Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Markus Scherer markus

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Markus Scherer markus. scherer@us. ibm. com Raghuram (Ram) Viswanadha ramv@us. ibm. com IBM San José Globalization Center of Competency Copyright © 2003 -2004 IBM Corporation San José, CA – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Agenda • • • What is software globalization? Localizable content storage formats Problems faced by translators What is XLIFF? XLIFF Benefits Integration of XLIFF in localization process ICU and XLIFF Localization process demo Q & A 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Globalization of a Software Product • Localization (L 10 N): The process of modifying products or services to account for differences in distinct markets. • Internationalization (I 18 N) : The process of ensuring at a technical/design level that a product can be easily localized. • Globalization (G 11 N): The proper design and execution of systems, software, services, and procedures so that one instance of software, executing on a single server or end user machine, can process multilingual data, and present data culturally correctly in a multicultural environment such as the Internet. 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Localizable Content Storage Formats • Plethora of formats – VC++. rc and. mc files – Java resource bundles – ICU resource bundles –. NET resource files – POSIX Message Catalogs – GNU gettext -. . etc. Note: Refer to the conference proceedings for more information 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Problems for Translators • Large number of proprietary formats – Very different capabilities • Lack of tools which understand the different formats and interoperate • Formats in programming languages • Lack of a well defined process for managing the localization work flow 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU What is ICU? • Internationalization libraries for C, C++, Java* – Open source – non-viral – Sponsored by IBM * Sun’s Java licenses an earlier ICU version; ICU 4 J updates it. • Unicode standard compliant – full supplementary support • Cross-platform; extensible and customizable • High performance and thread-safe – Multiple locales in same thread – simultaneously • http: //oss. software. ibm. com/icu/ 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Services • Unicode string handling, sets of Unicode characters, and character properties • Character conversion (>200 conversion tables( • Language-sensitive collation (UCA) and text searching • Unicode regular expressions and text boundary analysis • Locale-sensitive formatting and parsing (>200 locales( • Timezone and currency handling • Complex text layout • Script transliteration and flexible text-text transformations • Resource bundles for storing localizable content 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Resource. Bundle Features • Comparable features for content storage except for meta data • Support for some XLIFF meta data features • Key-Value pairs + Nested Structures • External text and binary files can be imported • Bundle fallback mechanism – root bundle ‘fr’ bundle French ‘fr_CA’ bundle for French, Canada • Alias mechanism for conserving space 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU What is XLIFF? • XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) is an emerging industry standard for exchanging content for localization. • Defines XML vocabulary for expressing localizable data. • Designed by localization industry experts to address the problems faced by translators. 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU XLIFF Benefits • XML-based – Problems of encoding and character sets avoided – Rich internationalization features • Superset of other formats – Lossless conversion to and from different formats – Binary objects (e. g. icons) can be imported or represented inline • Not proprietary – Tool and vendor neutral • Key-value pairs + Nested structures • Extensible 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU XLIFF Benefits (contd. ) • Translation can be turned off. • Meta data for communication between developer and translator. • Validation through XML Schema or Data Type Definition (DTD). • Support for Translation Memory, Machine Translation (MT) and Computer Aided Translation. • Meta data for administrative info and version management. 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU XLIFF Snippet <trans-unit xml: space = "preserve" id = "root_fortunes_0" translate="yes"> <source xml: lang = "en"> A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of five. </source> <target xml: lang="te"> �� �������� � ����� �, �� � ����� ����� � </target> </trans-unit> 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU How Applications Localize Repository Product Developers 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference Localized files Tools that understand multiple formats Template Translators San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Using XLIFF • XLIFF is used only for interchange of content with translators. • XLIFF is used as the source format of localizable content. 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Transient XLIFF Files Repository Product Developers 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference XLIFF Filter Template XLIFF File Translators Localized XLIFF Files San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Source XLIFF Files Repository Product Developers XLIFF Filter in build process Template 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference Template XLIFF File Translators Localized XLIFF Files San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU XLIFF for Localization Engineers Q. What does XLIFF do for me? • Single format for quality control • NO errors due to 3 rd party tools: you control the converters • NO data interchange errors • Control what needs to be translated • Communicate with translator 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Localization with XLIFF and ICU Product Developers Repository XLIFF 2 ICUConverter and genrb Filters in build process Template in ICU format 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference Template XLIFF File Localized XLIFF Files Translators San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Lets Localize! http: //oss. software. ibm. com/cvs/icuapp s/ufortune 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Conclusion • XLIFF is the best interchange format available • ICU provides tools for using XLIFF in the localization process 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU References and Resources • International Components for Unicode (ICU) : http: //oss. software. ibm. com/icu/ • XLIFF Specification: http: //www. oasis-open. org/committees/xliff/documents/cs-xliff-core-1. 120031031. htm XLIFF Overview: http: //xml. coverpages. org/xliff. html • • White Paper on XLIFF: http: //www. oasis-open. org/apps/group_public/download. php/3110/XLIFF-corewhitepaper_1. 1 -cs. pdf • Domino Global Workbench Version 6: http: //www 6. software. ibm. com/devcon/docs/dwkbbet 6. htm • XLIFF at IBM: http: //www. ibm. com/software/globalization/highlights/xliff. jsp • XLIFF at Sun: http: //www. sun. com/developers/gadc/technicalpublications/articles/xliff. html 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004

Localizing with XLIFF and ICU Questions Thank you for listening. Are there any questions? 26 th Internationalization & Unicode Conference San José, CA- – September, 2004