The Nuts and Bolts How to use XLIFF

The Nuts and Bolts; How to use XLIFF Vocabularies, and other Open Standards for XML Translation and Localization The OASIS Symposium on the Future of XML Vocabularies 26 April, 2005 Bryan Schnabel, Tektronix, Inc. 1 9/25/2020

The thing about language translation. . . If you are involved in translation, you know just how tricky it can be – It’s never the easiest part of the operation – Some of these topics might really be useful for you If you’re not involved in translation, just watch this presentation in terms of an OASIS success story – The interaction between different XML vocabularies is an interesting concept 2 9/25/2020 Confidential

I will tell my story in Parts Part I: Good things – Why XLIFF is good – Why Open Standards are vital – Why diversity is good Part II: Sketch a quick example (case study) Part III: How does XLIFF work? – Nuts – Bolts Part IV: Demonstrations: interacting XML vocabularies – Technical Documentation and XLIFF – SVG and XLIFF – Online Help and XLIFF 3 9/25/2020 Confidential

Part I The Goodness: XLIFF, Open Standards, and Diversity are each good. And they are related. . . 4 9/25/2020 Confidential

In some ways, the relationship is hierarchical or layered 5 9/25/2020 Confidential

In some ways it’s linear 6 9/25/2020 Confidential

XLIFF is good XML Localization Interchange File Format (from the charter, http: //www. oasisopen. org/committees/xliff/charter. php) The purpose of the OASIS XLIFF TC is to define, through XML vocabularies an extensible specification for the interchange of localization information. The specification will provide the ability to mark up and capture localizable data and interoperate with different processes or phases without loss of information. The vocabularies will be tool-neutral, support the localization-related aspects of internationalization and the entire localization process. . 7 9/25/2020 Confidential

So, why is XLIFF good? It’s an open standard It has been developed by people from all the important disciplines in translation – Tool makers – Translation and localization vendors – End users Technical communicators and technical developers Software developers Being and open standard, and having been developed by a wide range of disciplines, XLIFF vocabularies reflect diversity 8 9/25/2020 Confidential

Open Standards are vital A company’s Information is one of its most valuable resources Proprietary tools and formats place Information, at risk – The information is difficult to access without the proprietary tool – Tool makers are not bound to maintain their tool in ways consistent with the requirements of a company Open standards facilitate “future-proofing” Open standards provide industry standard vocabularies to exchange information (peer to peer; vendor to client; apple to orange) 9 9/25/2020 Confidential

Afterall. . . “Successful business integration relies on agreement between parties on the vocabularies that define the messages they exchange, and the understanding of both the syntax and semantics of the exchanges. ” William Cox Jishnu Mukerji Symposium Co-Chairs * from The OASIS Symposium on the Future of XML Vocabularies, http: //www. oasis-open. org/events/symposium_2005/about. php 10 9/25/2020 Confidential

Part II To set the stage for the next parts, here’s an example: a case study Part III and Part IV will be framed in the context of this case study (mostly) 11 9/25/2020 Confidential

Tektronix Tektronix, Technical Communications department, is typical of many publishing groups – Staff of about 40 people tech writers, editors, graphic artists, production people, managers, 2 developers, 1 localization project manager – Many thousand pages per year paper manuals, cd – dvds, online help, manuals on the web (pdf), marketing product datasheets (html), important internal documents 12 9/25/2020 Confidential

For a long time we just published paper, lots of paper We got by rather well, for 17 years, using mostly Interleaf User manual TDS 3000 R eference Service manual Reference card 13 9/25/2020 Confidential

Translating with Interleaf was complicated Change log changes during translation cycle Translation provider – extraneous activity template Ileaf source doc build Ileaf docs (DTP) text extraction $$$$ $$ build Frame docs (DTP) graphics extraction Translators (Word in Trados) 14 9/25/2020 $$$$ $$ Ileaf xlated Ileaf doc xlated doc Frame xlated Frame doc xlated doc Translated documents were usually not maintained Confidential

