Re: [xliff] Request approval of "Preserve XML attribute or metadata without extensibility" proposal

[David Walters <waltersd@us.ibm.com>]

What is the purpose of making these attribute values available within XLIFF?  Is it related to the "preview" function that has been proposed?  Providing this as a way to handle translatable attribute values does not seem to fit into the XLIFF structure very well.  You would have to provide this text within <source> and <target> elements to make this translatable.  Now you could have multiple (2+) translatable strings defined within one <trans-unit>.  I thought we were tending towards making each translatable attribute value a separate <trans-unit> element.

I agree with Yves when he asked about why limit it to XML.  This concept could apply to many non-XML file format, like HTML, resource files, message files, etc.

David

Corporate Globalization Tool Development
EMail:  waltersd@us.ibm.com          
Phone: (507) 253-7278,   T/L:553-7278,   Fax: (507) 253-1721

CHKPII:                    http://w3-03.ibm.com/globalization/page/2011
TM file formats:     http://w3-03.ibm.com/globalization/page/2083
TM markups:         http://w3-03.ibm.com/globalization/page/2071


"Schnabel, Bryan S" ---03/12/2012 06:23:37 PM---I move that we promote the proposed feature, "2.21. (B25) Preserve XML attribute or metadata without

From: "Schnabel, Bryan S" <bryan.s.schnabel@tektronix.com>
To: "xliff@lists.oasis-open.org" <xliff@lists.oasis-open.org>
Date: 03/12/2012 06:23 PM
Subject: [xliff] Request approval of "Preserve XML attribute or metadata without extensibility" proposal
Sent by: <xliff@lists.oasis-open.org>

---

I move that we promote the proposed feature, "2.21. (B25) Preserve XML attribute or metadata without extensibility" (http://wiki.oasis-open.org/xliff/XLIFF2.0/FeatureTracking#XLIFF2.0.2BAC8-Feature.2BAC8-PreserveXMLattributeormetadatawithoutextensibility.A.28B25.29PreserveXMLattributeormetadatawithoutextensibility ) to section 1, as an approved feature for XLIFF 2.0 (http://wiki.oasis-open.org/xliff/XLIFF2.0/FeatureTracking#ApprovedFeaturesforXLIFF2.0 ). 
 
If any voting member of the TC agrees, please second.
 
Here's some background.
 
Today we nearly always need to use extensibility to preserve source XML attributes when converting an XML file to XLIFF. We should create a way to preserve the attributes using supported XLIFF markup - removing the need to extend.
 
Consider this XML element:
 
<para id="g_3423_spectrum" alt="It's orders of magnitude faster" rev="c">This is orders of magnitude faster than swept analysis techniques.</para>
 
If we were to allow an element like <meta-hold> (would really need to come up with a better name though) to contain the name of the attribute, its value, and optionally its type and translate y/n, we would eliminate the need for extensibility for this use case.
 
Example:
 
<trans-unit id="para-73">
    <meta-hold name="id" translate="no">g_3423_spectrum</meta-hold>
    <meta-hold name="alt" translate="yes">It's orders of magnitude faster</meta-hold>
    <meta-hold name="rev">c</meta-hold>
    <source>This is orders of magnitude faster than swept analysis techniques.</source> 
</trans-unit>
 
I include the following, not to propose to specifically update the schema in this manner, but rather to provide more background on the proposed data types and constraints.
 
Modification to schema:
 
    <xsd:element name="meta-hold">
        <xsd:complexType mixed="true">
            <xsd:group maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0" ref="xlf:ElemGroup_TextContent"/> 
            <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required"/> 
            <xsd:attribute name="type" use="optional"/> 
            <xsd:attribute name="translate" use="optional"/> 
        </xsd:complexType> 
    </xsd:element> 
 
Allow the usual inline elements, but do not allow nested <meta-hold> elements
 
    <xsd:group name="ElemGroup_TextContent">
        <xsd:choice>
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:g"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:bpt"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:ept"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:ph"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:it"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:mrk"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:x"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:bx"/> 
            <xsd:element ref="xlf:ex"/> 
        </xsd:choice> 
    </xsd:group>
 
Please feel free to join this discussion if you have questions, concerns, objects, or if you support this idea.
 
Thanks,
Bryan Schnabel
Content Management Architect
Phone: 503.627.5282
www.tektronix.com