Front Matter and Back Matter

The front matter is a series of topics that are usually placed after the cover page and before the TOC or the content.

The back matter is a series of topics that are usually placed after the content of the book.

Front Matter and Back Matter - XML Fragment

In the merged map file, the frontmatter topic references are wrapped in a <frontmatter> element that has the class bookmap/frontmatter. Then, the referenced content is marked with the attribute @is-frontmatter="true":

<bookmap xmlns:ditaarch="http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/" ...>
    <oxy:front-page class="- front-page/front-page ">
       ...
    </oxy:front-page>
    <opentopic:map xmlns:ot-placeholder="http://suite-sol.com/namespaces/ot-placeholder"
    class="- toc/toc ">
        ...
        <frontmatter xmlns:dita-ot="http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/ns/201007/dita-ot"
        class="- map/topicref bookmap/frontmatter ">
          ...
          <topicref class="- map/topicref " href="#unique_1" type="concept">
          ...
        </frontmatter>
    </opentopic:map>
    <concept 
           class="- topic/topic concept/concept " 
           is-frontmatter="true"
           topicrefclass="- map/topicref bookmap/bookabstract " ...>

For the DITA Map PDF - based on HTML5 & CSS transformation type, the merged map is further processed resulting in a collection of HTML5 <div> elements. These elements preserve the original DITA @class attribute values and add a new value derived from the DITA element name.

<div xmlns:ditaarch="http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/" ...>
    <div class=" front-page/front-page front-page">
       ...
    </div>
    <div class="- toc/toc toc">
      <div class="- map/topicref bookmap/frontmatter topicref frontmatter">
        <div href="#unique_2" type="topic" class="- map/topicref topicref">
        ...
        </div>
    </div>
    <article 
        class="- topic/topic concept/concept topic concept nested0"
        is-frontmatter="true"
        topicrefclass="- map/topicref bookmap/bookabstract "  ...>

Note: The process also applies for the backmatter topic references inside a <backmatter> element with the bookmap/backmatter class and referenced content with the @is-backmatter="true" attribute both in the merged map and merged HTML files.

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Front Matter and Back Matter - Built-in CSS

The built-in CSS rules are in [PLUGIN_DIR]/css/print/p-bookmap-frontmatter-backmatter.css. By default, it associates the top-level topics that do not represent chapters to a matter-page style of page layout. Each child topic starts on a new page.

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How to Remove Page Breaks Between Front Matter Child Topics

If you do not like the fact that all the topics that enter a bookmap frontmatter start on a new page, you can disable this by using the following rules in your customization CSS:

*[class ~= "map/map"] > *[class ~= "topic/topic"][is-frontmatter]{
   page-break-before: auto;
}

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How to Style the Front Matter and Back Matter Topics

Style all the Topics with the Same Aspect

All the topics referenced from the <frontmatter> and <backmatter> bookmap elements are formatted using the matter-page as defined in Default Page Definitions. In the merged file, the <backmatter> and <frontmatter> elements are omitted, and their child topic content is matched using a CSS rule like the one below:

*[class ~= "map/map"] > *[class ~= "topic/topic"][is-backmatter],
*[class ~= "map/map"] > *[class ~= "topic/topic"][is-frontmatter]{
  page: matter-page;
  ...
}

Style the Topics Depending on Their Role

There might be cases when you need to distinguish between certain types of topics that have different roles in your publication:

Preface
Notice
Abstract
Copyright

These are referenced from the DITA map by specialized <topicref> elements, with different class attribute values.

The class attribute values are then passed by the transformation process onto the corresponding topic elements from the merged map content. For example, a topic that was referenced by a <preface> map element now has a " bookmap/preface " value in its @topicrefclass attribute:

<topic 
	class="- topic/topic " 
	id="unique_1" 
	topicrefclass="- map/topicref bookmap/preface " .. >
...
</topic>

This can be used to match and apply various styling choices, or even a particular page layout:

@page preface-page {
	background-color:silver;
	@top-center{
		content: "Custom Preface Header";
	}
}
*[class ~= "topic/topic"][@topicrefclass ~= "bookmap/preface"] {
	page: preface-page;
}