There are a few problems with that approach.

One is that the developers supply the context ID.  We have experimented
before with both (a) the writers writing material first, and supplying the
context ID (element ID attribute) to the developers, and (b) designing
conventions so the writers know what context ID the developers will choose.
In the end, however, the extra level of indirection provides a flexibility
that helps.

I have to admit that I stumbled across another issue that answers your
question, but may also scupper the approach I was going to take. That is,
several context IDs may point to the same topic. So we may go with
maintaining an external text file of mappings in the end.

Tom



                                                                                       
                                    
                    Norman Walsh                                                       
                                    
                    <[EMAIL PROTECTED]       To:     [EMAIL PROTECTED]                   
                                    
                    m>                   cc:     [EMAIL PROTECTED]          
                                    
                                         Subject:     Re: Which attribute to use for 
context-sensitive help?               
                    01/16/2003                                                         
                                    
                    06:24 AM                                                           
                                    
                                                                                       
                                    
                                                                                       
                                    



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/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] was heard to say:
| The application calls the help system, supplying a context ID, which is
| mapped to an element in the document. I want to store this mapping in the
| document, and then we can write out what the help system needs. I'd like
to
| assign the context ID for an element to an attribute for that element. I
| could use any old attribute, such as "role"
|
| <sect1 id="a-helpful-topic" role="SOME-HELP-CONTEXT-ID">...
|
| My question is, there is no obvious attribute to use for this purpose. Is
| there a conventional choice that I can follow?

What prevents you from using the elements actual ID as it's context ID?

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

- --
Norman Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>      | If today was a fish, I'd throw it
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | back in.
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee |
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