##### 3.2.1.1 concept

The <concept> element is the top-level element for a topic that answers the question “what is?” Concepts provide background information that users must know before they can successfully work with a product or interface. Often, a concept is an extended definition of a major abstraction such as a process or function. It might also have an example or a graphic, but generally the structure of a concept is fairly simple.

###### Contains

Doctype | Content model
concept | ( (title) then (titlealts) (optional) then (abstract or shortdesc) (optional) then (prolog) (optional) then (conbody) (optional) then (related-links) (optional) then (concept) (any number) )
ditabase | ( (title) then (titlealts) (optional) then (abstract or shortdesc) (optional) then (prolog) (optional) then (conbody) (optional) then (related-links) (optional) then (topic or concept or task or reference or glossentry or glossgroup) (any number) )
glossary, glossentry, glossgroup | ( (title) then (titlealts) (optional) then (abstract or shortdesc) (optional) then (prolog) (optional) then (conbody) (optional) then (related-links) (optional) then (topic) (any number) )
learningContent | ( (title) then (titlealts) (optional) then (abstract or shortdesc) (optional) then (prolog) (optional) then (conbody) (optional) then (related-links) (optional) then ( (no-topic-nesting) (optional) ) (any number) )

###### Contained by

Doctype | Content model
concept | concept
ditabase | dita, topic, concept, task, reference
learningContent | learningContent

###### Inheritance

- topic/topic concept/concept

###### Example

    <concept id="concept">
     <title>Introduction to Bird Calling</title>
     <shortdesc>If you wish to attract more birds to your Acme Bird Feeder,
    learn the art of bird calling. Bird calling is an efficient way
    to alert more birds to the presence of your bird feeder.</shortdesc>
     <conbody>
       <p>Bird calling requires learning:</p>
       <ul>
        <li>Popular and classical bird songs</li>
        <li>How to whistle like a bird</li>
       </ul>
     </conbody>
    </concept>

###### Attributes

Name | Description | Data Type | Default Value | Required?
id | This ID enables topics to be referenced uniquely by topicrefs in DITA maps. | ID |  | Yes
conref-atts attribute group (conref, conrefend, conaction, conkeyref) | A set of related attributes; includes all of the attributes described in 3.4.1.4 id-atts attribute group except for the id attribute. |  |  |
xmlns:ditaarch | Declares the default DITA namespace. |  | "http://dita.​oasis-open.​org/​architecture/​2005/" |
DITAArchVersion | Designates the version of the architecture that is in use. The default value will increase with each release of DITA. | CDATA | "1.2" | No
domains | Indicates the specialized domains that are included in the DTD or Schema. This value will differ depending on what domains are included in the current DTD or Schema. | CDATA | Varies based on the DTD or Schema; a sample value is "(topic ui-d) (topic hi-d) (topic pr-d) (topic sw-d) (topic ut-d) (topic indexing-d)" | No
select-atts attribute group (props, base, platform, product, audience, otherprops, importance, rev, status) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.5 select-atts attribute group |  |  |
localization-atts attribute group (translate, xml:lang, dir) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.6 localization-atts attribute group. |  |  |
global-atts attribute group (xtrf, xtrc) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.2 global-atts attribute group |  |  |
class, outputclass | Common attributes described in 3.4.1.9 Other common DITA attributes |  |  |

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Parent Topic: 3.2.1 Concept elements

Sibling Topics:

3.2.1.2 conbody

3.2.1.3 conbodydiv