2 When Designing an XML Application
Designers and developers of XML applications should take in account the following best practices:
Include
xml:lang in your DTD or schema to allow to specify the natural language of the content.
How to do this
Make sure the xml:lang attribute is available for the root element of your document, and for any element where a change of language may occur.
For details on how to add an attribute such as xml:lang to a DTD, an XSD schema, or a RELAX-NG schema, see: Section 4.2: Adding an Attribute to an Existing DTD or Schema.
Note: The scope of the xml:lang attribute applies to both the attributes and the content of the element where it appears, therefore one cannot specify different languages for an attribute and the element content. ITS does not provide remedy for this. Instead, it is recommended to not use attributes for translatable text.
Note: If not the language of the content, but a natural language value as data or meta-data about something external to the document has to be specified, an attribute different from xml:lang (like hreflang in XHTML) should be used.
In this example the XHTML hreflang attribute indicates that the target of the link is in German. The hreflang does not provide any information about the content of the element a.
<a xml:lang="en" href="german.html" hreflang="de">Click here for German</a>
Note: Make sure that the definition of the xml:lang attribute allows for empty values. That is, in a DTD you must not use NMTOKEN as the data type, instead use CDATA. The XML Schema built-in data type language allows empty values and therefore can be used.
For existing DTD and schema:
If you are working with an existing DTD or schema where there is a way to specify content language that is not implemented using the xml:lang attribute (but still uses the same values as xml:lang), you should provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:langRule element to specify what attribute or element is used instead of xml:lang.
In this document the langcode element is used to specify the language of an entry.
<myRes>
<messages>
<msg id="1">
<langcode>en</langcode>
<text>Cannot find file.</text>
</msg>
<msg id="2">
<langcode>fr</langcode>
<text>Fichier no trouvé.</text>
</msg>
</messages>
</myRes>
[Example's source code]
Use the following rule to specify that the langcode element holds the same values as the xml:lang attribute.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:langRule selector="//text[../langcode]" langPointer="../langcode"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Why do this
It is not recommended to use your own attribute or element to specify the language of the content. The xml:lang attribute is supported by various XML technologies such as XPath and XSL (e.g. the lang() function). Using something different would diminish the interoperability of your documents and reduce your capability to take advantage of some XML applications.
Include
its:dir in your DTD or schema to allow to specify text directionality.
How to do this
Make sure the its:dir attribute is available for the root element of your document and for all elements with content that may be rendered.
For details on how to add an attribute such as its:dir to a DTD, an XSD schema, or a RELAX-NG schema, see: Section 4.2: Adding an Attribute to an Existing DTD or Schema.
The its:dir attribute is part of the ITS "Directionality" data category which allows the user to specify the base writing direction of blocks, embeddings and overrides for the Unicode bidirectional algorithm.
For existing DTD and schema:
If you are working with an existing DTD or schema where there is a way to specify text directionality that is not implemented using the its:dir attribute, you should provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:dirRule element to associate the different directionality indicators with their equivalent in ITS.
In this document the textdir attribute is used to specify directionality of a text run.
<text xml:lang="en">
<body>
<par>In Hebrew, the title <quote xml:lang="he" textdir="r2l">פעילות הבינאום, W3C</quote>
means <quote>Internationalization Activity, W3C</quote>.</par>
</body>
</text>
[Ed. note: TODO: Update the XSLT template to convert example to correct bidi display][Example's source code]
Use the following rule to specify the relationships between the textdir attribute of the format and the ITS "Directionality" data category.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:dirRule selector="//*[@textdir='l2r']" dir="ltr"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//*[@textdir='r2l']" dir="rtl"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//*[@textdir='lro']" dir="lro"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//*[@textdir='rlo']" dir="rlo"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Why do this
Generally the Unicode bidirectional algorithm will cause text in scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew to appropriately order mixed script text. Sometimes, however, additional help is needed. For instance, in the sentence of example 6 the 'W3C' and the comma should appear to the left side of the quotation. This cannot be achieved using the bidirectional algorithm alone.
The title says "פעילות הבינאום, W3C" in Hebrew.
The desired effect can be achieved using Unicode control characters, but this is not recommended (see: [Unicode in XML]). Markup is needed to establish the default directionality of a document, and to change that where appropriate by creating nested embedding levels.
Markup is also applicable to disable the effects of the bidirectional algorithm for a specified range of text.
Do not put translatable text in attributes.
How to do this
Make sure all translatable text is stored as element content, not as attribute values.
For example, do not allow this:
The alt attribute contains translatable text.
<image src="elephants.png" alt="Elephants bathing in the Zambezi River."/>
Instead, design for this:
There is no more translatable attribute.
<image src="elephants.png">Elephants bathing in the Zambezi River.</image>
For existing DTD and schema:
If you are working with a DTD or a schema where there are attributes with translatable values, you should provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:translateRule element to specify what attributes are translatable. See Best Practice 4: Indicate the translatability of elements and attributes for more information how to do this.
Why do this
There are a number of issues related to storing translatable text in attribute values. Some of them are:
The language identification mechanism (i.e. xml:lang) applies to the content of the element where it is declared, including its attribute values. If the text of an attribute is in a different language than the text of the element content, one cannot set the language for both correctly.
In some languages, bidirectional markers may be needed to provide a correct display. Normally, those markers are elements, but elements cannot be used within an attribute value. One can use Unicode control characters instead, but this is not recommended (see: [Unicode in XML]).
It is difficult to apply to the text of the attribute value meta-information such as no-translate flags, designer's notes, etc.
The difficulty to attach unique identifiers to translatable attribute text makes it more complicated to use ID-based leveraging tools.
Translatable attributes can create problems when they are prepared for localization because they can occur within the content of a translatable element, breaking it into different parts, and possibly altering the sentence structure.
All these potential problems are less likely to occur when the text is the content of an element rather than the value of an attribute.
Note: In many occurences, moving translatable text from attribute value to element content can result in having a sentence embedded within another one. For instance, in the example 8: the description of the image will be embedded inside the text of the paragraph where the image is. In such cases, do not forget to declare the relevant element (here image) as 'nested', as described here: Best Practice 6: Provide text segmentation-related information
Define whether elements and attributes are translatable.
How to do this
You should provide an ITS rules document where you use its:translateRule elements to indicate which elements have non-translatable content.
Note: If needed, make provisions for the case where the content of an element is flagged with xml:lang="zxx", where zxx indicates a content that is not in a language, and therefore is most likely not translatable.
If you are working with a DTD or a schema where there are translatable attributes (something that is not recommended), you should also use its:translateRule to specify these translatable attributes.
In the following document, the content of the head element should not be translated, and the value of the alt attribute should be translated. In addition, the content of the del element should not be translated.
<myDoc xml:lang='en'>
<head>
<id xml:lang="zxx">H4-A3-F8-A1</id>
<author>Page Harrison</author>
<rev>v13 July-27-2005</rev>
</head>
<par>To start click <ins>the <ui>Start</ui>
button</ins><del>this icon: <ref file='start.png' alt='Start icon'/></del>
and fill the form.</par>
</myDoc>
[Example's source code]
The following rules specify exceptions from the default ITS behavior for DITA:
Rule 1: Indicates that the content of head in myDoc is not translatable. By inheritance, the child elements of head are also assumed not translatable.
Rule 2: Indicates that all the alt attributes are translatable.
Rule 3: Indicates that the content of del is not translatable.
Rule 4: Indicates that the non-translatability of del applies also to any attribute that may have been set as translatable by a prior rule (i.e. the second rule).
