###### 3.1.2.1.2 topicref

The <topicref> element identifies a topic (such as a concept, task, or reference) or other resource. A <topicref> can contain other <topicref> elements, allowing you to express navigation or table-of-contents hierarchies, as well as implying relationships between a containing (parent) <topicref> and its children. You can set the collection-type of a parent <topicref> to determine how its children are related to each other. You can also express relationships among <topicref> elements by using group and table structures (<topicgroup> and <reltable>). Relationships are expressed as links in the output; by default, each participant in a relationship has links to the other participants in that relationship.

You can fine tune the output from your map by setting different attributes on the <topicref> element. For example, the linking attribute controls how a topic's relationships to other topics are expressed as links, and the toc attribute controls whether the topic shows up in TOC or navigation output.

###### Contains

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

###### Example

###### In this example, there are six <topicref> elements. They are nested and have a hierarchical relationship. Bats.dita is the parent topic and the other topics are its children.

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

###### 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 the resource represented by the <topicref>. See 3.4.2.1 The href attribute for detailed information on supported values and processing implications. References to DITA content cannot be below the topic level: that is, you cannot reference individual elements inside a topic. References to content other than DITA topics should use the format attribute to identify the kind of resource being referenced. | CDATA | #IMPLIED | No
keys | Introduces one or more global identifiers for a resource referenced from a map. See 3.4.2.2 The keys attribute for details on how to use the keys attribute. | NMTOKEN | #IMPLIED | No
keyref | Keyref provides a redirectable reference based on a key defined within a map. See 3.4.2.3 The keyref attribute for information on using this attribute. | CDATA | #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
topicref-atts attribute group (collection-type, processing-role, type, scope, locktitle, format, linking, toc, print, search, chunk) | A set of related attributes. See 3.4.1.8 topicref-atts, topicref-atts-no-toc, and topicref-atts-without-format attribute groups. |  |  |
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, outputclass | Common attributes described in 3.4.1.9 Other common DITA attributes |  |  |

Previous Topic: 3.1.2.1.1 map

Next Topic: 3.1.2.1.3 topicmeta

Parent Topic: 3.1.2.1 Basic map elements

Sibling Topics:

3.1.2.1.1 map

3.1.2.1.3 topicmeta

3.1.2.1.4 anchor

3.1.2.1.5 navref

3.1.2.1.6 reltable

3.1.2.1.7 relrow

3.1.2.1.8 relcell

3.1.2.1.9 relheader

3.1.2.1.10 relcolspec