Question on CDATA in Xliff

[Ryan King <ryanki@microsoft.com>]

Hi TC, I have a question regarding CDATA in Xliff.

 

Here is the relevant section from the spec:

 

4.4 CDATA sections

 

CDATA sections (<![CDATA[...]]>) are allowed in XLIFF content, but on output they MAY be changed into normal escaped content.

 

Note that avoiding CDATA sections is considered a best practice from the internationalization viewpoint [XML I18N BP].

 

Processing Requirements

 

•Agents MUST process CDATA sections.

 

•Writers MAY preserve the original CDATA sections.

 

Given this example:

<![CDATA[this is <b>my cdata</b>]]>

 

What does “but on output they MAY be changed into normal escaped content” mean? Can it mean using inline tags? E.g.

 

<source>no text &lt;![CDATA[this is <pc dataRefEnd="d2" dataRefStart="d1" id="tag1">my cdata</pc>]]&gt;</source>

 

Or is that not recommended and it means using entities? e.g.

 

<source>no text &lt;![CDATA[this is &lt;b&gt;my cdata&lg;/b&lt;]]&gt;</source>

 

I’m assuming since it says MAY, that it is also valid to not escape it at all:

 

<source><![CDATA[this is <b>my cdata</b>]]></source>

 

Thanks,

Ryan