How can I link to an external URL in my relationship table?

You can link to an external URL using keys.

Symptom

I want a relationship table entry to link to an external URL.

Problem

The href value for a topic is not available.

Solution

  1. In the DITA perspective, in DITA Map view, add a new key to your map. Right-click the map, click Insert Element > keydef.
  2. Right-click the keydef and click Edit keydef.
  3. In the Edit keydef dialog box, in the keys field, type a name for the key.
  4. In the Edit keydef dialog box, in the Links to section, select href and enter the URL to link to.
  5. Click OK.
  6. In the Reltable Editing perspective, add a topicref element to the reltable row that contains the topic to link to.
    Relationship table insert topicref
  7. Click on the newly added topicref. In the Properties view, set the following values:
    • keyref to the name of the keydef
    • scope to external
    • for HTML outputs, set the format to HTML