I18N: tool for managing XSL variables in different languages?

[Sebastian Kerekes]

Greetings,

I'm developing an application that supports multiple languages. In my
XSL I use variables to place the text where it belongs to. At the top of
the document I include those variables - the included file depends on
the language.

Atm I'm editing those file manually. Luckily atm it's only two languages
I have to work with, but even in this case I forget to add a variable
that I added in the other file, forget to use entities .. and so on.

It would be fine to have a tool, that manages the variables, ensures
that I enter text for every defined language, and maybe even saves those
variables in a file for every language.

Do you know of some tool I could use for that?

Thx for you answers,

Sebastian

 

[Berislav Lopac]

Greetings,

I'm developing an application that supports multiple languages. In my
XSL I use variables to place the text where it belongs to. At the top
of the document I include those variables - the included file depends
on the language.

Atm I'm editing those file manually. Luckily atm it's only two
languages I have to work with, but even in this case I forget to add
a variable that I added in the other file, forget to use entities ..
and so on.

It would be fine to have a tool, that manages the variables, ensures
that I enter text for every defined language, and maybe even saves
those variables in a file for every language.

Do you know of some tool I could use for that?

Define all the variables in an external XSLT file and then include it. You
will need a separate file for each language; you include only the one you
need.

Berislav

 

[Sebastian Kerekes]

Define all the variables in an external XSLT file and then include it. You
will need a separate file for each language; you include only the one you
need.

Berislav

Thx for your answer, but maybe I didn't make myself clear: I'm already
doing it as you suggested. What I'm looking for is a tool which can help
me editing these files and keep the consistency. Editing the files
manually for every language causes errors ..

Angus

 

[Sebastian Kerekes]

Angus

Oops .. i ment Sebastian

 

[Marrow]

Hi,

Using variables and including them? That seems a long way to do things?

Show a short example of what you are doing - perhaps there's a better way of
achieving your goal.

To your original question...
You could use XSLT itself to perform the checks to ensure that a word is
defined in each language.

Cheers
Marrow
http://www.marrowsoft.com - home of Xselerator (XSLT IDE and debugger)
http://www.topxml.com/Xselerator

 

[Gerald Aichholzer]

I'm developing an application that supports multiple languages. In my
XSL I use variables to place the text where it belongs to. At the top of
the document I include those variables - the included file depends on
the language.

Atm I'm editing those file manually. Luckily atm it's only two languages
I have to work with, but even in this case I forget to add a variable
that I added in the other file, forget to use entities .. and so on.

It would be fine to have a tool, that manages the variables, ensures
that I enter text for every defined language, and maybe even saves those
variables in a file for every language.

Do you know of some tool I could use for that?

Thx for you answers,

Hi Sebastian,

by accident I stumbled yesterday across the following site:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-localis/

There they talk about XML Localisation Interchange File Format
(XLIFF). There's also a screenshot of an XLIFF-editor. Maybe
you could use this standard in your application.

HTH,
Gerald

 

[Sebastian Kerekes]

Hi,

Using variables and including them? That seems a long way to do things?

Show a short example of what you are doing - perhaps there's a better way of
achieving your goal.

Ok, here's a very simple and short example:

Somewhere at the top of the document i have my variables. The variables
need to have different content depending on the language I want to use.
So my XSL is a JSP file that gets a "language" parameter and includes
the file with the right language.

When the JSP finishes processing, the result is a XSL with for the
specific language passed with "language". For "en" the result is:


<xsl:variable name="text.greetings" select="'Username'" />
<b><xsl:value-of select="$text.greetings" /></b>

for "de" it's:

<xsl:variable name="text.greetings" select="'Benutzername'" />
<b><xsl:value-of select="$text.greetings" /></b>

and so on.

I found this approach in a book, and it seems ok to me, but if you have
any other (more common, more elegant) solutions, feel free to post them

To your original question...
You could use XSLT itself to perform the checks to ensure that a word is
defined in each language.

Uuuhm .. how? How would you solve this?

