DITA Resource Center

File naming conventions

DITA uses certain naming conventions and file extension for topics, maps, modules, and document-type implementation files.

Files that contain DITA content should use the following naming conventions:

DITA topics
  • *.dita (recommended)
  • *.xml
DITA maps
*.ditamap
Conditional processing profiles
profilename.ditaval

Files that define DITA document-type components must use the following naming conventions:

Document-type shell files
  • typename.dtd
  • typename.xsd

Where typename is the name of the intended root topic or map type defined by the document type shell or, as needed, a name that clearly identifies both the intended root map or topic type and distinguishes the document type shell from other shells for the same root type.

note

For example, the OASIS-provided document-type shells for technical content include two different document-type shells for the task topic type: task.dtd and generalTask.dtd, where task.dtd includes the strict task body constraint module and generalTask.dtd does not.

DTD structural module files
  • typename.mod
  • typename.ent
DTD domain module files
  • typenameDomain.mod
  • typenameDomain.ent
DTD constraint module files
constraintnameConstraint.mod
Schema structural module files
  • typenameMod.xsd
  • typenameGrp.xsd
Schema domain module files
typenameDomain.xsd
Schema constraint module files
  • constraintnameConstraintMod.xsd
  • constraintnameConstraintIntMod.xsd

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