# map

Purpose

The <map> element is used to define a map which describes the relationships among a set of DITA topics. Maps consist of references to topics organized into hierarchies. Maps provide a way to express these relationships in a single common format that can be used for different outputs, such as to aggregate related topics for a single print job.

The containing element for a map is the <map> element, which can take title and id attributes. Within the map, use the <topicref> element to add and organize references to the topics.

Contained by

This is the root element for mapping applications.

Contains

topicref (0 or more)

Attributes

Name | Description | Data Type | Default Value | Required?
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
title | An identifying title for this element. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | boolean: no
id | This attribute is only used for debugging purposes to tell where generated links came from. | ID | #IMPLIED | boolean: no
class | Not for use by authors. If an editor displays class attribute values, do not edit them. The class attribute supports specialization. Its predefined values help the output transforms work correctly with ranges of related content. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | boolean: no

Example

In this example, there are six topicrefs. They are nested and have a hierarchical relationship. Bats.xml is the parent topic and the other topics are its children.

    <map title="Bats" id="mybats"> Bats
     <topicref href="bats.xml" type="topic"
      <topicref href="batcaring.xml" type="task"></topicref>
      <topicref href="batfeeding.xml" type="task"></topicref>
      <topicref href="batsonar.xml" type="concept"></topicref>
      <topicref href="batguano.xml" type="reference"></topicref>
      <topicref href="bathistory.xml" type="reference"></topicref>
     </topicref>
    </map>