Rule 5: Indicates that any element or attribute with their language set to zxx is not translatable.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:translateRule selector="/myDoc/head" translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//*/@alt" translate="yes" />
<its:translateRule selector="//del" translate="no" />
<its:translateRule selector="//@*[ancestor::del]" translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//*[lang('zxx')] | //@*[lang('zxx')]" translate="no" />
</its:rules>[Example's source code]
Why do this
By default, ITS assumes that the content of all elements is translatable and that all attributes have non-translatable values. If your XML document type does not correspond to this default assumptions it is important to indicate what are the exceptions to improve translation throughput.
Include
its:translate and
its:rules in your DTD or schema to allow authors to override translatability information.
How to do this
Make sure the its:translate attribute is available for the root element of your documents, and for any element that has text content.
For details on how to add an attribute such as its:translate to a DTD, an XSD schema, or a RELAX-NG schema, see: Section 4.2: Adding an Attribute to an Existing DTD or Schema.
Make also sure the its:rules element is available somewhere in your documents, for example in the header part if there is one. The its:rules element provides access to the its:translateRule element which can be used to change the translatability property of elements and attributes at the document level.
The its:translate attribute and the its:translateRule element are part of the ITS "Translate" data category which expresses information about whether the content of an element or attribute should be translated or not.
For existing DTD and schema:
If you are working with DTD or a schema where there is a way to override translatability information that is not its:translate, the authors of the documents should use it. In addition, you should provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:translateRule element to associate this mechanism to the ITS Translate data category.
For example, [DITA 1.0] offers a translate attribute, and [Glade] provides a translatable attribute. Both have the same semantics as its:translate.
The following rules indicate how to associate the DITA translate attribute with the ITS Translate data category. The order in which the rules are listed is important:
Rule 1: Indicates that the content of any element with a translate attribute set to no is not translatable.
Rule 2: Indicates that any attribute value of any element with a translate attribute set to no is not translatable. This is needed because some attributes are translatable in DITA and we need to make sure they are not translated when translate="no" is used.
Rule 3: Indicates that the content of any element with a translate attribute set to yes is translatable. This takes care of the cases where translate="yes" is used to override a prior translate="no".
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:translateRule selector="//*[@translate='no']" translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//*[@translate='no']/descendant-or-self::*/@*"
translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//*[@translate='yes']" translate="yes"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
You can find a more complete example of how DITA markup is associated with ITS in Section 5.4.2: Relating ITS to Existing Markup in DITA.
Why do this
In some cases, the author of a document may need to change the translatability property on parts of the content, overriding defaults or more general rules.
Define how elements in mixed content should be handled with regard to segmentation.
How to do this
Provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:withinTextRule element to indicate which element should be treated as part of its parent or as an nested independent run of text. By default elements are assumed to be non-nested independent run of text.
The its:withinTextRule element is part of the ITS "Element Within Text" data category which reveals if and how an element affects the way text content behaves from a linguistic viewpoint.
In the following DITA document:
<concept id="myConcept" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Types of horse</title>
<conbody>
<ol>
<li>Palouse horse:<p><term>Palouse horses</term><fn>A palouse horse is the same as
an <b>Appaloosa</b>.</fn> have spotted coats.
The <term>Nez-Perce</term> Indians have been key in breeding this
type of horse.</p></li>
</ol>
</conbody>
</concept>[Example's source code]
The its:withinTextRule element is used to specify the behavior of term and b (within text), as well as fn (nested). Any case not listed is assumed to have the value its:withinText="no".
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:withinTextRule selector="//term | //b" withinText="yes"/>
<its:withinTextRule selector="//fn" withinText="nested"/>
</its:rules>
These rules applied on the example 12 document will result on four distinct runs of text:
title: "Types of horse"
li: "Palouse horse:"
p: "{term}Palouse horses{/term}{fn/} have spotted coats. The {term}Nez-Perce{/term} Indians have been key in breeding this type of horse."
fn: "A palouse horse is the same as an {b}Appaloosa{/b}."
[Example's source code]
Why do this
Many applications that process content for linguistic-related tasks need to be able to perform a basic segmentation of the text content. They need to be able to do this without knowing about the semantic of the elements.
While in many cases it is possible to automatically detect mixed content, there are some occurrences where the structure of an element makes it impossible for tools to know for sure how to treat text. For example, the li element in XHTML can contain text as well as p elements.
Include
its:ruby in you DTD or schema to allow for ruby text.
How to do this
Make sure the its:ruby element is available in all elements where there is text.
[Ed. note: YS: Not sure if Ruby is as important as other BP, do we need to say it?]The its:ruby element is part of the ITS "Ruby" data category which is used for a run of text that is associated with another run of text, referred to as the base text. Ruby text is used to provide a short annotation of the associated base text. It is most often used to provide a reading (pronunciation) guide.
For existing DTD or schema:
If you are working with an existing DTD or schema where there is a way to specify ruby text that is not implemented using the its:ruby element, you should provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:rubyRule element to associate your ruby markup with its equivalent in ITS.
In this document the rubyBlock element is similar to its:ruby, rBase is similar to its:rb, rParen is similar to its:rp, rText and is similar to its:rt.
<text>
<para>この本は <rubyBlock>
<rBase>慶応義塾大学</rBase>
<rParen>(</rParen>
<rText>けいおうぎじゅくだいがく</rText>
<rParen>)</rParen>
</rubyBlock>の歴史を説明するものです。</para>
</text>
[Example's source code]
This its:rubyRule element indicates that the rBase element is similar to its:rb and that the elements its:ruby, its:rt and its:rt have corresponding elements as well.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:rubyRule selector="//rBase" rubyPointer=".."
rpPointer="../rParen" rtPointer="../rText" />
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Note: [Ed. note: TODO: note about need to have ruby-like lement set as withinText and nested (for rt equivalent).]
Why do this
Ruby provides markup for phonetic or semantic annotation of text such as is common in Far Eastern scripts for Japanese and Chinese. (Ruby is known as furigana in Japan).
[Ed. note: TODO: Need more info]
How to do this
Make sure the attributes its:locNote, its:locNoteType, as well as its:locNoteRef are available in your DTD or schema.
Make also sure that the its:rules element is available somewhere in your documents, for example in the header part if there is one. The its:rules element provides access to the its:locNoteRule element which can be used to specify translation-related notes and instruction at a more general level.
For existing DTD or schema:
If you are working with an existing DTD or schema where there is a way to provide notes to the localizers that is not implemented using ITS, you should provide an ITS rules document where you use the its:locNoteRule element to associate your ruby markup with its equivalent in ITS.
In this document the comment element is a note for its sibling text element.
<messages>
<msg id="ERR_NOFILE">
<text>The file '{0}' could not be found.</text>
<comment>The variable {0} is the name of a file.</comment>
</msg>
</messages>[Example's source code]
The its:locNoteRule element specifies that the text elements have an associated localization description in their sibling comment elements.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:locNoteRule selector="//msg/text" locNoteType="description"
locNotePointer="../comment"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Why do this
To assist the translator to achieve a correct translation, authors may need to provide information about the text that they have written. For example, the author may want to:
tell the translator how to translate part of the content
expand on the meaning or contextual usage of a particular element, such as what a variable refers to or how a string will be used on the UI
clarify ambiguity and show relationships between items sufficiently to allow correct translation (e.g. in many languages it is impossible to translate the word 'enabled' in isolation without knowing the gender, number and case of the thing it refers to.)
explain why text is not translated, point to text reuse, or describe the use of conditional text
indicate why a piece of text is emphasized (important, sarcastic, etc.)
Provide a way to assign a unique identifier to translatable text.
How to do this
Make sure the attribute xml:id, or an equivalent attribute, is available, at least, the "paragraph" level, for the elements that contain translatable text.
