`<attributedef>`

The <attributedef> element specifies an attribute that is bound to a set of controlled values. This binding restricts the permissible values for the attribute to the set of controlled values.

Specialization hierarchy

The <attributedef> element is specialized from <data>. It is defined in the subject scheme module.

Content model

<data> **

Zero or more Zero or more <data>

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: ID and conref attributes, @base, @class, @name, @outputclass, @status, and @translate.

For this element, the following considerations apply:

The @name attribute is required. It specifies the name of the attribute to which the controlled values are bound.
The @translate attribute has a default value of no.

@base

Specifies metadata about the element. It is often used as a base for specialized attributes that have a simple syntax for values, but which are not conditional processing attributes.

The @base attribute takes a space-delimited set of values. However, when serving as a container for generalized attributes, the attribute values will be more complex. See Attribute generalization for more details.

@class (not for use by authors)

This attribute is not for use by authors. If an editor displays @class attribute values, do not edit them. Specifies a default value that defines the specialization ancestry of the element. Its predefined values allow DITA tools to work correctly with specialized elements. In a generalized DITA document the @class attribute value in the generalized instance might differ from the default value for the @class attribute for the element as given in the DTD or schema. See The class attribute rules and syntax for more information. This attribute is specified on every element except for the <dita> container element. It is always specified with a default value, which varies for each element.

@conaction

Specifies how the element content will be pushed into a new location. The following values are valid:

mark: The element acts as a marker when pushing content before or after the target, to help ensure that the push action is valid. The element with conaction="mark" also specifies the target of the push action with @conref. Content inside of the element with conaction="mark" is not pushed to the new location.
pushafter: Content from this element is pushed after the location specified by @conref on the element with conaction="mark". The element with conaction="pushafter" is the first sibling element after the element with conaction="mark".
pushbefore: Content from this element is pushed before the location specified by @conref on the element with conaction="mark". The element with conaction="pushbefore" is the first sibling element before the element with conaction="mark".
pushreplace: Content from this element replaces any content from the element referenced by the @conref attribute. A second element with conaction="mark" is not used when using conaction="pushreplace".
-dita-use-conref-target: See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

See Pushing reusable content to a new location for examples and details about the syntax.

@conkeyref

Specifies a key name or a key name with an element ID that acts as an indirect reference to reusable content. The referenced content is used in place of the content of the current element. See Indirect key-based content reuse for more details about the syntax and behaviors.

@conref

Specifies a URI that references a DITA element. The referenced content is used in place of the content of the current element. See Direct URI-based content reuse for examples and details about the syntax.

@conrefend

Specifies a URI that references the last element in a sequence of elements, with the first element of the sequence specified by @conref. The referenced sequence of elements is used in place of the content of the current element. See Reusing a range of elements for examples and details about the syntax.

@id

Specifies an identifier for the current element. This ID is the target for references by @href and @conref attributes and for external applications that refer to DITA or LwDITA content. This attribute is defined with the XML data type NMTOKEN, except where noted for specific elements within the language reference.

See id attribute for more details.

@name (data-element attributes)

Defines a unique name for the object.

The @name attribute is required. It specifies the name of the attribute to which the controlled values are bound.

@outputclass

Specifies a role that the element is playing. The role must be consistent with the basic semantic and expectations for the element. In particular, the @outputclass attribute can be used for styling during output processing; HTML output will typically preserve @outputclass for CSS processing.

@status

Specifies the modification status of the element. The following values are valid: new, changed, deleted, unchanged, and -dita-use-conref-target.

@translate

Specifies whether the content of the element should be translated. The following values are valid: yes, no, and -dita-use-conref-target.

See Element-by-element recommendations for translators for suggested processing defaults for each element.

The @translate attribute has a default value of no.

Example

This section is non-normative.

In the following code sample, the enumeration definition for the @otherprops attribute limits the permissible values to the subject values-otherprops:

<subjectScheme>
    <!-- DEFINE SETS OF CONTROLLED VALUES -->    
    <!-- Values for @otherprops -->
    <subjectdef keys="values-otherprops">
        <subjectdef keys="examples"/>
    </subjectdef>
    
    <!-- BINDS SETS OF CONTROLLED VALUES -->    
    <!-- Binding for @otherprops -->
    <enumerationdef>
        <attributedef name="otherprops"/>
        <subjectdef keyref="values-otherprops"/>
    </enumerationdef>

</subjectScheme>

This means that the only valid value for the @otherprops attribute is examples.