The <topicgroup> element groups <topicref> elements for common treatment without affecting the structural hierarchy of the map, as opposed to nesting <topicref> elements, which does imply a structural hierarchy. The <topicgroup> element can provide linking relationships and shared, inherited attributes to the set of elements that it contains without affecting the resulting table of contents or navigation.
Beginning with DITA 1.2, you are able to specify a <navtitle> element within the <topicmeta> element inside of a <topicgroup>. The <topicgroup> element is meant as a non-titled grouping element, so adding a <navtitle> element to the <topicgroup> element has no defined purpose, and processors must ignore the title. Processors may (but need not) issue a message when ignoring the title.
+ map/topicref mapgroup-d/topicgroup
Each <topicref> element in the following example inherits the audience and linking attributes. In this way the common attributes are set for the entire group of <topicref> elements without affecting the navigation hierarchy.
<topicgroup audience="novice" linking="none"> <topicref href="this.dita"/> <topicref href="that.dita"/> <topicref href="theother.dita"/> </topicgroup>
topicref-atts attribute group (collection-type, processing-role, type, scope, locktitle, format, linking, toc, print, search, chunk) |
A set of related attributes. See 3.4.1.8 topicref-atts, topicref-atts-no-toc, and topicref-atts-without-format attribute groups. |
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univ-atts attribute group (includes select-atts, id-atts, and localization-atts groups) |
A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.3 univ-atts attribute group |
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A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.2 global-atts attribute group |
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Common attributes described in 3.4.1.9 Other common DITA attributes |