Glossary · Document handover and classification
VDI 2770 main document
Also known as: main document (VDI 2770), VDI2770_Main
German: Hauptdokument
In VDI 2770 Blatt 1, the main document is the document of a documentation container that lists the documents delivered for one object and the main documents of its subordinate documentation containers. It is supplied as VDI2770_Main.pdf for people and VDI2770_Main.xml for systems and follows the main document concept of ISO 11005 and IEC 62023.
- Information architecture
- Standards
- Technical documentation
In one sentence
The VDI 2770 main document lists an object's delivered documents and subordinate containers, as VDI2770_Main.pdf and VDI2770_Main.xml.
Example
The main document of a centrifuge lists its operating instructions, data sheet, certificates and spare parts list, and refers to the main document of the supplied drive motor one level down.
How it applies
- A tree of documentation: Main documents refer to the documents of their object and to the main documents of the subordinate documentation containers, so the documentation of a whole plant forms a tree that a receiving system can walk from the top level down to each purchased part.
- People and systems: The PDF version gives a person an overview of what was delivered; the XML version carries the same references as metadata, so that a system can check that every listed document arrived.
- Object identity: A main document belongs to the delivered object instance. The VDI 2770 reference implementation checks that a main document refers to exactly one object and gives its serial number, has exactly one document version and has the status released.
- Standards behind it: VDI 2770 uses the main document as defined in ISO 11005 (use of main documents) and IEC 62023 (structuring of technical information and documentation), both normative references of the guideline.
Main document vs. iiRDS/H content list
iiRDS/H requires a content list index.html in the root folder of the package, which the iiRDS specification itself calls the "main document" in VDI 2770. It is a table with one row per document — title, language, product, document category and a link to the PDF/A rendition. Unlike the VDI 2770 main document it is not an information unit and must not be referenced in the metadata; the machine-readable references live in the package's JSON-LD and RDF metadata.