DITA Resource Center

searchtitle

The <searchtitle> element is used to specify a title that should be displayed by search tools that locate the topic. This is most useful when the topic has a title that makes sense in the context of a single information set, but may be too general in a list of search results; for example, a topic title of "Markup example" may make sense as part of a guide to DITA, but when found among thousands of unrelated topics, a search title of "DITA markup example" is more useful.
When a topic is rendered as XHTML, the contents of the <searchtitle> will typically appear in the XHTML's title element, which used in the result summary for many search engines. This element may not be supported for output formats that do not support distinct search titles for topics.

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
topic (base), learningAssessment, learningContent, learningOverview, learningPlan, learningSummary ( text data or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or keyword or term or ph or b or i or sup or sub or tt or u) (any number)
map (base), classifyMap, subjectScheme, learningBookmap, learningMap ( text data or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or keyword or term) (any number)
topic (technical content), concept, ditabase, glossary, glossentry, glossgroup, reference, task ( text data or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or keyword or apiname or option or parmname or cmdname or msgnum or varname or wintitle or term or abbreviated-form or ph or b or i or sup or sub or tt or u or codeph or synph or filepath or msgph or systemoutput or userinput or menucascade or uicontrol) (any number)
map (technical content), bookmap ( text data or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or keyword or apiname or option or parmname or cmdname or msgnum or varname or wintitle or term or abbreviated-form) (any number)
machineryTask ( text data or data or data-about or foreign or unknown or keyword or wintitle or term or ph or b or i or sup or sub or tt or u or menucascade or uicontrol) (any number)

Contained by

Doctype Content model
topic (base), topic (technical content), concept, ditabase, glossary, glossentry, glossgroup, reference, task (strict), task (general), machineryTask, learningAssessment, learningContent, learningOverview, learningPlan, learningSummary titlealts
map (base), map (technical content), classifyMap, subjectScheme, learningMap topicmeta
bookmap, learningBookmap topicmeta, bookmeta

Inheritance

"- topic/searchtitle " when used in topics, and "- map/searchtitle " when used in maps.

Example

In the following example, the general title "Programming Example" is likely very useful in a set of information about XSLT basics; however, the same title is not helpful among a set of search results from the entire internet. In that case, "Example of basic programming in XSLT" will be much more helpful.

<task id="progexample">
 <title>Programming Example</title>
  <titlealts><searchtitle>Example of basic
             programming in XSLT</searchtitle></titlealts>
 <taskbody> . . . </taskbody>
</task>

When searchtitle is used in maps, the element provides a new search title for the topic when used in a specific context. For example, the if the following map includes information about programming in many languages, searches among that information set will be most useful when they return "Example of programming in XSLT":

<topicref href="progexample.dita">
  <topicmeta>
    <navtitle>Programming example</navtitle>
    <searchtitle>Example of programming in XSLT</searchtitle>
  </topicmeta>
</topicref>

Attributes

Name Description Data Type Default Value Required?
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

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