Why do this
In order to most effectively reuse translated text where content is reused (either across update versions or across deliverables) it is necessary to have a unique and persistent identifier associated with the element.
This identifier allows the translation tools to correctly track an item from one version or location to the next. After one is sure that this is the same item, the content can be examined for changes, and if no change has taken place the potential for reuse of the previous translation is very high.
Change analysis constitutes an extremely powerful productivity tool for translation when compared to the typical source matching (a.k.a. translation memory) techniques, which simply look for similar source text in the database without, most of the time, being able to tell whether the context of its use is the same.
Define what elements are related to terminology information
How to do this
You should provide an ITS rules document where you use its:termRule elements to indicate which elements are "terms" and information related to them (e.g. definitions).
In this document, the elements term, syn, and dt denote terms. In addition, they can all have associated information.
<myDoc>
<body>
<p>A <term def="d001">doppelgänger</term> is basically <def xml:id="d001">the
counterpart of a person</def>. It is almost the same as an
<syn ref="#alterego">alter ego</syn>, but with a more sinister connotation.
Sometimes the word "fetch" is also used.</p>
</body>
<definitions>
<entry xml:id="alterego">
<dt>alter ego</dt>
<dd>A second self. Figurative sense: trusted friend.</dd>
<origin>Latin, literally: "second I"</origin>
</entry>
</definitions>
</myDoc>
[Example's source code]
This set of ITS rules indicates the following:
Rule 1: Indicates that the term element is a term and its associated information can be accessed in the node that has the ID corresponding to the value in its ref attribute.
Rule 2: Indicates that the syn element is a term and its ref attribute contains a URI location where some associated information can be found.
Rule 3: Indicates that the dt element is a term and its associated information is in its sibling element dd.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<its:termRule selector="//term" term="yes" termInfoPointer="id(@def)"/>
<its:termRule selector="//syn" term="yes" termInfoRefPointer="@ref"/>
<its:termRule selector="//dt" term="yes" termInfoPointer="../dd"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Why do this
The capability of specifying terms within the source content is important for terminology management that is beneficial to translation and localization quality. Term identification also facilitates the creation of glossaries and allows validation of terminology usage in the source and target documents.
Identified terms could be used for indexing that may require some language specific information. For example, Japanese words are sorted not by script characters, but by phonetic characters. Therefore when a Japanese index item is created, it should be accompanied with a phonetic string, called Yomigana.
As a result, terms may require various attributes, such as part of speech, gender, number, term types, definitions, notes on usage, etc. To avoid such a large attribute data is repeated within a document, it should be possible for identified terms to link to externalized attribute data, such as glossary documents and terminology database.
How to do this
Make sure the its:term and the its:termInfoRef attributes are available for any element that has text content. [Ed. note: Not sure about this: Shouldn't it apply only to elements that are defined as term?]
Make also sure the its:rules element is available somewhere in your documents, for example in the header part if there is one. The its:rules element provides access to the its:termRule element which can be used to change the terminology-related information of attributes.
[Ed. note: TODO]
Why do this
In some cases, the author of a document may need to change the information indicating what is a term or how to point to term information, overriding more general rules that have been defined for the DTD or schema.
[Ed. note: TODO]
Use a meaningful naming scheme for your elements
If possible avoid having element names reflecting the ID of the element
[Ed. note: TODO]
<strings>
<INPUTPATH>Input path:</INPUTPATH>
<HELP>Help</HELP>
<OK>OK</OK>
<CANCEL>Cancel</CANCEL>
</strings>
[Example's source code]
Instead, [Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
<strings>
<str xml:id="INPUTPATH">Input path:</str>
<str xml:id="HELP">Help</str>
<str xml:id="OK">OK</str>
<str xml:id="CANCEL">Cancel</str>
</strings>
[Example's source code]
Provide all the ITS rules needed to process documents in your format.
[Ed. note: TODO]Provides these rules in a single standalone ITS document. ITS-aware tools will be able to associate it with the documents it pertains using their own mechanism, or the authors of the documents will be able to use the ITS linking mechanism to point to it.
You ITS rules document should include the following information, when applicable:
Some examples of ITS rules documents for existing XML formats are shown in Section 5: ITS Applied to Existing Formats.
3 When Authoring XML Content
Authors of XML content should consider the following best practices:
A number of these practices can be followed only when the XML application has been internationalized properly using the design guidelines Section 2: When Designing an XML Application.
Make sure to indicate the language for all elements and attributes of your document.
How to do this
Your DTD or schema should provide the xml:lang attribute for this purpose. See: Best Practice 1: Provide xml:lang to specify natural language content for more information.
Use this recommended attribute on the root element and, if needed, on each element for which the language content is different. The elements without declaration inherit the language information from their parents.
Make sure that the value of xml:lang conforms to BCP 47.
In this example, the main content of the document is in English, while a short citation is identified as being in French.
<document xml:lang="en">
<para>The motto of Québec is the short phrase:
<q xml:lang="fr">Je me souviens</q>. It is chiseled on
the front of the Parliament Building.</para>
</document>
[Example's source code]
Why do this
Having information about what is the language of the content is very important in many situations. Some of them are:
selection of a proper font (e.g. for traditional or simplified Chinese)
processing of the text for wrapping and hyphenation
providing spell-checking or grammar verification of the text
selecting proper formatting properties for data such as date, time, numbers, etc.
selecting proper automated text such as quotation marks or other punctuation signs
using the text with voice browsers
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
How to do this
[Ed. note: TODO]
Overriding translatability information relates to marking up paragraphs or section of text that should remain untranslated, but are enclosed in XML elements that are normally translatable.
In the following document, the content of the par elements is normally translatable, but in this instance, the last one should remain in English. Declaring its:translate as an optional attribute of the par element allows the author to set the given paragraph as not translatable.
<myDoc xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" its:version="1.0">
<par>To apply these terms to you library, attach the following notice.
It is safest to attach it to the start of each source file to most
effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should
have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full
notice is found.</par>
<par>The notice should read (preferably in English):</par>
<par its:translate="no">This library is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version. This software is distributed as open source under LGPL.</par>
</myDoc>
[Example's source code]
Note: Authors should NOT use its:translate to tag single words or terms that (they think) should remain the same as the source language when translated into a given target language (e.g. loan-words). This type of decision is done during translation using terminology lookup tools, and does not involve any specific tagging. Authors may decide what is translatable, but not how to translate it.
Do NOT do the following:
In this document its:translate is used to markup a proper name and two loan words in an attempt to indicate what should not be translated. You should NOT do this.
<book xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<body>
<p>Everything started when <span its:translate="no">Zebulon</span>
discovered that he had a <span its:translate="no">doppelgänger</span>
who was a serious baseball <span its:translate="no">aficionado</span>.</p>
</body>
</book>
[Example's source code]
Why do this
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
Make sure any piece of inserted text is grammatically independent of its surrounding context.
How to do this
Use inserted text only when the text is self-contained and does not affect its surrounding context. Error messages, quotations are an example of inserted text that usually would not cause problem.
Avoid to use inserted text that has any effect or dependence on the context where is is inserted.
Why do this
If not used properly, inserted text can cause important (and sometimes un-resolvable) problems during localization.
Inserted text refers to any text that is marked by a placeholder in the XML document and automatically inserted within a text content when the document is processed. The nature of such text can be for example:
boilerplate text reused in different contexts,
various parts of a compound document put together,
or variables values computed at some point during the process the document go through.
The implementation of such text can be done different ways in XML. Some of them are:
Using entity references.
Using [XInclude 1.0] mechanisms.
Using [XLink 1.0] mechanisms.
Using a custom mechanism specific to a given format (e.g. the conref attribute in [DITA 1.0]).
