RE: [xliff-comment] Including XHTML with XLIFF

[Yves Savourel <ysavourel@translate.com>]

> From: Doug [mailto:doug@ektron.com]
> Sent: Mon, September 09, 2002 10:49 AM
> To: XLIFF
> Subject: [xliff-comment] Including XHTML with XLIFF
>
> I would like to include XHTML tags in the XLIFF document and still
> be able to validate and transform the XLIFF document. I don't want
> to require the translator to include the xhtml: (or html:)
> namespace when entering XHTML tags. It seems more natural to have
> to specify XLIFF tags (like <ph>) with the xlf: namespace rather
> than the more familiar HTML tags.
>
> Therefore I believe I need to make XHTML the default namespace and
> explicitly set the XLIFF namespace.
> Example XLIFF document,
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <xlf:xliff version="1.1" xmlns:xlf="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.1"
> xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";
> xsi:schemaLocation="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.1 xliff.xsd"
> xmlns="xhtml">
> 	<xlf:file original="" source-language="EN" target-language="ES"
> datatype="html">
> 		<xlf:body>
> 			<xlf:trans-unit id="hw" datatype="html">
> 				<xlf:source>
> 					<i class="greeting">Hello</i> <xlf:ph id="w">World</xlf:ph>
> 				</xlf:source>
> 				<xlf:target>
> 					<i class="greeting">Hola</i> <xlf:ph id="w">Mundo</xlf:ph>
> 				</xlf:target>
> 			</xlf:trans-unit>
> 		</xlf:body>
> 	</xlf:file>
> </xlf:xliff>
>
> This document validates without a problem.

I don't think it should validate. Trying with XMLSpy 4.4 and the latest
XLIFF XSD it doesn't. The reason is that there is no extension point in any
of the inline elements (<ph> in this case). In order to have non-XLIFF
elements in <ph> you would have to have an <xsd:any namespace="##other">
element in the definition of <ph> and there is none.

We had (and I guess still having) this discussion regarding non-XLIFF
namespaces in inline elements with Martin Dürst at the Unicode conference in
Dublin. Currently (1.0 and the latest draft of 1.1) they are not allowed. I
recall sending a list of reason and examples, but I can't find it anymore.
The reason is basically that XLIFF is meant to be generic, not specific to
XML content (many content of XLF file are coming from non-XML douments), and
treating XML content differently leads to make exception cases. I don't
think we have close the discussion on this though.

Comments anyone?


cheers,
-yves