Greetings, Sebastian

 

[David Carlisle]

for "de" it's:

<xsl:variable name="text.greetings" select="'Benutzername'" />
<b><xsl:value-of select="$text.greetings" /></b>

that means you have to modify the XSL for each language, and can't
easily be extended to support more than one language at a time (eg the
current language from an xml:lang attribute in the source file)

If instead your language config file was more like

<text name="greetings">
<x lang="en">Greetings</x>
<x lang="de">Benutzername</x>
</text>
....

then instead of going
<xsl:value-of select="$text.greetings" />
you'd go

<xsl:value-of select="$lang-config/text[@name='greetings']/x[@lang='de']" />

here you can eaily replace 'de' by for example
ancestor-or-self::*[@xml:lang][1]/@xml:lang
which gets the in scope xml:lang attribute, or have some xsl code to
provide a fall back or warning message if the language specific text is
absent.

David

 

[Marrow]

Hi Sebastian,

First off, there are a few features in XML and XSLT that can assist you with
localization, e.g...

In XML there is a pre-defined attribute of xml:lang which can contain
language (and optionally, national dialect) values. The useful thing about
utilising the xml:lang rather than defining your own 'lang' attribute is
that the xml:lang is decended down the tree for you until it is overridden.
In XSLT you have the lang() function - which can be used to query/test XML
based upon it's xml:lang attribute. The lang() function also gives you a
certain amount of fallback functionality (see below) and also is one of the
few parts of XML that is not case-sensitive.

So given those features there are several ways in which you can go about
providing a localization system for use in XSLT.

As an example...

Say you had a single vocabulary XML document that defined all of your
'tokenized' words, e.g. something like...

== Vocabulary.xml ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vocab xml:lang="EN-GB"> <!-- this lang gives the default/fallback
language -->
<language name="English (GB)">
<token name="bin">Dustbin</token>
<token name="trousers">Trousers</token>
<token name="errtest">Something</token>
</language>
<language name="English (US)" xml:lang="en-us">
<token name="bin">Trash can</token>
<token name="trousers">Pants</token>
</language>
<language name="Deutsch" xml:lang="de">
<token name="bin">Mülleimer</token>
<token name="trousers">Hose</token>
</language>
</vocab>
== end of Vocabulary.xml ========================

using the lang() function in XSLT if you did used the XPath selection...
/vocab/language/token[@name = 'bin'][lang('en')]
it would give you the nodes...
<token name="bin">Dustbin</token>
<token name="bin">Trash can</token>
because both are defined under an element whose xml:lang is "en" (i.e.
"en-gb" and "en-us").
So if you do a more specific selection of...
/vocab/language/token[@name = 'bin'][lang('en-gb')]
this would give just the node...
<token name="bin">Dustbin</token>

So utilising that in XSLT could look something like...


== TestVocab.xsl ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xslaram name="lang-select" select="'en'"/>

<xslutput method="text"/>
<!-- get the vocabulary document -->
<xsl:variable name="vocab-doc" select="document('Vocabulary.xml')/*"/>
<!-- pick the token words from the vocab document according to the selected
language -->
<!-- also providing fallback when the selected language does not exist -->
<xsl:variable name="vocab"
select="$vocab-doc/language[lang($lang-select)]/token |

$vocab-doc/language[lang(/vocab/@default-lang)][not(/vocab/language[lang($la
ng-select)])][1]/token"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="$vocab[@name = 'bin']"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
== end of TestVocab.xsl ========================

NB. Selecting the approriate tokens into the $vocab variable once saves you
keep specifying the language in later XPath expressions.

Also, some people like to keep each language in a seperate XML document - in
which case you could use system entities to accomplish this and still only
refer to one document() in your XSLT, e.g.

== Vocabulary.xml ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE includes [
<!ENTITY en-gb SYSTEM "VocabEN-GB.xml">
<!ENTITY en-us SYSTEM "VocabEN-US.xml">
<!ENTITY de SYSTEM "VocabDE.xml">
]>
<vocab xml:lang="EN-GB"> <!-- this lang gives the default/fallback
language -->
&en-gb;
&en-us;
&de;
</vocab>
== end of Vocabulary.xml ========================

and the the individual language XML documents...

