anchorref

The <anchorref> element is used to reference an <anchor> element in a map. The contents of an <anchorref> element are rendered both in the original authored location and at the location of the referenced <anchor> element. The referenced <anchor> element may be defined in the current map or another map. When possible, this integration is done when displaying the map with <anchor> to an end user.

This function of the <anchorref> element is similar to that provided by the anchorref attribute of the <map> element. However, instead of attaching an entire map to an anchor point, this element allows the author to attach only the contents of a single map branch. This enables architects to reuse a branch of content without reusing the entire map.

If the rendering platform does not support runtime integration of navigation based on the anchor point, a build system should treat the <anchorref> element similar to a "conref push" instruction by pushing the content to the spot that contains the anchor. Note that many <anchorref> elements may push content to the same point; the order in which items are pushed is left undefined, although the order within a single <anchorref> is preserved.

Metadata cascading must take place in the original authored context, because the branch of content defined with the <anchorref> remains independent from the referenced map. The <anchorref> content does not take on the cascading metadata at the <anchor> location. For example, if the map containing the <anchorref> element sets a local copyright, that copyright cascades to the <anchorref> element and its children; it is retained after the content is rendered at the target <anchor> element.

By default, the content of the <anchorref> element is rendered at both the anchor target and the original location. To prevent the content from being rendered at the location of the <anchorref> element, set toc="no" on the <anchorref> element, and then set toc="yes" on each of its children so that they will not inherit the toc="no" setting.

Contains

note

These models represent only the default document types distributed by OASIS. Actual content models will differ with each new document type.

Doctype	Content model
map (base), bookmap	( (topicmeta) (optional) then (data or data-about or topicref or anchorref or keydef or mapref or topicgroup or topichead or topicset or topicsetref) (any number) )
map (technical content)	( (topicmeta) (optional) then (data or data-about or topicref or (anchorref or keydef or mapref or topicgroup or topichead or topicset or topicsetref) or (glossref) ) (any number) )
classifyMap	( (topicmeta) (optional) then (data or data-about or topicref or (topicsubject or topicapply) or (anchorref or keydef or mapref or topicgroup or topichead or topicset or topicsetref) ) (any number) )
subjectScheme	( (topicmeta) (optional) then (data or data-about or topicref or (anchorref or keydef or mapref or topicgroup or topichead or topicset or topicsetref) ) (any number) )
learningBookmap, learningMap	( (topicmeta) (optional) then (data or data-about or topicref or anchorref or keydef or mapref or topicgroup or topichead or topicset or topicsetref or learningObject or learningGroup) (any number) )

Contained by

Doctype	Content model
map (base), map (technical content), learningMap	map, topicref, relcolspec, relcell, topichead, topicgroup, anchorref, topicset, topicsetref, keydef
bookmap, learningBookmap	map, topicref, relcolspec, relcell, frontmatter, backmatter, draftintro, preface, chapter, part, appendix, notices, glossarylist, topichead, topicgroup, anchorref, topicset, topicsetref, keydef
classifyMap	map, topicref, relcolspec, relcell, topichead, topicgroup, anchorref, topicset, topicsetref, keydef, topicsubject, topicapply, topicCell, subjectCell
subjectScheme	map, topicref, relcolspec, relcell, subjectScheme, hasNarrower, hasKind, hasPart, hasInstance, hasRelated, subjectdef, subjectHead, relatedSubjects, subjectRole, topichead, topicgroup, anchorref, topicset, topicsetref, keydef

Inheritance

+ map/topicref mapgroup-d/anchorref

Example

Initial map contents

<topicref href="carPrep.dita">
    <topicref href="beforePrep.dita"/>
    <anchor id="prepDetail"/>
    <topicref href="afterPrep.dita"/>
</topicref>
...
<topicref href="astroTasks.dita">
    <topicref href="astroOverview.dita"/>
    <anchorref href="#prepDetail">
        <topicref href="astroChecklist.dita"/>
        <topicref href="otherPreparation.dita"/>
    </anchorref>
    <topicref href="astroConclusion.dita"/>
</topicref>

Effective result of evaluating the <anchorref> element

<topicref href="carPrep.dita">
    <topicref href="beforePrep.dita"/>
    <anchor id="prepDetail"/>
    <topicref href="astroChecklist.dita"/>
    <topicref href="otherPreparation.dita"/>
    <topicref href="afterPrep.dita"/>
</topicref>
...
<topicref href="astroTasks.dita">
    <topicref href="astroOverview.dita"/>
    <topicref href="astroChecklist.dita"/>
    <topicref href="otherPreparation.dita"/>
    <topicref href="astroConclusion.dita"/>
</topicref>

