Contents

Approved Features for XLIFF 2.0
Features under consideration (not yet evaluated by TC)
Discarded Proposed Features

Must have - Has to be part of the next release.
Should have - Will probably be part of the next release.
Nice to have - Good ideas that we want to record but are not required to be in the next release (could be goals we accomplish, but do not tie to the approval of XLIFF 2.0).

1. Approved Features for XLIFF 2.0

1.1. (C28) Bare-bones XLIFF Core with Extensions

Owner: Christian, Rodolfo

Importance: Must Have

Category: XML Schemas, Specification

State: in-development Core/Module: core

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Create a bare-bones XLIFF core, then provide extension modules that support additional features.

"Simplify, Extend and Clarify" - V2.0
- Core XLIFF functionality would be in primary XLIFF namespace; would be very simple to implement. Extensions would provide support for more complicated features like, Segmentation, Pre-Translation, Generic Inline Markup, etc.)
Official XLIFF guide for subsetting the XLIFF XSD (http://www.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200709/msg00008.html)
Named Types for XLIFF XSD (http://www.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200709/msg00007.html)
Rodolfo also offered a starting point http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201008/msg00012.html
Christian offered input on this proposal regarding domains http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201009/msg00004.html

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/BareBonesCore][edit]

1.2. (Y29) Enhanced Commenting Support

Owner: Yves

Importance: Must Have

Category: Specification and Schema

Allow a comment to be associated with specific content inside the source or target of a trans-unit.
Allow a comment to be associated with content that spans across segments and trans-units.
Allow extensible meta-data to be associated with a comment.

State: in-development Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/EnhancedCommentingSupport][edit]

1.3. (Y30) Reference implementations or toolkit(s) similar to DITA

Owner: Yves

Importance: Must Have

Category: Applications

State: in-development Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

The goal is to have a library that implements all features of XLIFF 2.0 as described by the specification and can used:

by other tools to read/write and manipulate XLIFF documents
by other implementations to compare and verify processing expectations

something similar to the DITA toolkit http://www.ditaopentoolkit.org/

Note: validation is implemented by a different tool.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/ReferenceImplementation][edit]

1.4. (C31) Allow XML content in <internal-file> element

Owner: Christian, Bryan

Importance: Must Have

Category: Data Model, XML Schema

State: in-development Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Enable internal-file to contain XML Markup, not only CDATA (http://www.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200709/msg00006.html)
Bryan mocked up samples of how this could be done (http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200806/msg00005.html)

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/InternalFileWithXMLContent][edit]

1.5. (Y32) Segmentation

Owner: Yves, Helena

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: in-development Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Segmentation representation should be an integral part of XLIFF.

Proposed via XLIFF list (http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201104/msg00005.html)

There should be a unique way to represent segmentation inside an XLIFF document, so tools can create, remove or manipulate segments as part of their features, and pass on those changes to the next tool in the process chain. The representation should include a way to represent un-segmented content. The access to segmented and un-segmented content should be similar so tools do not have to work using condition. One should be able to annotate and assign various processing information to each segment.

Moved 2.11. Split and merge segments (---> See Segmentation) here

Moved 2.18. Crossover aligned segments (---> See Segmentation) here

Proposed via XLIFF list (http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201105/msg00038.html)

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Segmentation][edit]

1.6. (R33) Glossaries

Owners: Rodolfo, Joachim

Importance: Must Have

State: in-development Core/Module: Module

Allow embedding simple glossaries in the XLIFF document.

A simple glossary entry would contain:

a term in the source language
an optional translation of the source term in the target language
an optional definition or comment

Either the optional translation or the definition/comment must be present for the glossary entry to be useful (source term alone would not be enough).

Glossary entries could be stored either at <unit> level or in the header of the file in an optional <glossary> element.

Feature approved as work item on January 3, 2012.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Glossary][edit]

1.7. (Y22) Translation Proposals

Owner: Yves

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: in-development Core/Module: MODULE

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Requirement: XLIFF should be able to store translation candidates for a given source entry.

The source text of a document can be pre-processed against various translation resource (TM, MT, etc.) to provide translation candidates. XLIFF should be able to store lists of possible translations along with information about the quality of the match, the quality of the translation, its provenance, etc.