There are several important issues related to inserted text. Consider the following:
In this example, the author, working with [DITA 1.0], decided to reference the standard terms she uses and has at her disposal in a termbase by using the conref mechanism. In this occurence, the term t123 has the value "hydraulic lift".
<p>Using an <term conref="termbase#t123"/> raise the vehicle from the ground.</p>
At a first glance this seems to work fine in English. However, such construction has several problems:
You do not want to separate the article from the noun. If "hydraulic lift" is modified in the future and replaced by some other term, it may require an article 'a' instead of 'an'.
The article/noun separation causes also trouble for the translator: Without any easy way to see the actual term when translating the paragraph, she may not be able to decide the gender of the article.
If it is used at the beginning of a sentence, the term would need to be capitalized.
The term is singular in the termbase, while it may need to be plural somewhere in the document.
In inflected languages the form required in the text may be different from the form stored in the termbase. For example, in Polish the term would be stored in its nominative form ("dźwignia hydrauliczna"), while it should be in its instrumental form once inserted in this context: "Używając [dźwignię hydrauliczną] podnieś pojazd z ziemi."
[Ed. note: TODO]
[Ed. note: TODO]
Make sure the entities content is grammatically independent of its surrounding context. See: Best Practice 21: Ensure any inserted text is context-independent for more details.
Avoid using entities that are not well-formed XML content. The entities declarations may be processed separately during localization and should be parsable.
[Ed. note: TODO]
Place sub-flow elements where it is has least negative impact on the parent text flow
[Ed. note: TODO]Sometimes in the content model of some elements, there is the need for translatable information that constitutes a run of text linguistically separated from the text within which it resides. Index markers are a good example of such case: Each index marker is an independent run of text, but it is located inside the paragraph to which it pertains.
If possible, place sub-flow elements at the beginning or at the end of the paragraph, this reduces the impact the element has in the paragraph content from the translation viewpoint and may improve re-usability.
5 ITS Applied to Existing Formats
This section presents several examples of how ITS can be used to enhance the internationalization readiness of some well-known XML document types. These examples are only illustrative and may have to be adapted to fit the need of each specific user.
Two topics are covered for each format:
How should ITS be integrated in specific markup schemes? For example, as for XHTML, it is helpful for the interoperability of ITS implementations to specify that the ITS rules element will always be part of the content model of the head element.
How should ITS data categories be associated with existing markup declarations in a schema, which fulfill identical or overlapping purposes? For example, [DITA 1.0] already has an attribute to indicate translatability of text, but without a mechanism for selection of information in documents and schemas.
The following XML applications are discussed:
5.1 ITS and XHTML 1.0
[XHTML 1.0] is a reformulation of the three HTML 4 document types as applications of XML 1.0. HTML is an SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) application conforming to International Standard ISO 8879, and is widely regarded as the standard publishing language of the World Wide Web.
5.1.1 Integration of ITS into XHTML
In XHTML 1.0, the XHTML namespace may be used with other XML namespaces as per [XML Names], but such documents are not strictly conforming XHTML 1.0 documents in the sense of XHTML 1.0.
An example of such a non-conformant XHTML 1.0 document is as follow.
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="keywords" content="ITS example, XHTML translation" />
<its:rules version="1.0" xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<its:translateRule selector="//h:meta[@name='keywords']/@content"
translate="yes" />
<its:termRule selector="//h:span[@class='term']" term="yes" />
</its:rules>
<title>ITS Working Group</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Test of ITS on <span class="term">XHTML</span></h1>
<p>Some text to translate.</p>
<p its:translate="no">Some text not to translate.</p>
</body>
</html>[Example's source code]
There are two ways to use ITS with XHTML and keep the XHTML document conformant:
These rules illustrate some of the ITS data categories you can associate to specific XHTML markup. The first its:translateRule indicates that the attribute content of the meta element should be translated if the attribute name is set to "keywords". The second its:translateRule indicates that no p with a class="notrans" should be translated. And the its:termRule indicates that any span element with class="term" is a term.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0"
xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<its:translateRule selector="//h:meta[@name='keywords']/@content"
translate="yes" />
<its:translateRule selector="//h:p[@class='notrans']"
translate="no" />
<its:termRule selector="//h:span[@class='term']" term="yes" />
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
The corresponding document:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="keywords" content="ITS example, XHTML translation" />
<title>ITS Working Group</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Test of ITS on <span class="term">XHTML</span></h1>
<p>Some text to translate.</p>
<p class="notrans">Some text not to translate.</p>
</body>
</html>
[Example's source code]
5.1.2 Using XHTML Modularization 1.1 for the Definition of ITS
This section describes how to use [XHTMLMod1.1] for the definition of ITS. It first defines an ITS abstract module which is then implemented in the formats of XML Schema, RELAX NG and XML DTD. The module is meant to be integrated in existing or new schemas which rely on [XHTMLMod1.1].
5.1.2.1 Abstract Definition of ITS Markup
The following is the abstract definition of the elements for global ITS markup, which is consistent with the XHTML Modularization framework [XHTMLMod1.1]. Further definitions of XHTML abstract modules can be found in [XHTMLMod1.1].
Note that this definition does not contain the ruby element and the dir attribute, since these are already available in XHTML.
| Elements | Attributes | Minimal Content Model |
|---|
| rules | version (CDATA), xlink:href (URI), xlink:type ("simple") | ( translateRule | locNoteRule
| termRule | dirRule |
rubyRule | langRule |
withinTextRule )* |
| translateRule | Selector, translate ("yes"|"no") | EMPTY |
| locNoteRule | Selector, locNotePointer (CDATA), locNoteType ("alert"| "description"*), locNoteRef (URI), locNoteRefPointer (CDATA) | locNote? |
| locNote | translate ("yes"|"no"), locNote (CDATA), locNoteType ( "alert" | "description"* ), locNoteRef (URI), termInfoRef ( URI ), term ( "yes" | "no" ), dir ( "ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo" ) | (PCDATA | ruby)* |
| termRule | Selector, term ( "yes" | "no" ), termInfoRef ( URI ), termInfoRefPointer ( CDATA), termInfoPointer ( CDATA ) | EMPTY |
| dirRule | Selector, dir ("ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo") | EMPTY |
| rubyRule | Selector, rubyPointer (CDATA), rtPointer (CDATA), rpPointer (CDATA), rbcPointer (CDATA), rtcPointer (CDATA), rbspanPointer (CDATA) | rubyText |
| rubyText | translate ("yes"|"no"), locNote (CDATA), locNoteType ("alert"|"description"*), locNoteRef (URI), term ("yes" | "no"), termInfoRef (CDATA), dir ("ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo" ), rbspan (CDATA) | PCDATA |
| langRule | Selector, langPointer (CDATA) | EMPTY |
| withinTextRule | Selector, withinText ("yes"|"no"|"nested") | EMPTY |
The following is the abstract definitions of two attribute groups: the selector attribute used within global rules, and ITS attributes to be used locally. Again these definition makes use of [XHTMLMod1.1].
| Collection | Attributes in Collection |
|---|
| Selector | selector (CDATA) |
| ITSLocal | translate ("yes"|"no"), locNote (CDATA), locNoteType ("alert"|"description"*), locNoteRef (URI), termInfoRef (URI), term ("yes" | "no") |
5.1.2.2ITS XML Schema Module Implementation
The following schema contains the implementation of the abstract markup module in XML Schema.