Attributes

Name	Description	Data Type	Default Value	Required?
navtitle	Specifies the title of the topic as it will appear in the navigation or tables of contents that are generated from the map. Beginning with DITA 1.2, the preferred way to specify the navigation title in a map is with the navtitle element, available inside the topicmeta element.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
href	A pointer to an <anchor> element in this or another DITA map. When rendered, the contents of the <anchorref> element will be copied to the location of the anchor.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
keys	Introduces one or more global identifiers for a resource referenced from a map. See The keys attribute for details on how to use the keys attribute.	NMTOKEN	#IMPLIED	No
query	This attribute is deprecated. It may be removed in the future.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
copy-to	Use the copy-to attribute on the <topicref> element to provide a different file name for a particular instance of the topic in the map (for example, to separate out the different versions of the topic, rather than combining them on output). The links and navigation associated with that instance will point to a copy of the topic with the file name you specified. Use the <linktext> and <shortdesc> in the <topicref>'s <topicmeta> to provide a unique name and short description for the new copy.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
collection-type	Collection types describe how links relate to each other. The processing default is "unordered", although no default is specified in the DTD or Schema. unordered Indicates that the order of the child topics is not significant. sequence Indicates that the order of the child topics is significant; output processors will typically link between them in order. choice Indicates that one of the children should be selected. family Represents a tight grouping in which each of the referenced topics not only relates to the current topic but also relate to each other. -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information. Usage of the collection-type attribute on <reltable> and <relcolspec> is currently undefined and reserved for future use.	(unordered \| sequence \| choice \| family \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
processing-role	Describes the processing role of the referenced topic. The processing default is "normal". If the value is not specified locally, but is specified on an ancestor, the value will cascade from the closest ancestor. normal Normal topic that is a readable part of the information. resource-only The topic is used as a resource for processing purposes, but is not a readable unit of information on its own. This topic should not be included in a rendered table of contents, and the topic should not be rendered on its own. -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.	(normal \| resource-only \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
type	Describes the target of a reference. For the anchorref element, this value defaults to "anchor", because the element is expected to point to an anchor element in this or another map.	CDATA	anchor	No
scope	The scope attribute identifies the closeness of the relationship between the current document and the target resource. See The scope attribute for more information on values.	(local \| peer \| external \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
locktitle	If locktitle is set to "yes", the <navtitle> element or @navtitle attribute is used if it is present. Otherwise, the navtitle is ignored and the navigation title is retrieved from the referenced file. note The @navtitle attribute is deprecated in favor of the <navtitle> element. When both a <navtitle> element and a navtitle attribute are specified, the <navtitle> element should be used. yes The navtitle in the map is used. no The navtitle or title of the topic is used. This is the processing default. -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.	(yes \| no \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
format	The format attribute identifies the format of the resource being referenced. For the anchorref element, this value defaults to "ditamap", because the element references a point in a map.	CDATA	ditamap	No
linking	Defines some specific linking characteristics of a topic's current location in the map. If the value is not specified locally, but is specified on an ancestor, the value will cascade from the closest ancestor. targetonly A topic can only be linked to and cannot link to other topics. sourceonly A topic cannot be linked to but can link to other topics. normal A topic can be linked to and can link to other topics. Use this to override the linking value of a parent topic. none A topic cannot be linked to or link to other topics. -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.	(targetonly \| sourceonly \| normal \| none \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
toc	Specifies whether a topic appears in the table of contents (TOC). If the value is not specified locally, but is specified on an ancestor, the value will cascade from the closest ancestor.	(yes \| no \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
print	Specifies whether the topic should be included in a print-specific rendition, such as PDF. The processing default is "yes". If the value is not specified locally, but is specified on an ancestor, the value will cascade from the closest ancestor. yes Include the topic in the print-oriented file. no Do not include the topic in a print-oriented file. printonly Only include the topic when rendering the DITA content in a print-oriented context; the topic should not be included in other contexts, such as when rendering as HTML. -dita-use-conref-target See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.	(yes \| no \| printonly \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
search	Describes whether the target is available for searching. If the value is not specified locally, but is specified on an ancestor, the value will cascade from the closest ancestor. yes no -dita-use-conref-target	(yes \| no \| -dita-use-conref-target)	#IMPLIED	No
chunk	When a set of topics is transformed using a map, the chunk attribute allows multi-topic documents to be broken into smaller files and multiple individual topics to be combined into larger combined documents. For a detailed description of the chunk attribute and its usage, see Chunking in the DITA Architectural Specification.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
keyref	Keyref provides a redirectable reference based on a key defined within a map. See The keyref attribute for information on using this attribute.	CDATA	#IMPLIED	No
univ-atts attribute group (includes select-atts, id-atts, and localization-atts groups)	A set of related attributes, described in univ-atts attribute group
global-atts attribute group (xtrf, xtrc)	A set of related attributes, described in global-atts attribute group
class, outputclass	Common attributes described in Other common DITA attributes