Set a description for DITA content - Fluid Topics

It is possible to use the <shortdesc> element, or the ft:description metadata element to define a description in DITA maps and topics.

The following behavior can be expected:

If the <shortdesc> element is defined, it is used as a description for crawlers.
If both the <shortdesc> element and the ft:description metadata element are defined, ft:description overrides the <shortdesc>. However, the <shortdesc> content is still part of the HTML body part of the map.

The ft:description metadata element

It is also possible to set the map or topic description in an ft:description metadata element.

The following lines show the same DITA map with a description set in the map metadata:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE bookmap PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA BookMap//EN" "bookmap.dtd">
<bookmap>
    <booktitle>
        <mainbooktitle></mainbooktitle>
    </booktitle>
    <bookmeta>
        <othermeta name="ft:description" content="This document lists prices for our ready-for-sale time machine models."/>
    </bookmeta>
    <chapter>...</chapter>
</bookmap>

The following lines show DITA topic with a description set in the topic metadata:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
<topic id="price_time_machine_1_0">
    <title>Time Machine v1.0 - Pricing Information</title>
    <prolog>
        <metadata>
            <othermeta name="ft:description" content="This section gives pricing information for our v1.0 time machine."/>
        </metadata>
    </prolog>
    <body>
        <p>...</p>
    </body>
</topic>

Fluid Topics transforms these properties into the ft:description metadata element.

Set a description for DITA content - Fluid Topics - Latest

DITA Connector Reference Guide