Glossary · Information units

iiRDS Document

Also known as: document

In iiRDS (intelligent information Request and Delivery Standard), a Document is an information unit that collects information for a specific audience and purpose — for example an operating manual, a service manual or instructions for use (IFU).

iiRDS term
Ontology
Information architecture

In one sentence

An iiRDS Document is an information unit that collects information for one audience and purpose, such as an operating manual or an IFU.

Example

The operating manual of a packaging machine, delivered as one PDF rendition and typed as iirds:Document, with metadata for the machine model, the audience “operator” and the lifecycle phase “operation”.

In-depth wiki articleiiRDS Document: the information unit for complete deliverables

How it applies

Technical documentation: Use Document when a deliverable is read as a whole — typically a PDF or printed manual — and Topic when content is delivered piece by piece.
Migration: Existing PDF manuals can join an iiRDS package as Documents with a single rendition, long before they are rewritten as topics. That makes legacy content searchable in a portal on day one.
MedTech: Instructions for use and other regulated deliverables are typical Documents. The metadata lets a portal show the IFU that matches a specific device and revision.
AI and retrieval: A Document gives a retrieval system the frame — product, audience, purpose. Individual sections of its file can be addressed with a RangeSelector, for example a page range in the PDF.

Document vs. Topic

A Topic covers one subject and makes sense on its own. A Document collects information for a purpose and usually covers many subjects. Both are subclasses of InformationUnit, so both carry metadata and both can have renditions.

In RDF

Shown in Turtle for readability — inside a package, metadata.rdf is written in RDF/XML.

@prefix iirds: <http://iirds.tekom.de/iirds#> .

<https://example.com/iirds/operating-manual> a iirds:Document ;
    iirds:has-rendition [
        a iirds:Rendition ;
        iirds:format "application/pdf" ;
        iirds:source "content/operating-manual.pdf"
    ] .