== VocabEN-GB.xml ===============================
<language name="English (GB)" xml:lang="en-gb">
<token name="bin">Dustbin</token>
<token name="trousers">Trousers</token>
<token name="errtest">Something</token>
</language>
== end of VocabEN-GB.xml ========================

== VocabEN-US.xml ===============================
<language name="English (US)" xml:lang="en-us">
<token name="bin">Trash can</token>
<token name="trousers">Pants</token>
</language>
== end of VocabEN-US.xml ========================

== VocabDE.xml ===============================
<language name="Deutsch" xml:lang="de">
<token name="bin">Mülleimer</token>
<token name="trousers">Hose</token>
</language>
== end of VocabDE.xml ========================


Using such a system it would then be fairly 'easy' to write a stylesheet
that
checked the existence of each token in the languages, e.g.

== CheckVocab.xsl ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xslutput method="html" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:variable name="vocab" select="/vocab/language[lang('invalid')]/token |

/vocab/language[lang(/vocab/@xml:lang)][not(/vocab/language[lang('invalid')]
)][1]/token"/>

<xsl:key name="kXMLLangAtts" match="@xml:lang" use="'x'"/>
<xsl:key name="kDistinctLanguages" match="@xml:lang"
use="translate(substring(.,1,2),'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ','abcdefghijklmn
opqrstuvwxyz')"/>
<xsl:key name="kDistinctLangDialect" match="@xml:lang"
use="translate(.,'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ','abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz')"
/>
<xsl:key name="kDistinctTokens" match="token" use="@name"/>
<xsl:variable name="ucase" select="'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'"/>
<xsl:variable name="lcase" select="'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'"/>

<xsl:variable name="vDistinctLanguages"
select="key('kXMLLangAtts','x')[generate-id() =
generate-id(key('kDistinctLanguages',translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcas
e)))]"/>
<xsl:variable name="vDistinctTokens"
select="/vocab/language/token[generate-id() =
generate-id(key('kDistinctTokens',@name))]"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<head>
<title>
<xsl:text>My Vocabulary Checks</xsl:text>
</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>
<xsl:text>Vocabulary Checks</xsl:text>
</h2>
<hr/>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th rowspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom">
<xsl:text>Token</xsl:text>
</th>
<th rowspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom">
<xsl:text>Default</xsl:text>
<br/>
<xsl:text>Value</xsl:text>
</th>
<xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctLanguages">
<xsl:variable name="this-lang"
select="translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcase)"/>
<xsl:variable name="no-dialects"
select="count(key('kDistinctLanguages',$this-lang)[contains(.,'-')][generate
-id() =
generate-id(key('kDistinctLangDialect',translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)))])+1"/>
<th align="center" colspan="{$no-dialects}">
<xsl:text>Language: </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="$this-lang"/>
</th>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
<tr>
<xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctLanguages">
<xsl:variable name="this-lang"
select="translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcase)"/>
<th>
<xsl:value-of select="$this-lang"/>
</th>
<xsl:variable name="dialects"
select="key('kDistinctLanguages',$this-lang)[contains(.,'-')][generate-id()
= generate-id(key('kDistinctLangDialect',translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)))]"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$dialects">
<th>
<xsl:value-of select="translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)"/>
</th>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctTokens">
<xsl:sort/>
<tr>
<th align="left">
<xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
</th>
<td>
<xsl:value-of select="$vocab[@name = current()/@name]"/>
</td>
<xsl:variable name="this-name" select="@name"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctLanguages">
<xsl:variable name="this-lang"
select="translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcase)"/>
<xsl:variable name="dialects"
select="key('kDistinctLanguages',$this-lang)[contains(.,'-')][generate-id()
= generate-id(key('kDistinctLangDialect',translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)))]"/>
<td>
<xsl:variable name="this-token"
select="/vocab/language[lang($this-lang)]/token[@name = $this-name]"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$this-token">
<xsl:value-of select="$this-token"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsltherwise>
<xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">
<xsl:text>Red</xsl:text>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:text>(undefined)</xsl:text>
</xsltherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</td>
<xsl:for-each select="$dialects">
<td>
<xsl:variable name="this-token"
select="/vocab/language[lang(current())]/token[@name = $this-name]"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$this-token">
<xsl:value-of select="$this-token"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsltherwise>
<xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">
<xsl:text>Red</xsl:text>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:text>(undefined)</xsl:text>
</xsltherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</td>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
== end of CheckVocab.xsl ========================


HTH
Marrow
http://www.marrowsoft.com - home of Xselerator (XSLT IDE and debugger)
http://www.topxml.com/Xselerator