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" elementFormDefault="qualified"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<xs:import namespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" schemaLocation="xlink.xsd"/>
<xs:import namespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
schemaLocation="xhtml-schemas/xhtml-ruby-1.xsd"/>
<xs:simpleType name="translate.type">
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:enumeration value="yes"/>
<xs:enumeration value="no"/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:simpleType name="term.type">
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:enumeration value="yes"/>
<xs:enumeration value="no"/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:simpleType name="locNoteType.type">
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:enumeration value="alert"/>
<xs:enumeration value="description"/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:simpleType name="dir.type">
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:enumeration value="ltr"/>
<xs:enumeration value="ltr"/>
<xs:enumeration value="lro"/>
<xs:enumeration value="rlo"/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:simpleType name="withinText.type">
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:enumeration value="yes"/>
<xs:enumeration value="no"/>
<xs:enumeration value="nested"/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:attributeGroup name="its.Selector.attlist">
<xs:attribute name="selector" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
</xs:attributeGroup>
<xs:attributeGroup name="its.ITSLocal.attlist">
<xs:attribute name="translate" form="qualified" use="optional" type="its:translate.type"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNote" type="xs:string" form="qualified" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteType" form="qualified" use="optional" type="its:locNoteType.type"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteRef" type="xs:anyURI" form="qualified" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="termInfoRef" type="xs:string" form="qualified" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="term" type="its:term.type" form="qualified" use="optional"/>
</xs:attributeGroup>
<xs:element name="rules" type="its:rules.type"/>
<xs:complexType name="rules.type" mixed="false">
<xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:element ref="its:translateRule"/>
<xs:element ref="its:locNoteRule"/>
<xs:element ref="its:termRule"/>
<xs:element ref="its:dirRule"/>
<xs:element ref="its:rubyRule"/>
<xs:element ref="its:langRule"/>
<xs:element ref="its:withinTextRule"/>
</xs:choice>
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:rules.attlist"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:attributeGroup name="rules.attlist">
<xs:attribute name="version" use="required" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:attribute ref="xlink:href" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute ref="xlink:type" use="optional"/>
</xs:attributeGroup>
<xs:element name="translateRule" type="its:translateRule.type"/>
<xs:complexType name="translateRule.type">
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="translate" use="required" type="its:translate.type"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="locNoteRule" type="its:locNoteRule.type"/>
<xs:complexType name="locNoteRule.type">
<xs:sequence minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
<xs:element ref="its:locNote"/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNotePointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteType" use="required" type="its:locNoteType.type"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteRef" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteRefPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="locNote" type="its:locNote.type"/>
<xs:complexType name="locNote.type" mixed="true">
<xs:attribute name="translate" use="optional" type="its:translate.type"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNote" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteType" use="optional" type="its:locNoteType.type"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteRef" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="termInfoRef" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="term" use="optional" type="its:term.type"/>
<xs:attribute name="dir" use="optional" type="its:dir.type"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="termRule"/>
<xs:complexType name="termRule.type">
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="term" type="its:term.type" use="required"/>
<xs:attribute name="termInfoRef" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="termInfoRefPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="termInfoPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="dirRule" type="its:dirRule.type"/>
<xs:complexType name="dirRule.type">
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="dir" type="its:dir.type" use="required"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="rubyRule"/>
<xs:complexType name="rubyRule.type">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref="its:rubyText"/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="rubyPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="rtPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="rpPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="rbcPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="rtcPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="rbspanPointer" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="rubyText" type="its:rubyText.type"/>
<xs:complexType name="rubyText.type" mixed="true">
<xs:attribute name="translate" type="its:translate.type" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNote" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteType" type="its:locNoteType.type" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="locNoteRef" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="term" type="its:term.type" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="termInfoRef" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="dir" type="its:dir.type" use="optional"/>
<xs:attribute name="rbspan" type="xs:string" use="optional"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="langRule"/>
<xs:complexType name="langRule.type">
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="langPointer" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="withinTextRule"/>
<xs:complexType name="withinTextRule.type">
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.Selector.attlist"/>
<xs:attribute name="withinText" type="its:withinText.type"/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>The following is a driver file which can be used to evoke the schema above.
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" blockDefault="#all">
<xs:annotation>
<xs:documentation> This is the XML Schema Driver for new Document Type XHTML Basic 1.0 + ITS
$Id: Overview.html,v 1.5 2018/10/09 13:17:02 denis Exp $ </xs:documentation>
<xs:documentation source="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-i18n-bp/#integration-its-xhtmlmod"/>
</xs:annotation>
<xs:import namespace="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" schemaLocation="its-module.xsd"/>
<xs:redefine schemaLocation="xhtml-schemas/xhtml-basic10.xsd">
<xs:group name="HeadOpts.mix">
<xs:choice>
<xs:group ref="HeadOpts.mix"/>
<xs:element ref="its:rules"/>
</xs:choice>
</xs:group>
<xs:attributeGroup name="Common.attrib">
<xs:attributeGroup ref="Common.attrib"/>
<xs:attributeGroup ref="its:its.ITSLocal.attlist"/>
</xs:attributeGroup>
</xs:redefine>
</xs:schema>The file below is an instance which can be validated against this schema.
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml xhtml-plus-its.xsd">
<head>
<title> </title>
<its:rules version="1.0">
<its:locNoteRule locNoteType="alert" selector="..." locNoteRef="..."> </its:locNoteRule>
<its:locNoteRule locNoteType="alert" selector="...">
<its:locNote> </its:locNote>
</its:locNoteRule>
<its:termRule selector="..." term="yes"/>
</its:rules>
</head>
<body>
<h3> </h3>
<table>
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<ul>
<li its:locNote="..." its:translate="no"> </li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
5.1.2.3ITS DTD Module Implementation
[Ed. note: TODO]
5.1.3 Relating ITS to Existing Markup in XHTML
A number of XHTML constructs implement the same semantic as some of the ITS data categories. In addition, some of the attributes in XHTML are translatable, which is not the default for XML documents according to ITS defaults settings for translatability. These attributes need to be identified as translatable.
An external ITS rules element can summarize these relations. Because XHTML use is widespread and covers a large amount of legacy material the rules defined here may not be optimal for everyone.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0"
xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<!-- special content. (See note 1) -->
<its:translateRule selector="//h:script" translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:style" translate="no"/>
<!-- Normal translatable attributes -->
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@abbr" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@accesskey" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@alt" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@prompt" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@standby" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@summary" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:*/@title" translate="yes"/>
<!-- The input element (Important: See note 2) -->
<its:translateRule selector="//h:input/@value" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:input[@type='hidden']/@value" translate="no"/>
<!-- Non-translatable element (See note 3) -->
<its:translateRule selector="//h:del" translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:del/descendant-or-self::*/@*" translate="no"/>
<!-- Often-used translatable meta content. -->
<its:translateRule selector="//h:meta[@name='keywords']/@content"
translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//h:meta[@name='description']/@content"
translate="yes"/>
<!-- Possible term (Important: See note 4) -->
<its:termRule selector="//h:dt" term="yes"/>
<!-- Bidirectional information -->
<its:dirRule selector="//h:*[@dir='ltr']" dir="ltr"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//h:*[@dir='rtl']" dir="rtl"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//h:bdo[@dir='ltr']" dir="lro"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//h:bdo[@dir='rtl']" dir="rlo"/>
<!-- Elements within text -->
<its:withinTextRule withinText="yes"
selector="//h:abbr | //h:acronym | //h:br | //h:cite | //h:code | //h:dfn
| //h:kbd | //h:q | //h:samp | //h:span | //h:strong | //h:var | //h:b | //h:em
| //h:big | //h:hr | //h:i | //h:small | //h:sub | //h:sup | //h:tt | //h:del
| //h:ins | //h:bdo | //h:img | //h:a | //h:font | //h:center | //h:s | //h:strike
| //h:u | //h:isindex" />
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Additional notes on these rules:
Note 1: The script and style elements may have translatable text, but their content needs to be parsed with respectively a script filter and a CSS filter. Depending on the capability of your translation tools you may want to leave these elements translatable.