XLIFF 1.2 used <alt-trans alttranstype='proposal'> to implement translation proposals.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Translation Proposals][edit]

1.8. (B26) Add optional format attribute for quick at-a-glance review

Owner: Bryan

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model | XML Schema

State: in-development Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Put an optional attribute on XLIFF elements that match a subset of HTML formatting elements (for example, HTML elements names like <script> would not be included). It would enable a quick "at-a-glance" HTML page to be created for review cycle. It would be important to specify that the attribute is not meant for round-tripping back into the original format. A second, optional attribute could be added for formatting style information. This attribute would be only available in cases where the first optional attribute is used.

It will be important that robust details are included in the specification. It is also recommended that a representation guide is published, that includes an example XSL stylesheet.

Example are listed in the details page

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Add optional format attribute for quick at-a-glance review][edit]

1.9. (D17) Criteria for Core vs. Module

Owner: David W., Christian, all

Importance: Must Have

Category: Specification and XML Schema

State: in-development Comment: Initial definitions approved.

Initial definitions of core and module were proposed in http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201111/msg00081.html

The proposal was approved on December 6, 2011. Meeting minutes: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201112/msg00012.html

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Criteria for Core vs. Module][edit]

2. Features under consideration (not yet evaluated by TC)

2.1. (S1) Change Tracking / Version Control

Owner: Shirley - Rodolfo

Importance: Should Have

Category: Data Model, Extension

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

XLIFF 1.2 has preliminary support for change tracking through the <phase> element and phase-name attribute. However, it doesn't support all features, e.g. what if I want to know in which process the merged-trans attribute was set for a <group>?

* Version control Metadata - need to track revision information

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/ChangeTracking][edit]

2.2. (C3) Native support for ITS

Owner: Christian

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model, Representation Guides

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

The W3C International Tag Set (ITS) standard defines i18n properties for XML based files. Could we use this to better handle XML files within XLIFF?

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/ITSSupport][edit]

2.3. (S4) Permission Control and Validation

Owner: Shirley

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model, Extension

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

It would be useful to have a language to be able to specify e.g. that in the 'review' process, a reviewer can only change the state attribute and add notes, and in the 'tm matching' process, a tool can only add <alt-trans> elements. After a process is completed, we could then automatically validate the XLIFF files that the constraints have been met according to the specification.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/PermissionControl][edit]

2.4. (S6) Resource Inheritance

Owner: Steven R. Loomis

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model, XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

For some l10n libraries, it is common to support language inheritance, in that if a resource is not specified in the specific locale (e.g. en-AU), then look at the more generic locale (e.g. en). Handling localisation of these resources in XLIFF is quite ad-hoc with XLIFF 1.x. I.e. there is no 'right' way for an editor to specify 'use the more generic locale for this resource'.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/ResourceInheritance][edit]

2.5. (Y7) Improved Whitespace Handling

Owner: Yves

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model, XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

XLIFF 1.2 have some support for handling various types of whitespace in XML through the xml:space attribute, although this support is broken at times, as described in the following email. For XLIFF 2.0 we should implement support for improved whitespace handling.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/WhitespaceHandling][edit]

2.6. (Y8) Translation State

Owner: Yves

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model and Processing Expectations

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

As an exchange format XLIFF must provide a clear and consistent way to indicate the state of the translation of each entries. there are a number of inconsistencies in the current 1.2 that cause different tools to use different attributes and values for indicating the same things.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/TranslationState][edit]

2.7. (A9) Update Language Code Information

Owner: Arle Lommel, Steven Loomis

Importance: Should Have

Category: Other

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

The language code information that is in XLIFF 1.2 specification is obsolete. It says "A language code as decribed in the [RFC 4646], the successor to [RFC 3066]". The latest RFC is 5446. So, the text should be "A language code as decribed in the [RFC 5646], the successor to [RFC 4646]" “A language code as described in IETF BCP 47” (change made by Arle). There is more information in the W3C webpage http://www.w3.org/International/articles/language-tags/ This information is present in the following attributes' description:

source-language
target-language
xml:lang

It is also present in the normative references section (page 71).

