Supported DITA subset

OpenD parses a documented subset of DITA 1.3 itself, in TypeScript, with no Java toolchain. Every element it supports is listed here.

How elements are matched

Elements are matched by name. DTDs are not fetched or applied, so a DOCTYPE line is fine but has no effect, and @class specialisation is not used. Common HTML character entities such as  , —, → and ™ are understood without a DTD.

An element outside the subset still renders, as a plain block, and validation reports it as an unsupported-element warning.

Topic elements

The table lists every element allowed in topics, its group, and the HTML it renders as. It mirrors SUPPORTED_ELEMENTS in packages/dita/src/elements.ts, and a test fails if the two drift apart.

Element	Group	Renders as
`topic`	topic	article, or section when nested
`concept`	topic	article, or section when nested
`task`	topic	article, or section when nested
`reference`	topic	article, or section when nested
`glossentry`	topic	article, or section when nested
`troubleshooting`	topic	article, or section when nested
`draft-comment`	removed	removed by the build
`required-cleanup`	removed	removed by the build
`prolog`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`titlealts`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`navtitle`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`searchtitle`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`indexterm`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`data`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`data-about`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`foreign`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`unknown`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`colspec`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`resourceid`	metadata	kept, not rendered
`dita`	structure	children only
`title`	structure	heading, figcaption or caption by context
`shortdesc`	structure	`p`
`abstract`	structure	`div`
`body`	structure	`div`
`conbody`	structure	`div`
`taskbody`	structure	`div`
`refbody`	structure	`div`
`troublebody`	structure	`div`
`glossterm`	structure	`h1`
`glossdef`	structure	`p`
`glossBody`	structure	`div`
`section`	structure	`section`
`example`	structure	`section`
`bodydiv`	structure	`div`
`sectiondiv`	structure	`div`
`div`	structure	`div`
`related-links`	structure	nav "Related information"
`link`	structure	li with a link
`linktext`	structure	`span`
`linkpool`	structure	`div`
`linklist`	structure	`div`
`desc`	structure	`span`
`p`	blocks	`p`
`ul`	blocks	`ul`
`ol`	blocks	`ol`
`li`	blocks	`li`
`sl`	blocks	`ul`
`sli`	blocks	`li`
`dl`	blocks	`dl`
`dlhead`	blocks	`div`
`dthd`	blocks	`dt`
`ddhd`	blocks	`dd`
`dlentry`	blocks	`div`
`dt`	blocks	`dt`
`dd`	blocks	`dd`
`note`	blocks	aside with a label
`codeblock`	blocks	pre > code
`pre`	blocks	`pre`
`lines`	blocks	`div`
`lq`	blocks	`blockquote`
`fig`	blocks	`figure`
`image`	blocks	`img`
`alt`	blocks	`span`
`table`	blocks	`table`
`tgroup`	blocks	children only
`thead`	blocks	`thead`
`tbody`	blocks	`tbody`
`row`	blocks	`tr`
`entry`	blocks	td, or th in a header
`simpletable`	blocks	`table`
`sthead`	blocks	thead row
`strow`	blocks	`tr`
`stentry`	blocks	td, or th in a header
`properties`	blocks	`table`
`prophead`	blocks	thead row
`proptypehd`	blocks	`th`
`propvaluehd`	blocks	`th`
`propdeschd`	blocks	`th`
`property`	blocks	`tr`
`proptype`	blocks	`td`
`propvalue`	blocks	`td`
`propdesc`	blocks	`td`
`refsyn`	blocks	`section`
`prereq`	task	`section`
`context`	task	`section`
`steps`	task	`ol`
`steps-unordered`	task	`ul`
`steps-informal`	task	`div`
`step`	task	`li`
`cmd`	task	`span`
`info`	task	`div`
`substeps`	task	`ol`
`substep`	task	`li`
`stepxmp`	task	`div`
`stepresult`	task	`div`
`tutorialinfo`	task	`div`
`choices`	task	`ul`
`choice`	task	`li`
`result`	task	`section`
`postreq`	task	`section`
`tasktroubleshooting`	task	`section`
`condition`	troubleshooting	`section`
`troubleSolution`	troubleshooting	`div`
`cause`	troubleshooting	`section`
`remedy`	troubleshooting	`section`
`ph`	inline	`span`
`b`	inline	`b`
`i`	inline	`i`
`u`	inline	`u`
`sup`	inline	`sup`
`sub`	inline	`sub`
`tt`	inline	`code`
`line-through`	inline	`s`
`overline`	inline	`span`
`keyword`	inline	`span`
`term`	inline	`em`
`q`	inline	`q`
`xref`	inline	a, or plain text when hidden
`codeph`	inline	`code`
`filepath`	inline	`code`
`cmdname`	inline	`code`
`varname`	inline	`var`
`userinput`	inline	`kbd`
`systemoutput`	inline	`samp`
`uicontrol`	inline	`span`
`wintitle`	inline	`span`
`menucascade`	inline	span with > separators
`option`	inline	`code`
`parmname`	inline	`code`
`apiname`	inline	`code`
`msgph`	inline	`samp`
`synph`	inline	`code`
`text`	inline	`span`
`tm`	inline	span with a ™, ® or ℠ mark
`cite`	inline	`cite`
`fn`	inline	span in parentheses
`abbreviated-form`	inline	`span`

Map and bookmap elements

Maps may contain map, bookmap, title, topicmeta, navtitle, linktext, shortdesc, keywords, keyword, searchtitle, data, topicref, topichead, topicgroup, keydef, mapref, ditavalref, anchor, anchorref, navref, chapter, part, appendix, appendices, frontmatter, backmatter, notices, booktitle, mainbooktitle, booktitlealt, bookmeta, booklists, toc, indexlist, glossarylist, tablelist, figurelist, reltable, relheader, relcolspec, relrow, relcell, glossref and resourceid.

Of these, navigation is built from topicref, topichead, topicgroup, mapref, chapter, part, appendix, frontmatter and backmatter; keys come from any element with keys. Relationship tables, anchor, navref, ditavalref and the book lists are accepted and ignored. See Topics, maps and bookmaps.

Not supported yet

DTD processing and @class specialisation.
conrefend ranges and conaction. They produce an unsupported-conref warning, and only the start element is pulled.
Relationship tables, key scopes and branch filtering with ditavalref.
Topic references to external or non-DITA resources (unsupported-topicref).
DITAVAL flagging styles: flag includes the content without styling it.