Documentation Center

Applicability in S1000D data modules

Although many types of applicability or effectivity can be supported, for illustration purposes, this documentation uses S1000D applicability as the model. This model lets you achieve reuse when most of the data module applies to multiple situations.

To achieve applicability, tag certain parts of the data module as "applicable only to X". The coding of S1000D applicability must conform to S1000D 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 4.0 or 4.1. Only tag content in this way if it is not common or shared; the rest of the technical content should be written as normal. If you do this, only the applicable technical content, based on the user's configuration, is shown.

For example, consider a 10-step procedure to install a new computer. Eight of the ten steps must always be performed: open the box, take out the computer and so on. But one step applies only if the computer is of model 7320A, and another step applies only if the model is 8320B.

In this scenario, you would write all data modules without applicability tagging, except for the step that applies only to 7320A and the step that applies only to 8320B. You would add applicability markup to those two steps to indicate their limited applicability.

Users who view the content indicate their model number, and if they enter 7320A or 8320B, one or the other step is displayed. If they enter another model number, neither of the two steps is displayed.