Adding Labels to Topics in the WebHelp Responsive Output

13 Dec 2021

Read time: 3 minute(s)

DITA topics can contain <keyword> elements that are usually placed in a <prolog> element, but they can also be used inside the topic body contents.

<topic id="topicID">
    <title>DITA 1.3 Features</title>
    <prolog>
        <metadata>
            <keywords>
                <keyword>DITA 1.3</keyword>
            </keywords>
        </metadata>
    </prolog>...

The Oxygen WebHelp Responsive output uses these keywords as a way of giving more priority to certain sequences of words when searching for content. By default, keywords do not appear in the published output.

This article is an attempt to add a new concept of a label:

A label is a keyword element with a special @outputclass="label" attribute. The label is always visible in the published output. It can be placed either in a prolog section or anywhere inside the topic where a keyword is allowed.
When a label is selected, the WebHelp output displays all other topics that have the same label value set to them.

Inserting Labels

We can decide to use the DITA <keyword> element with a certain @outputclass attribute value set to label to insert such keywords that should be displayed in the published output.

<topic id="topicID">
    <title>DITA 1.3 Features</title>
    <prolog>
        <metadata>
            <keywords>
                <keyword outputclass="label">DITA 1.3</keyword>
            </keywords>
        </metadata>
    </prolog>...

To make the insertion of such labels easier, you can, for example, create a custom Author action that inserts the labels and add the custom action to the content completion window: Adding a Custom Author Action to the Content Completion Window.

To have special styling for the inserted labels when editing, you can customize the CSS stylesheets used for DITA editing: Customizing the DITA Visual Editing Experience.

Factoring Labels When Publishing

The WebHelp publishing by default creates visual labels in the published output.