E L F - L E A R N I N G

29. P E R S O N A L H E L P D E S K
G I V I N G U S E R S T H E I N F O R M A T I O N T H E Y N E E D

30. D I TA . G U R U
T O B E L A U N C H E D S O O N , C O N T R I B U T I O N S W E L C O M E

31. Q U E S T I O N S ?

32. J A N G F. M . G R A AT
M A R K P O S T O N
www.mekon.com
mark.poston@mekon.com
@markposton
www.jang.nl
jang@jang.nl
@4everJang