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Update Language Code Information][edit]

2.8. (C13) Subsetting / restricting XSD

Owner: Christian

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Subsetting / restricting XSD for XLIFF 2.0

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/SubsettingRestrictingXSD][edit]

2.9. (C14) Using XLIFF as a primary content authoring container

Owner: Christian

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Author stores contend directly to XLIFF instead of another proprietary format

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/AuthoringContainer][edit]

2.10. (C15) Mime-type for XLIFF

Owner: Christian

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Other

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Mime-type for XLIFF (http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200802/msg00011.html)

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/MimeType][edit]

2.11. (R19) Use URLs in XLIFF 2.0 for attributes that point to files

Owner: Rodolfo

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Proposed via XLIFF list (http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201104/msg00056.html)

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Use URLs in XLIFF 2.0 for attributes that point to files][edit]

2.12. (Y20) Element simpleNote

Owner: Yves

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Introduced via XLIFF list (http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201107/msg00009.html)

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Element simpleNote][edit]

2.13. (Y21) Term Proposals

Owner: Yves

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Module

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Requirement: XLIFF should be able to store term candidates for a given source entry.

The source text of a document can be pre-processed against a term base to find source term with an existing translation. XLIFF should be able to store lists of terms found in the source along with their translation and any relevant information.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Term Proposals][edit]

2.14. (Y23) QA Annotations

Owner: Yves

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: undecided

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Requirement: XLIFF should be able to exchange a common set of information about quality assurance issues.

Quality assurance tools can process XLIFF document in a process separate from the translation or edit process. In fact some tools are dedicated to perform QA and have no facility to edit the content. It is important for XLIFF to have a mechanism that allows such tools to annotate the content of the XLIFF document in a common way, so different tools can work seamlessly.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/QA Annotations][edit]

2.15. (S24) Representation of plural entries

Owner: Steven R. Loomis

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: undecided

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

several message format have support for plural entries: a message with several strings corresponding to the different plural for the given text. For example PO and TS format have such features. It would be useful to make sure XLIFF 2.0 has a way to handle those constructs.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Plural Entries][edit]

2.16. (B25) Preserve metadata without using extensibility

Owner: Bryan and Rodolfo

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model | XML Schema | Spec

State: in-development Core/Module: undecided

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201108/msg00040.html

In XLIFF 1.2 we sometimes need to use extensibility to preserve source metadata when converting an source files to XLIFF. For XLIFF 2.0, there is a need for preserving metadata; the solution should be generic and contemplate formats like HTML5, PO, or XML attributes in general - removing the need to extend.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Preserve XML attribute or metadata without extensibility][edit]

2.17. (Y27) Grouping of Entries

Owner: Yves

Importance: Should Have | Must Have | Nice to Have | Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: undecided

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Data extracted into an XLIFF document are often from formats with some sort of structure: for example document with sections and tables, resource files with dialog boxes, menus, etc.

It is important to provide in XLIFF a way to map such structures in a common way, so tools can provide more efficient support for structure-related features, for example verifying shortcut keys in a menu.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Grouping][edit]

3. Discarded Proposed Features

3.1. (X0) Create RELAX NG version of XLIFF Schema

Owner: TBD

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: XML Schema

Create RELAX NG version of XLIFF Schema

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Create RELAX NG version of XLIFF Schema][edit]

3.2. (B12) Ability to store Multilingual Content

Owner: Bryan

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model

State: in-design. Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Use the file element and have the same id and source for corresponding trans units.

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/StoreMultilingualContent][edit]

3.3. (T2) Document-centric Localisation

Owner: TBD

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model, XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

XLIFF 1.2 is in many ways a resource-centric approach to translation, and doesn't take into account some of the needs in document-centric translation, such as e.g. reordering of paragraphs, 1-n, n-1 and n-n translations. Is there a need or a case for developing a document-centric and a resource-centric extension, with a common core schema?

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/DocumentCentricLocalisation][edit]

3.4. (T5) XLIFF as a Project Model

Owner: TBD

Importance: Should Have

Category: Data Model

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

XLIFF 1.2 uses a File/Resource as the model. We wish in XLIFF 2.0 to implement a richer project container

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/ProjectModel][edit]

3.5. (T10) Terminology Markup

Owner: TBD

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: Data Model | XML Schema | Other | ...

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/TerminologyMarkup][edit]

3.6. (A16) Multiple File elements

Owner: Asgeir, Bryan

Importance: Uncategorized

Category: XML Schema

State: under-evaluation Core/Module: Not determined

Impact on Specification: Not determined

Impact on Schema: Not determined

Spec Updated: No. Schema Updated: No

Proposed by Asgeir here http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/201006/msg00012.html

[XLIFF2.0/Feature/Multiple File elements][edit]

To create a new Feature, please use the form below, and enter a wiki-name such as "NameOfMyFeature" that identifies this feature. You will also need to edit this page and include the feature under the relevant section