Note 2: The value attribute of the input element may or may not be translatable depending on the way the element is used. Selecting value as translatable or not needs to be decided depending on your own use.
Note 3: The del element indicates removed text and therefore, most often, would not be translatable. Because this element may contain elements with translatable attributes such as img with an alt attribute, and because the scope of translatability does not include attributes, you need to: a) define this rule after the definition of the translatable attributes, and b) use the rules with selector="//h:del/descendant-or-self::*/@*" to override any possible translatable attribute within a del element or any of its descendants.
Note 4: The dt element is defined by HTML as a "definition term" and can therefore be seen as a candidate to be associated with the ITS Terminology data category. However, for historical reasons, this element has been used for many other purposes. Selecting dt as a term or not needs to be decided depending on your own use.
5.2 ITS and TEI
The Text Encoding Initiative [TEI] is intended for literary and linguistic material, and is most often used for digital editions of existing printed material. It is also suitable, however, for general purpose writing. The P5 release of the TEI consists of 23 modules which can be combined together as needed.
5.2.1 Integration of ITS into TEI
The TEI is maintained as a single ODD document, and customizations of it are also written as ODD documents. These are processed using XSLT stylesheets to make a tailored user-level schema in XML DTD, XML Schema or RELAX NG.
The ITS additions involve two changes to TEI:
Allowing rules to appear in the TEI metadata section (the teiHeader).
Adding the ITS local attributes to the TEI global attribute set.
Both of these can be easily achieved using standard techniques in ODD.
The body of a TEI+ITS customization consists of a schemaSpec which lists the modules to be included (this example includes six common ones):
<schemaSpec ident="tei-its" start="TEI">
<moduleRef key="header"/>
<moduleRef key="core"/>
<moduleRef key="tei"/>
<moduleRef key="textstructure"/>
<moduleRef key="namesdates"/>
<moduleRef key="msdescription"/>
<!-- Etc. -->
</schemaSpec>
[Example's source code]
In addition, we load the ITS schema (in its RELAX NG XML format, the language used by the TEI for expressing content models), and overload the definition of the TEI content class model.headerPart to include the ITS rules:
<moduleRef url="its.rng">
<content xmlns:rng="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0">
<rng:define name="model.headerPart" combine="choice">
<rng:ref name="rules"/>
</rng:define>
</content>
</moduleRef>
[Example's source code]
The content class determines which elements are allowed as children of teiHeader. Lastly, we change the definition of the global attribute class att.global to reference the ITS local attributes (available from the ITS schema we loaded earlier):
<classSpec ident="att.global" type="atts" mode="change">
<attList>
<attRef name="span.attributes"/>
</attList>
</classSpec>
[Example's source code]
When processing, this customization produces a schema which permits markup like this:
<TEI xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
<teiHeader>
<fileDesc>
<!-- details of the file -->
</fileDesc>
<rules xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0"
xmlns:t="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
<translateRule translate="no" selector="//t:body/t:p/@*"/>
<translateRule translate="yes" selector="//t:body/t:p"/>
</rules>
</teiHeader>
<text>
<body>
<p rend="normal">Hello <hi>world</hi>
</p>
<p rend="special">Goodbye</p>
<p its:translate="no">This must not be translated</p>
</body>
</text>
</TEI>
[Example's source code]
In this example, a set of rule elements are provided in the header to provide rules, and the body of the text performs a specific override.
5.3 ITS and XML Spec
[XML Spec] is intended for W3C working drafts, notes, recommendations, and all other document types that fall under the category of technical reports. XML Spec is available in the formats of XML DTD, XML Schema and RELAX NG.
5.3.1 Integration of ITS into XML Spec
ITS has been integrated into xmlspec-i18n.dtd. This is a version of the XML DTD version 2.9 of XML Spec which already supplies various internationalization and localization related features. For example, there is an attribute translate in xmlspec-i18n.dtd, which can be used for the same purposes as the ITS translate attribute. To be able to separate them from original XML Spec declarations, all additions are stored in two separate files i18n-extensions.mod and i18n-elements.mod. Xmlspec-i18n.dtd is used within the W3C Internationalization Activity for the creation of technical reports.
For the integration of ITS, the following modifications to the xmlspec-i18n.dtd have been made:
A new entity <!ENTITY % its SYSTEM "its.dtd"> and the entity call %its; have been added to xmlspec-i18n.dtd.
The existing XML Spec entity %common.att; has been modified . The ITS entities %att.translate.attributes;, %att.locNote.attributes;, %att.term.attributes;, and %att.dir.attributes; have been added to %common.att;. In this way, the local attributes can be used at any element defined in the XML Spec DTD.
The XML Spec entity %header.mdl; contains the content model of the header element. The ITS element rules has been added as the last element to this content model. In this way, rules can be used inside an XML Spec document. The header element of the XML Spec DTD has been chosen as the place for rules, to avoid the impact of ITS markup on XML Spec markup.
The ITS element ruby has been added to the XML Spec entity %p.pcd.mix;. In this way it is possible to use ruby as an inline element.
5.3.2 Relating ITS to Existing Markup in XML Spec
As mentioned before, xmlspec-i18n.dtd has its own existing markup declarations for various internationalization and localization related purposes. In the original XML Spec 2.9 DTD, there is a term element which fulfills the same purpose as the ITS term attribute.
To associate such existing XML Spec and xmlspec-i18n.dtd related markup to ITS markup, the following rules element has been created.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<!--The following rules are for xmlspec-i18n.dtd-->
<its:termRule selector="//qterm" term="yes"/>
<its:dirRule dir="ltr" selector="//*[@dir='ltr']"/>
<its:dirRule dir="rtl" selector="//*[@dir='rtl']"/>
<its:dirRule dir="lro" selector="//*[@dir='lro']"/>
<its:dirRule dir="rlo" selector="//*[@dir='rlo']"/>
<its:locNoteRule locNoteType="alert"
locNotePointer="@locn-alert" selector="//*"/>
<its:locNoteRule locNoteType="description"
locNotePointer="//@locn-note" selector="//*"/>
<its:translateRule translate="yes"
selector="//*[@translate='yes']"/>
<its:translateRule translate="no"
selector="//*[@translate='no']"/>
<!--This rule is for the original XML Spec DTD-->
<its:termRule selector="//term" term="yes"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
Since both XML Spec and xmlspec-i18n.dtd do not define a namespace, the mappings use XPath expressions with unqualified element and attribute names.
5.4 ITS and DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture [DITA 1.0] is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering readable information as discrete, typed topics.
5.4.1 Integration of ITS into DITA
DITA offers by default some of the ITS features (see: Section 5.4.2: Relating ITS to Existing Markup in DITA for more information on that aspect). But in some cases you may still want to allow the use of ITS markup directly into your DITA documents. For example, the its:locNote attribute, or the its:rules element. DITA provides a way to create a domain specialization based on the foreign element and attribute extension points.
For example, the DITA Concept DTD can be extended as follow:
First, by creating two files for the ITS domain specialization. The first one itsDomain.ent contains the entity definitions that will be used in the extended DTD.
<!ENTITY % its-d-foreign "its" >
<!ENTITY its-d-att "(topic its-d)" >
The second file, itsDomain.mod, contains the definition of the element where the ITS markup will be placed.
<!-- declaration for the specialized wrapper and alternate element -->
<!ENTITY % its "its">
<!-- definition for the specialized wrapper and alternate element -->
<!ELEMENT its ((%its-rules;) | (%its-ruby;)) >
<!ATTLIST its %global-atts;
class CDATA "+ topic/foreign its-d/its ">Then you can adapt the concept.dtd file to take into account the new doamin.
