MDITA syntax

In 2017, the Markdown plug-in was superseded by the LwDITA plug-in, which was bundled with DITA-OT 3.0, and added new formats for Lightweight DITA. The mdita format implements the subset of Markdown features proposed in the latest specification drafts, but differs in some ways from the original Markdown DITA format.

To apply the stricter LwDITA-specific processing to a Markdown topic, create a topic reference in your map and set the @format attribute to mdita:

<map>
  <topicref href="mdita-topic.md" format="mdita"/>
</map>

In this case, the first paragraph in the topic is treated as a short description, and tables are converted to DITA <simpletable> elements.

The MDITA format uses CommonMark as the underlying markup language. MDITA files must be UTF-8 encoded.

The MDITA parser processes topics according to the MDITA “Extended profile” proposed for LwDITA. The "Core profile" can be enabled for custom parser configurations.

The following Markdown constructs are parsed differently when the @format attribute is set to mdita.

Titles and document structure

The first heading level generates a topic and the second heading level a section:

# Topic title

## Section title

<topic id="topic_title">
  <title>Topic title</title>
  <body>
    <section>
      <title>Section title</title>
    </section>
  </body>
</topic>

The ID is generated automatically from the title content.

Topic content

The first paragraph is treated as a <shortdesc> element.

# Topic title

First paragraph.

Second paragraph.

<topic id="topic_title">
  <title>Topic title</title>
  <shortdesc>First paragraph.</shortdesc>
  <body>
    <p>Second paragraph.</p>
  </body>
</topic>

Tables

Tables use the MultiMarkdown table extension format:

| First Header | Second Header | Third Header |
| ------------ | :-----------: | -----------: |
| Content      |    _Cell_     |         Cell |
| Content      |   **Cell**    |         Cell |

Tables in MDITA files are converted to DITA <simpletable> elements:

<simpletable>
  <sthead>
    <stentry>
      <p>First Header</p></stentry>
    <stentry>
      <p>Second Header</p></stentry>
    <stentry>
      <p>Third Header</p></stentry>
  </sthead>
  <strow>
    <stentry>
      <p>Content</p></stentry>
    <stentry>
      <p><i>Cell</i></p></stentry>
    <stentry>
      <p>Cell</p></stentry>
  </strow>
  <strow>
    <stentry>
      <p>Content</p></stentry>
    <stentry>
      <p><b>Cell</b></p></stentry>
    <stentry>
      <p>Cell</p></stentry>
  </strow>
</simpletable>

Table cells may only contain inline content.

MDITA map syntax

DITA maps can be written in MDITA using standard Markdown syntax for links and lists.

In MDITA, maps use the file name extension mditamap to define the file as a map:

# Map title

- [Topic title](topic.md)
  - [Nested title](nested.md)

<map>
  <title>Map Title</title>
  <topicref href="topic.dita" navtitle="Topic title">
    <topicref href="nested.dita" navtitle="Nested title"/>
  </topicref>
</map>

In MDITA, both ordered and unordered list items create <topicref> elements.

Common syntax

The following common Markdown constructs are processed in the same way for both mdita and markdown topics.

Hard line breaks

A line break that is preceded by two or more spaces is parsed as a hard line break. Because DITA doesn’t have a <br> element for line break, hard line breaks are converted into <?linebreak?> processing instructions.

foo··
baz

The LwDITA plug-in contains extensions for HTML5 and PDF outputs to generate line breaks.

Links

The format of local link targets is detected based on file name extension. The following extensions are treated as DITA files:

extension	format
`.dita`	`dita`
`.xml`	`dita`
`.md`	`markdown`
`.markdown`	`markdown`

All other link targets detect the format from the file name extension and are treated as non-DITA files. Absolute link targets are treated as external scope links:

[Markdown](test.md)
[DITA](test.dita)
[HTML](test.html)
[External](http://www.example.com/test.html)

<xref href="test.md">Markdown</xref>
<xref href="test.dita">DITA</xref>
<xref href="test.html" format="html">HTML</xref>
<xref href="http://www.example.com/test.html" format="html" scope="external">External</xref>

Images

Images used in inline content are processed with inline placement. If a block-level image contains a title, it is treated as an image wrapped in a figure element:

An inline ![Alt](test.jpg).

![Alt](test.jpg)

![Alt](test.jpg 'Title')

<p>An inline <image href="test.jpg"><alt>Alt</alt></image>.</p>
<image href="test.jpg" placement="break">
  <alt>Alt</alt>
</image>
<fig>
  <title>Title</title>
  <image href="test.jpg">
    <alt>Alt</alt>
  </image>
</fig>

Key references

Keys can be referenced using standard Markdown syntax for shortcut reference links:

[key]
[link text][key]
![image-key]

<xref keyref="key"/>
<xref keyref="key">link text</xref>
<image keyref="image-key"/>

Inline

The following inline elements are supported:

**bold**
_italic_
`code`
~~strikethrough~~

<b>bold</b>
<i>italic</i>
<codeph>code</codeph>
<ph status="deleted">strikethrough</ph>

Lists

Standard Markdown syntax is used for both ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists.

Unordered list items can be marked up using either asterisks “ *” or hyphens “ -” as list markers:

* one
* two
  - three
  - four

<ul>
  <li>one</li>
  <li>two
    <ul>
      <li>three</li>
      <li>four</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Ordered lists use either numbers or number signs “ #”, followed by a period:

1.  one
2.  two
    #. three
    #. four

<ol>
  <li>one</li>
  <li>two
    <ol>
      <li>three</li>
      <li>four</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
</ol>

Definition lists use the PHP Markdown Extra format with a single-line term followed by a colon and the definition:

Term
: Definition.

<dl>
  <dlentry>
    <dt>Term</dt>
    <dd>Defintion.</dd>
  </dlentry>
</dl>

Each definition list entry must have only one term and contain only inline content.

Metadata

A YAML metadata block as defined in the pandoc_metadata_block extension can be used to specify metadata elements for the DITA prolog.

The supported elements are:

author
source
publisher
permissions
audience
category
keyword
resourceid

Any unrecognized keys are output using the <data> element.

---
author:
  - Author One
  - Author Two
source: Source
publisher: Publisher
permissions: Permissions
audience: Audience
category: Category
keyword:
  - Keyword1
  - Keyword2
resourceid:
  - Resourceid1
  - Resourceid2
workflow: review
---

# Sample with YAML header

<title>Sample with YAML header</title>
<prolog>
  <author>Author One</author>
  <author>Author Two</author>
  <source>Source</source>
  <publisher>Publisher</publisher>
  <permissions view="Permissions"/>
  <metadata>
    <audience audience="Audience"/>
    <category>Category</category>
    <keywords>
      <keyword>Keyword1</keyword>
      <keyword>Keyword2</keyword>
    </keywords>
  </metadata>
  <resourceid appid="Resourceid1"/>
  <resourceid appid="Resourceid2"/>
  <data name="workflow" value="review"/>
</prolog>

Last modified: 13 February 2024