###### 3.1.3.1.14 metadata

The <metadata> section of the prolog contains information about a topic such as audience and product information. Metadata can be used by computational processes to select particular topics or to prepare search indexes or to customize navigation. Elements inside of <metadata> provide information about the content and subject of a topic; prolog elements outside of <metadata> provide lifecycle information for the content unit (such as the author or copyright), which are unrelated to the subject.

Beginning with DITA 1.2, the metadata element is available inside topicmeta in maps, although the contents of metadata are still available directly inside topicmeta. As with the prolog, the metadata element within topicmeta allows you to group elements that describe the content or subject of the target. The primary purpose for enabling the metadata element within maps is to allow easier reuse between topics and maps.

###### Contains

Doctype | Content model
topic, concept, ditabase, glossary, glossentry, glossgroup, reference, task, subjectScheme, machineryTask, learningAssessment, learningContent, learningOverview, learningPlan, learningSummary | ( (audience) (any number) then (category) (any number) then (keywords) (any number) then (prodinfo) (any number) then (othermeta) (any number) then (data or data-about or foreign or unknown) (any number) )
map, bookmap, classifyMap, learningBookmap, learningMap | ( (audience) (any number) then (category) (any number) then (keywords or exportanchors) (any number) then (prodinfo) (any number) then (othermeta) (any number) then (data or data-about or foreign or unknown) (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 | prolog
map (base), map (technical content), classifyMap, subjectScheme, learningMap | topicmeta
bookmap, learningBookmap | topicmeta, bookmeta

###### Inheritance

- topic/metadata

###### Example

Metadata within a topic:

    <prolog>
      <metadata>
        <audience type="user" job="using" experiencelevel="novice"/>
      </metadata>
    </prolog>

Metadata within a map:

    <topicref href="metadata.dita" navtitle="metadata element">
      <topicmeta>
        <metadata>
          <keywords>
            <indexterm>metadata element</indexterm>
          </keywords>
        </metadata>
      </topicmeta>
    </prolog>

###### Attributes

Name | Description | Data Type | Default Value | Required?
mapkeyref | Identifies the map, if any, from which the contained links are derived. This value is automatically generated by the same process that creates the links from the map, as a way to identify which map the links came from. If the <linklist> or <linkpool> is manually created by the author, there is no need to use this attribute. Note that this attribute is not related to the keyref attribute, and is not used for key based processing. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
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 |  |  |
global-atts attribute group (xtrf, xtrc) | A set of related attributes, described in 3.4.1.2 global-atts attribute group |  |  |
class | A common attribute described in 3.4.1.9 Other common DITA attributes |  |  |

Previous Topic: 3.1.3.1.13 keywords

Next Topic: 3.1.3.1.15 othermeta

Parent Topic: 3.1.3.1 Prolog (metadata) elements

Sibling Topics:

3.1.3.1.1 prolog

3.1.3.1.2 audience

3.1.3.1.3 author

3.1.3.1.4 brand

3.1.3.1.5 category

3.1.3.1.6 component

3.1.3.1.7 copyright

3.1.3.1.8 copyrholder

3.1.3.1.9 copyryear

3.1.3.1.10 created

3.1.3.1.11 critdates

3.1.3.1.12 featnum

3.1.3.1.13 keywords

3.1.3.1.15 othermeta

3.1.3.1.16 permissions

3.1.3.1.17 platform

3.1.3.1.18 prodinfo

3.1.3.1.19 prodname

3.1.3.1.20 prognum

3.1.3.1.21 publisher

3.1.3.1.22 resourceid

3.1.3.1.23 revised

3.1.3.1.24 series

3.1.3.1.25 source

3.1.3.1.26 vrmlist

3.1.3.1.27 vrm