An unplanned “what if” happened Interleaf was purchased by Broadvision’s roadmap for Interleaf departed from our requirements 15 9/25/2020 Confidential

We had to make a choice We chose to develop a new system based on open standards, starting with XML 16 9/25/2020 Confidential

The price of change “Rescue” Interleaf files – Develop a means to transform Interleaf files to XML – Develop the means to extract embedded Interleaf graphics (preserving fonts and vectors) Select XML tools Develop XML applications Training and implementation 17 9/25/2020 Confidential

Why it was worth the price Future proof – If any XML tool evolves away from Tektronix’ requirements, just get a new tool. – Data needs no “rescue operation” One source can be published in many formats – PDF – HTML – Online help Single sourcing is enabled in a non-proprietary way Translation becomes less problematic 18 9/25/2020 Confidential

Let’s explore this point further: Future proof – If any XML tool evolves away from Tektronix’ requirements, just get a new tool. – Data needs no “rescue operation” One source can be published in many formats – PDF – HTML – Online help Single sourcing is enabled in a non-proprietary way Translation becomes less problematic 19 9/25/2020 Confidential

XML-based translation (b 2 b XML transaction) Transform XML content English XML file – From authoring DTD – To XLIFF Schema XML (XLIFF Schema) Translation provider translates content Transform XML content Translated XML file – From XLIFF Schema – To authoring DTD Translated documents are maintained (become assets) 20 9/25/2020 XML (XLIFF Schema) Remember, the translation vendors helped write XLIFF; they are quite comfortable with it Confidential

Part III The nuts and bolts: here’s a brief look at how XLIFF works. 21 9/25/2020 Confidential

XLIFF and XML Vocabularies The XLIFF document stores bilingual source-target strings and metadata The XLIFF document preserves the structure from the original documents The XLIFF document can contain metadata to aid in other aspects of the translation – Word count – Translation memory – Alternate translations 22 9/25/2020 Confidential

What is XLIFF like to the user? At Tektronix, for example it goes like this: 23 9/25/2020 Confidential

Browse XML Repository for English file 24 9/25/2020 Confidential

Make final edits The writer uses an “authoring” DTD to do their work 25 9/25/2020 Confidential

Select “Translation Tools” (custom feature) An XLIFF file is created from the English XML, and ftp’d to the translation vendor (along with the image files, and a composed PDF) 26 9/25/2020 Confidential

Snip of an XLIFF file: prepared for the vendor <trans-unit resname="Para" tek: trk="n c 7" id="n-c-7"> <source xml: lang="EN">Assignments between logical links and protocols must always be unique. This is especially important if your measurement includes a protocol stack that contains both MTP and LAPx parameters. You can check for uniqueness in the <g id="guilabel-x-d 0 e 318" xmrk: ancs="5" ctype="x guilabel">Short View</g> pane. </source> <target state="needs-translation" xml: lang=“ZH"> Assignments between logical links and protocols must always be unique. This is especially important if your measurement includes a protocol stack that contains both MTP and LAPx parameters. You can check for uniqueness in the <g Hierarchical information is id="guilabel-x-d 0 e 318" xmrk: ancs="5"Allctype="x guilabel">Short View</g> pane. preserved in XLIFF file </target> Text is presented as Source </trans-unit> and Target elements in English; state attribute set to “needs translation” 27 9/25/2020 Confidential

Vendor translates the target; changes state <trans-unit resname="Para" tek: trk="n c 7" id="n-c-7"> <source xml: lang="EN"> Assignments between logical links and protocols must always be unique. This is especially important if your measurement includes a protocol stack that contains both MTP and LAPx parameters. You can check for uniqueness in the <g id="guilabel-x-d 0 e 318" xmrk: ancs="5" ctype="x guilabel">Short View</g> pane. </source> <target state="needs-review-translation" xml: lang=“ZH" >逻辑链接和协 议之间的分配必须总是唯一的。如果测量中存在同时包含 MTP 和 LAPx 参 数的协议堆栈，那么这一点至关重要。您可以在 <g id="guilabel-xd 0 e 123" xmrk: ancs="5" ctype="x-guilabel" >Short View（短视图）</g> 窗格中检查其唯一性。 </target> </trans-unit> 28 9/25/2020 Confidential

