Specialization rules for element types
There are certain rules that apply to element type specializations.
A specialized element type has the following characteristics:
- A properly-formed
@class
attribute that specifies the specialization hierarchy of the element - A content model that is the same or less inclusive than that of the element from which it was specialized
- A set of attributes that are the same or a subset of those of the element from which it was specialized
- Values or value ranges of attributes that are the same or a subset of those of the element from which it was specialized
DITA elements are never in a namespace. Only the @DITAArchVersion
attribute
is in a DITA-defined namespace. All other attributes, except for those defined by the XML
standard, are in no namespace.
This limitation is imposed by the details of the @class
attribute syntax,
which makes it impractical to have namespace-qualified names for either vocabulary modules or
individual element types or attributes. Elements included as descendants of the DITA
<foreign>
element type can be in any namespace.
Note: Domain modules that are intended for wide use should define element type names that are
unlikely to conflict with names used in other domains, for example, by using a domain-specific
prefix on all names.