Include the ITS domain entities at the end of the Domain Entity Declarations section:
<!ENTITY % its-d-dec SYSTEM "itsDomain.ent" >
%its-d-dec;
Define the extension element at the end of the Domain Extension section:
<!ENTITY % foreign "foreign | %its-d-foreign;" >
Modify the list of included domains in the included-domains entity:
<!ENTITY included-domains
"&ui-d-att; &hi-d-att; &pr-d-att; &sw-d-att;
&ut-d-att; &indexing-d-att; &its-d-att;" >
include the ITS domain module at the end of the Domain Element Integration section:
<!ENTITY % its-d-def SYSTEM "itsDomain.mod" >
%its-d-def;
[Ed. note: TODO: Finish integration of latest DITA info]
5.4.2 Relating ITS to Existing Markup in DITA
There are several ITS data categories that are already implemented in DITA. For example, DITA offers a translate attribute that provides the same functionality as its:translate.
Like for other formats, these existing features can be associated with ITS data categories, so ITS-enabled tools can process seamlessly DITA source documents.
Note: When you have the choice of using a DITA construct or a ITS construct to express the same thing, make sure to use the DITA construct to ensure DITA processors work properly. Use ITS local markup only if DITA does not provide an equivalent.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- Possible default ITS rules for DITA -->
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<!-- Translatable attribute (some are deprecated) -->
<translateRule selector="//image/@alt" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//lq/@reftitle" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//note/@othertype" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//object/@standby" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//othermeta/@content" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//state/@value" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//map/@title" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//topicref/@navref" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//topicgroup/@navtitle" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//topichead/@navtitle" translate="yes"/>
<translateRule selector="//data/@label" translate="yes"/>
<!-- Non-translatable elements -->
<translateRule selector="//draft-comment//*" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//draft-comment/descendant-or-self::*/@*" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//required-cleanup//*" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//required-cleanup/descendant-or-self::*/@*" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//coords" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//shape" translate="no"/>
<!-- Translatability flags -->
<translateRule selector="//*[@translate='no']" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//*[@translate='no']/descendant-or-self::*/@*" translate="no"/>
<translateRule selector="//*[@translate='yes']" translate="yes"/>
<!-- Directionality flags -->
<its:dirRule selector="//*[dir='ltr']" dir="ltr"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//*[dir='rtl']" dir="rtl"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//*[dir='lro']" dir="lro"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//*[dir='rlo']" dir="rlo"/>
<!-- Elements within text (inline) -->
<its:withinTextRule withinText="yes"
selector="//boolean | //cite | //itemgroup | //keyword | //ph | //q | //state | //term |
//tm | //xref | //b | //i | //sub | //sup | //tt | //u | //apiname | //codeph | //delim |
//fragref | //kwd | //oper | //option | //parmname | //repsep | //sep | //synnoteref |
//synph | //var | //cmdname | //filepath | //msgnum | //msgph | //systemoutput |
//userinput | //varname | //menucascade | //shortcut | //uicontrol | //wintitle |
//coords | //shape" />
<!-- The keyword elements within keywords are sub-flow, no in-line -->
<its:withinTextRule withinText="nested" selector="//keywords/keyword" />
<!-- Elements within text (subflow) -->
<its:withinTextRule withinText="nested"
selector="//draft-comments | //required-cleanup | //alt | //fn | //indexterm" />
<!-- Terminology -->
<its:termRule selector="//term | //dt | //termindex" term="yes" />
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
The declarations above cover different versions of DITA.
5.5 ITS and Glade
[Glade] is a user interface builder system for GTK+ and Gnome. It uses XML files to store the UI components. The library has been ported to different platform and offers bindings in different programing languages.
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?><!--*- mode: xml -*-->
<glade-interface>
<widget class="GtkWindow" id="main_window">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="title" translatable="yes">Glade Text Editor</property>
<property name="type">GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL</property>
<property name="window_position">GTK_WIN_POS_NONE</property>
<property name="modal">False</property>
<property name="default_width">600</property>
<property name="default_height">450</property>
<property name="resizable">True</property>
<property name="destroy_with_parent">False</property>
<property name="decorated">True</property>
<property name="skip_taskbar_hint">False</property>
<property name="skip_pager_hint">False</property>
<property name="type_hint">GDK_WINDOW_TYPE_HINT_NORMAL</property>
<property name="gravity">GDK_GRAVITY_NORTH_WEST</property>
<property name="focus_on_map">True</property>
<property name="urgency_hint">False</property>
<signal name="delete_event" handler="on_main_window_delete_event"/>
<child>
<widget class="GtkVBox" id="vbox1">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="homogeneous">False</property>
<property name="spacing">0</property>
<child>
<widget class="GtkHandleBox" id="handlebox2">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="shadow_type">GTK_SHADOW_OUT</property>
<property name="handle_position">GTK_POS_LEFT</property>
<property name="snap_edge">GTK_POS_TOP</property>
<child>
<widget class="GtkMenuBar" id="menubar1">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="pack_direction">GTK_PACK_DIRECTION_LTR</property>
<property name="child_pack_direction">GTK_PACK_DIRECTION_LTR</property>
<child>
<widget class="GtkMenuItem" id="File">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="label" translatable="yes">_File</property>
<property name="use_underline">True</property>
<child>
<widget class="GtkMenu" id="File_menu">
<child>
<widget class="GtkImageMenuItem" id="New">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="label">gtk-new</property>
<property name="use_stock">True</property>
<signal name="activate" handler="on_New_activate"/>
</widget>
</child>
<child>
<widget class="GtkImageMenuItem" id="Open">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="label">gtk-open</property>
<property name="use_stock">True</property>
<signal name="activate" handler="on_Open_activate"/>
</widget>
</child>
<child>
<widget class="GtkImageMenuItem" id="Save">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="label">gtk-save</property>
<property name="use_stock">True</property>
<signal name="activate" handler="on_Save_activate"/>
</widget>
</child>
<child>
<widget class="GtkMenuItem" id="separator1">
<property name="visible">True</property>
</widget>
</child>
<child>
<widget class="GtkImageMenuItem" id="Exit">
<property name="visible">True</property>
<property name="label">gtk-quit</property>
<property name="use_stock">True</property>
<signal name="activate" handler="on_Exit_activate"/>
</widget>
</child>
</widget>
</child>
</widget>
</child>
</widget>
</child>
</widget>
<packing>
<property name="padding">0</property>
<property name="expand">False</property>
<property name="fill">True</property>
</packing>
</child>
</widget>
</child>
</widget>
</glade-interface>[Example's source code]
5.5.1 Integration of ITS into Glade
The content of the Glade files are mostly made of not translatable data: UI widgets properties. Text content is limited to title, label and various other type of UI strings. While Glade does offers support for some of the ITS features, in some cases you may still want to allow the use of ITS markup directly into your Glade resources.
[Ed. note: TODO]
5.5.2 Relating ITS to Existing Markup in Glade
Glade offers a translatable attribute that provides the same functionality as its:translate. The comments attribute can also be associated to localization information.
Like for other formats, existing features of Glade can be associated with ITS data categories using global rules, so ITS-enabled tools can process seamlessly Glade source documents.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
<!-- ITS rules for Glade 2.0, based on http://glade.gnome.org/glade-2.0.dtd -->
<its:translateRule selector="/glade-interface" translate="no"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//*[@translatable='yes']" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//atkaction/@description" translate="yes"/>
<its:locNoteRule selector="//*[@translatable='yes']"
locNoteType="description" locNotePointer="@comments"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]
5.6 ITS and DocBook
DocBook is a general purpose XML schema particularly well suited to
books and papers about computer hardware and software (though it is by
no means limited to these applications). DocBook is maintained by the
DocBook
Technical Committee of OASIS.