Translated “pack” is ftp’d back to Tektronix Contents: • Composed Chinese PDF file (showpages) • Translated Image files • Translated English / Chinese XLIFF file 29 9/25/2020 Confidential

Import the translated XLIFF file • XLIFF is transformed back into authoring DTD • Attributes and hierarchy are preserved • Translated file is checked into XML repository 30 9/25/2020 Confidential

Translated file can go on its merry way. . . 31 9/25/2020 Confidential

PDF file is automatically created for print 32 9/25/2020 Confidential

Other media from the same translated XLIFF Chinese Online Help generated from translated XLIFF file Chinese HTML generated from translated XLIFF file 33 9/25/2020 Confidential

Part IV The demonstrations Technical Documentation and XLIFF – xliff. Round. Trip – Tool that converts any XML to XLIFF, and back SVG and XLIFF – SVG to XLIFF to SVG – Tool for translating text in image files Online Help and XLIFF – Translate a document via XLIFF, and publishing each language as an online help system 34 9/25/2020 Confidential

xliff. Round. Trip tool: any doctype will do Complete round trip for ANY well-formed XML instance and XLIFF. . . Any XML instance xml 2 xliff. xsl Valid XLIFF file Translate XLIFF file xliff 2 xml. xsl Translated (same) XML instance * xliff. Round. Trip tool consists of two XSL files I developed for the XLIFF Technical Committee, and a Java application that processes the XML. I offer them free to the public under GNU license at https: //sourceforge. net/projects/xliffroundtrip/ 35 9/25/2020 Confidential

How about that Demo? Let’s break away from Power. Point for a few minutes for a live demonstration of XLIFF and Technical Documentation 36 9/25/2020 Confidential

SVG to XLIFF to SVG The generic roundtrip can be a good starting point, but sometimes complex document types require specified coding. Still, open standards should be embraced. Using open standards, in this demo we will: View an English SVG file in a text editor, the browser, and in 37 Adobe Illustrator Transform the SVG to XLIFF using only standards (XSLT) Translate the XLIFF to some mythical language Transform the XLIFF back to SVG View the mythical language SVG file in the browser and AI Look “under the hood” at the code 9/25/2020 Confidential

Why do we need more than just the generic tool? SVG instance perl – “well former” svg 2 xliff. xsl Valid XLIFF file Translate XLIFF file perl – “back former” Translated SVG instance xliff 2 svg. xsl Namespace challenges Less-than-well-formed instance from some SVG tool makers Judgment call: given the complexity of an SVG file, the generic xliff. Round. Trip Tool creates a “difficult-to-read” file (lots of XML “goo” which makes use of vocabularies to model the image geometry) 38 9/25/2020 Confidential

How about that Demo? Let’s break away from Power. Point for a few minutes for a live demonstration of XLIFF and Graphics 39 9/25/2020 Confidential

Compiling translated XML to online help Using mostly open standards (exception: the help compiler), we will: View an English XML file in the Epic Editor Transform the XML to XLIFF using open standards (XSLT) Translate the XLIFF to Chinese and German Transform the XLIFF to XHTML Compile the XHTML to Compiled online help (alas, MS HTML Help compiler, free but not open standard) View the Chinese and German online help 40 9/25/2020 Confidential

Open standards produce non-roundtrip English XML file 2 XLIFF files XSLT 2. 0 Transform to XHTML files Translate to Chinese and German 2 translated XLIFF files XSLT: Create the configuration files drawn from the translated XLIFF files - Project file - Index file - TOC file Online Help Difference: the starting point and ending point are not the same doctype 41 9/25/2020 Confidential

How about that Demo? Let’s break away from Power. Point for a few minutes for a live demonstration of XLIFF and Online Help 42 9/25/2020 Confidential

questions. . . 43 9/25/2020 Confidential