HTML attributes for at-a-glance feature

[Arle Lommel <alommel@gala-global.org>]

Bryan,

I really like the idea of being able to store information about HTML preview in the XLIFF file. I think it would be tremendously useful since you cannot, in many cases, reconstruct the rendering intent from the XLIFF file. For example, if I am working with a custom XML format, even encapsulating a tag like <productCode> in the XLIFF is useless unless you have some predefined rendering intent. On the other hand, if the importing tool knows to map that code to a particular, limited set of elements, it would be very useful for everyone downstream.

My thought is that we would need to limit the allowable HTML elements to those that can exist independently within the context of <p>. This would exclude items like <li> that cannot exist in a <p> tag. It would also eliminate <div>, <table>, and many other important HTML elements. My rationale for this scope limitation is that the goal should properly be to provide some idea of formatting to the translator within the segment, not of the whole document structure. Trying to move up the ladder to show more structure would open a can of worms in terms of complexity and requirements for the interpreting agent.

Best,

Arle