Relationship tables overview

Last Updated : Oct 15, 2024 |

Each DITA Map or BookMap can contain an optional relationship table, which identifies the links between the topics in the map.

Each row of a relationship table represents a relationship. For example, if you include a task topic and a reference topic in a row of a relationship table, those topics will have links to each other when you generate an output. If you have multiple topics that relate to another topic, yet those topics do not relate to each other, you must create individual rows in the relationship table for each relationship.

Create rows in a relationship table to link within each component. For cross-component linking, you can create the relationships in the parent map that includes those components.

Links can go out of control, therefore, create relationships between topics that have a strong relationship, rather than just linking to topics with tangential relationships. For example, linking all tasks in a component to every task does not make sense because the user can see those tasks in the table of contents and will understand that they are all related to the same general topic. If topics have a strong relationship to each other, you can add the relationship in the relationship table.