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Language reference: All-inclusive edition
The language reference portion of the DITA specification contains a topic for each DITA element. The topic defines the element, its inheritance hierarchy, and provides examples of usage. This portion of the DITA specification also includes information about DITA attributes.
Topic elements
The base topic elements include elements that make up the core building blocks of the DITA topic, such as topic, body, and related-links, as well as elements like <p> and <ph> that are used in many topic specializations. Some of these elements are also available inside the <topicmeta> map element.
Related links elements
The related-links section of DITA topics is a special structure that contains links. Links support navigation from a topic to other related topics or resources.
<link>
The <link> element defines a relationship to another topic or non-DITA resource. When displayed, links are typically sorted based on their attributes, which define the type or role of the link's target in relation to the current topic.

Specification URIs
Notices
Introduction to DITA 1.3
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) specification defines a set of document types for authoring and organizing topic-oriented information, as well as a set of mechanisms for combining, extending, and constraining document types.
Architectural specification: All-inclusive edition
The architectural specification portion of the DITA specification outlines the framework of DITA. It contains an overview of DITA markup; addressing; processing; configuration, specialization, generalization, and constraints; as well as information about coding DITA grammar files.
Language reference: All-inclusive edition
The language reference portion of the DITA specification contains a topic for each DITA element. The topic defines the element, its inheritance hierarchy, and provides examples of usage. This portion of the DITA specification also includes information about DITA attributes.
- Element quick reference
  This section contains a listing of DITA elements.
- Topic elements
  The base topic elements include elements that make up the core building blocks of the DITA topic, such as topic, body, and related-links, as well as elements like <p> and <ph> that are used in many topic specializations. Some of these elements are also available inside the <topicmeta> map element.
  - Basic topic elements
    The generic topic structure is used for untyped topics. While much of the DITA architecture is built on generic topics, it is generally better to use more specific information types (such as concept, task, or reference) when they are available.
  - Body elements
    The body elements support the most common types of content authoring for topics: paragraphs, lists, phrases, figures, and other common types of exhibits in a document.
  - Table elements
    DITA topics support two types of tables. The <table> element uses the OASIS Exchange Table Model (formerly known as the CALS table model). The OASIS table supports the spanning of multiple rows or columns for special layout or organizational needs, and provides a wide variety of controls over the display properties of the data and even the table structure itself.
  - Related links elements
    The related-links section of DITA topics is a special structure that contains links. Links support navigation from a topic to other related topics or resources.
    - <link>
      The <link> element defines a relationship to another topic or non-DITA resource. When displayed, links are typically sorted based on their attributes, which define the type or role of the link's target in relation to the current topic.
    - <linklist>
      The <linklist> element defines an author-arranged group of links. When rendering the links, processors SHOULD preserve the order of links specified within a <linklist> element.
    - <linkpool>
      The <linkpool> element defines a group of links that have common characteristics, such as type or audience or source. When links are in <related-links> or <linkpool> elements, the organization of links on final output is determined by the output process, not by the order that the links actually occur in the DITA topic.
    - <linktext>
      The <linktext> element provides the literal label or line of text for a link. For links to local DITA topics, the text of a link can typically be resolved during processing. Use the <linktext> element only when the target cannot be reached, such as when it is a peer or external link, or when the target is local but not in DITA format. When used inside a topic, <linktext> is used as the text for the specified link; when used within a map, <linktext> is used as the text for generated links that point to the specified topic.
    - <linkinfo>
      The <linkinfo> element allows you to place a descriptive paragraph after the links that are contained in a <linklist> element.
- Map elements
  Map elements include the core components of DITA maps, such as <topicref> and <reltable>, as well as general purpose map specializations in the map group domain.
- Metadata elements
  Metadata elements include information that is located within the <topicmeta> element (in maps) or <prolog> element (in topics), as well as indexing elements that can be placed in additional locations within topic content.
- Domain elements
  General purpose domains are not specific to any type of information, such as the hazard statement domain that provides elements for describing hazardous situations.
- Classification elements
  Classification elements support managing metadata. Those in the subject scheme map are used to define controlled values and to bind the controlled values to DITA attributes as enumerations. Those declared in the classification domain are used in other maps to classify content according to the scheme.
- Specialization elements
  Several DITA elements exist either for architectural reasons or for support of specialized markup yet to be designed. Although there is little need to use these elements unless you are directed to, some of them, such as <state>, can be used if your content makes use of these semantic distinctions. For example, a discussion of signals on a gate of an integrated logic circuit might use the <state> element to represent either on or off conditions of that gate.
- Legacy conversion elements
  Conversion elements exist primarily to aid in the conversion of content to DITA.
- DITAVAL elements
  A conditional processing profile (DITAVAL file) is used to identify which values are to be used for conditional processing during a particular output, build, or some other purpose. The profile should have an extension of .ditaval.
- Technical content elements
  Elements in the technical content section include the original Concept, Task, and Reference specializations, as well as specializations added in later releases. It also includes domains designed primarily for technical content.
- Learning and training elements
  Elements in the learning and training section include specialized topics, maps, content, and metadata elements specially designed to support instructional content.
- Attributes
  This section collects commonly used attributes, with common definitions. If an element uses a different definition, or narrows the scope of, an otherwise common attribute, it will be called out in the topic that defines the element.
Conformance
Conformance to the DITA specification allows documents and document types that are used with different processors or different versions of a processor to produce the same or similar results with little or no reimplementation or modification.
Acknowledgments
(Non-normative) Many members of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee participated in the creation of this specification and are gratefully acknowledged.
Non-normative information
This section contains non-normative information, including topics about new features in DITA 1.3 and migrating from DITA 1.2 to DITA 1.3.
Content models for learning and training package
For each element in the learning and training package, this section presents the content model and a list of parent elements that can contain that element.

`<link>`

The <link> element defines a relationship to another topic or non-DITA resource. When displayed, links are typically sorted based on their attributes, which define the type or role of the link's target in relation to the current topic.

The optional container elements for link (<linkpool> and <linklist>) allow authors to define groups with common attributes or to preserve the authored sequence of links on output. Links placed in a <linkpool> might be rearranged or removed for display purposes (combined with other local or map-based links); links in a <linklist> should be displayed in the order they are defined. Refer to those elements for additional explanation.

Content models

See appendix for information about this element in OASIS document type shells.

Inheritance

- topic/link

Example

<related-links>
  <linkpool type="concept">
    <link href="czez.dita#czez" role="next"></link>
    <link href="czunder.dita"></link>
    <link format="html" href="czover.htm#sqljsupp" role="parent">
      <linktext>Overview of the CZ</linktext>
    </link>
    <link format="html" href="czesqlj.htm#sqljemb">
      <linktext>Working with CZESQLJ</linktext>
      <desc>When you work with CZESQLJ, you need to know...</desc>
    </link>
  </linkpool>
</related-links>

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: Universal attribute group, Link relationship attribute group, outputclass, @keyref, The role and otherrole attributes, and query (DEPRECATED).