5.6.1 Integration of ITS into DocBook
DocBook V5.0 schema is maintained as a very modular and easy to
customize schema written in RELAX NG [RELAX NG 1.0]. General
techniques for schema customization are described in [DocBook V5.0 HOWTO].
The ITS additions involve the following changes to DocBook schema:
Adding the ITS local
attributes to every existing DocBook element.
Not all ITS local attributes are added into schema as DocBook
already provides its own means for specifying directionality of text.
Allowing its:rules element inside
DocBook info element which is a general metadata container.
Allowing its:ruby as inline element almost everywhere where plain text could be.
# This schema integrates ITS markup (http://www.w3.org/TR/its/)
# into DocBook schema (http://docbook.org)
#
# This schema conforms to Conformance Type 1 defined in
# http://www.w3.org/TR/its/#conformance-product-schema
#
# Schema adds the following ITS elements into DocBook schema:
# * rules
# * ruby
#
# Schema adds the following local ITS attributes into DocBook schema:
# * translate
# * locNote
# * locNoteType
# * locNoteRef
# * term
# * termInfoRef
#
# $Id: Overview.html,v 1.5 2018/10/09 13:17:02 denis Exp $
#
# Namespace declarations for DocBook, ITS and HTML (HTML is used internally in DocBook schema)
namespace db = "http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
namespace its = "http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
namespace html = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
# Include base DocBook schema
include "docbook.rnc"
{
# Exclude ITS markup from "wildcard" element
db._any =
element * - (db:* | html:* | its:*) {
(attribute * { text }
| text
| db._any)*
}
}
# Include base ITS schema
include "its.rnc"
# Define pattern for local ITS attributes
db.its.attributes =
its-att.translate.attributes?
& its-att.locNote.attributes?
& its-att.term.attributes?
& its-att.version.attributes?
# Add local ITS attributes to all DocBook elements
db.common.attributes &= db.its.attributes
db.common.idreq.attributes &= db.its.attributes
# Allow its:rules inside info element
db.info.extension |= its-rules
# Allow Ruby markup almost everywhere
db.ubiq.inlines |= its-ruby
[Example's source code]
For your convenience there is also available “flattened” schema
stored inside one file and converted to other schema languages as
well.
dbits.rnc (RELAX NG compact syntax schema in one file)[Ed. note: Flattened version are broken at this time]
dbits.rng (RELAX NG schema in one file)[Ed. note: Flattened version are broken at this time]
dbits.dtd (DTD in one file)[Ed. note: Flattened version are broken at this time]
dbits.xsd (W3C XML Schema)[Ed. note: TODO]
There is no need for adding its:span element as
DocBook provides similar element called phrase which can be
used for attaching ITS local attributes to an arbitrary piece of
text.
The following example shows sample DocBook article conforming to
DocBook+ITS schema. The its:translateRule element is used to indicate that
function names (marked-up by function element) should not be
translated. The first paragraph is also marked as non-translatable
using local ITS markup.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
xmlns:db="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
<info>
<title>Sample article</title>
<its:rules version="1.0">
<its:translateRule translate="no" selector="//db:function"/>
</its:rules>
</info>
<para its:translate="no">Nontranslatable content</para>
<section>
<title>Sample section</title>
<para>You can delete file using <function>unlink()</function> function.</para>
</section>
</article>[Example's source code]
5.6.2 Relating ITS to Existing DocBook Markup
A number of DocBook constructs implement the same semantic as some
of the ITS data categories. In addition, some of the DocBook
attributes are translatable, which is not the default for XML
documents according to ITS defaults
settings for translatability. These attributes need to be
identified as translatable.
Note: When you have the choice of using a DocBook construct or a ITS
construct to express the same thing, make sure to use the DocBook
construct to ensure DocBook processing tools properly. Use ITS local
markup only if DocBook does not provide an equivalent.
An external ITS its:rules element can
summarize these relations. Because DocBook use is widespread and
diverse the rules defined here are just example which may need further
tailoring for specific use.
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
xmlns:db="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
version="1.0">
<!-- Translatable attributes -->
<its:translateRule selector="//db:table/@summary" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//db:*/@xlink:title" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//db:*/@xreflabel" translate="yes"/>
<its:translateRule selector="//db:*/@label" translate="yes"/>
<!-- Non-translatable elements -->
<its:translateRule translate="no" selector="//db:*[@revisionflag = 'deleted']"/>
<its:translateRule translate="no"
selector="//db:abbrev
| //db:author
| //db:classname
| //db:command
| //db:constant
| //db:date
| //db:editor
| //db:email
| //db:envar
| //db:errorcode
| //db:exceptionname
| //db:filename
| //db:function
| //db:initializer
| //db:interfacename
| //db:markup
| //db:methodname
| //db:modifier
| //db:ooclass
| //db:ooexception
| //db:oointerface
| //db:option
| //db:parameter
| //db:person
| //db:personname
| //db:productnumber
| //db:property
| //db:returnvalue
| //db:symbol
| //db:tag
| //db:type
| //db:uri
| //db:varname"/>
<!-- Possible terms -->
<its:termRule selector="//db:glossterm" term="yes"/>
<its:termRule selector="//db:firstterm" term="yes"/>
<!-- Bidirectional information -->
<its:dirRule selector="//db:*[@dir='ltr']" dir="ltr"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//db:*[@dir='rtl']" dir="rtl"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//db:*[@dir='lro']" dir="lro"/>
<its:dirRule selector="//db:*[@dir='rlo']" dir="rlo"/>
<!-- Elements within text -->
<its:withinTextRule withinText="yes"
selector="//db:abbrev
| //db:accel
| //db:acronym
| //db:application
| //db:author
| //db:citation
| //db:citebiblioid
| //db:citerefentry
| //db:citetitle
| //db:classname
| //db:code
| //db:command
| //db:computeroutput
| //db:constant
| //db:database
| //db:date
| //db:editor
| //db:email
| //db:emphasis
| //db:envar
| //db:errorcode
| //db:errorname
| //db:errortext
| //db:errortype
| //db:exceptionname
| //db:filename
| //db:foreignphrase
| //db:function
| //db:guibutton
| //db:guiicon
| //db:guilabel
| //db:guimenu
| //db:guimenuitem
| //db:guisubmenu
| //db:hardware
| //db:initializer
| //db:interfacename
| //db:jobtitle
| //db:keycap
| //db:keycode
| //db:keycombo
| //db:keysym
| //db:link
| //db:literal
| //db:markup
| //db:menuchoice
| //db:methodname
| //db:modifier
| //db:mousebutton
| //db:olink
| //db:ooclass
| //db:ooexception
| //db:oointerface
| //db:option
| //db:optional
| //db:org
| //db:orgname
| //db:package
| //db:parameter
| //db:person
| //db:personname
| //db:phrase
| //db:productname
| //db:productnumber
| //db:prompt
| //db:property
| //db:quote
| //db:replaceable
| //db:returnvalue
| //db:shortcut
| //db:subscript
| //db:superscript
| //db:symbol
| //db:systemitem
| //db:tag
| //db:token
| //db:trademark
| //db:type
| //db:uri
| //db:userinput
| //db:varname
| //db:wordasword"/>
<its:withinTextRule withinText="nested"
selector="//db:alt
| //db:footnote
| //db:remark
| //db:indexterm
| //db:primary
| //db:secondary
| //db:tertiary"/>
</its:rules>
[Example's source code]