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W3C

Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 1.0

W3C Proposed Recommendation 26 February 2007

This version:
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/its/
Previous version:
Editors:
Christian Lieske, SAP AG
Felix Sasaki, W3C

This document is also available in these non-normative formats: ODD/XML document and

XHTML Diff markup to publication from 2 November 2006
.


Abstract

This document defines data categories and their implementation as a set of elements and attributes called the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS). ITS is designed to be used with schemas to support the internationalization and localization of schemas and documents. An implementation is provided for three schema languages: XML DTD, XML Schema and RELAX NG.

Status of this Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

TheThis is the 2 November 2006 Candidate Recommendation of Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 1.0. W3C Membershippublishes a Candidate Recommendation to indicate that the document is believed to be stable and otherto encourage implementation by the developer community. The Internationalization Tag Set interested parties areGroup invited to reviewrequest that the Director advance this document andto Proposed Recommendation once the Working Group has demonstrated a) an updated Public Working Draft of send comments to www-i18n-comments@w3.orgat through 26 March 2007. A list of ITSXML Schema and XML DTD which conform to the conformance clauses tagset1-1, related1-2, comments1-3 and issues1-4 formulated in Bugzilla; and b) at least two interoperable implementations of the www- i18n-commentsconformance clauses 2-1 and 2-2 for each ITS archivesdata arecategory, publicly available. Advisory, Committee Representativeslinking should consult theirrules. WBS questionnaires. Note that substantive technical comments were expected during the Lastdeveloper community, Call review period that ended 1 November 2006.

The This estimate is based on the Working Group's preliminary implementation report. The Working Group expects to revise this report over demonstratesthe course that the goalimplementation period. The Working Group does not plan to request to provideadvance to two interoperable implementations of each feature was2006.The achieved. This includes the featuresspecification are considered "at at risk": a) the attributes rubyPointer, of:rtPointer, rubyrpPointer, pointerrbcPointer, attributesrtcPointer and rbspanPointer b) the statement in 6.7.1 Definition on conformance to [RFC 4646], including the normative reference to c) the ns element defined in . The featureWorking Group at risk nsremoving elementa) was dropped from the specification, sincedepending on their use and implementation experience. The Working Group may recommend removing c) (the ns element) if there is an implementation of in that uses the namespace binding functionalitymechanism via a prefixed prefixed namespace attribute. That implementation could be realizedcapable of processing completely relying on the xmlnsselector attribute gathered from external rules as defined in attribute..

This document defines data categories and their implementation as a set of elements and attributes called the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS). ITS is designed to be used with schemas to support the internationalization and localization of schemas and documents. An implementation is provided for three schema languages: XML DTD, XML Schema and RELAX NG.

The Candidate Recommendation Working Draft for this specification resulted in a number of Last Call comments which have all been addressed by the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Working Group; a list of all Last Call comments can be found in the Last Call Comments List. The list of changes made since the last public Working Draft is available in the changelog since the Candidate Recommendation Working Draft from November 2006.

This document was developed by the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Working Group, part of the W3C Internationalization Activity. The Working Group expects to advance this Working Draft to Recommendation Status. A complete list of changes to this document is available.

Please make comments about this document using W3C's public Bugzilla system. We recommend using Bugzilla for making comments (instructions can be found at How to use the Issues Tracking System for the ITS Tagset Working Draft). If this is not feasible, comments may also be sent to www-i18n-comments@w3.org. Use "[Comment on ITS WD]" in the subject line of your email. A list of ITS tagset related comments and issues in Bugzilla and the www- i18n-comments archives are publicly available.

Publication as a Proposed Recommendation does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation for ITS
1.2 Users and Usages of ITS
1.3 Out of Scope
1.4 Important Design Principles
1.5 Development of this Specification
2 Basic Concepts
2.1 Selection
2.2 Overriding and Inheritance
2.3 Adding Information or Pointing to Existing Information
3 Notation and Terminology
3.1 Notation
3.2 Schema Language
3.3 Data category
3.4 Selection
3.5 Usage of Internationalized Resource Identifiers in ITS
4 Conformance
4.1 Conformance Type 1: ITS Markup Declarations
4.2 Conformance Type 2: The Processing Expectations for ITS Markup
5 Processing of ITS information
5.1 Indicating the Version of ITS
5.2 Locations of Data Categories
5.3 Link to External Rules
5.4 Precedence between Selections
5.5 Associating ITS Data Categories with Existing Markup
6 Description of Data Categories
6.1 Position, Defaults, Inheritance and Overriding of Data Categories
6.2 Translate
6.3 Localization Note
6.4 Terminology
6.5 Directionality
6.6 Ruby
6.7 Language Information
6.8 Elements Within Text

Appendices

A References
B References (Non-Normative)
C Summary of ITS Markup (Non-Normative)
D Schemas for ITS (Non-Normative)
E Checking ITS Markup Constraints With Schematron (Non-Normative)
F Checking ITS Markup with NVDL (Non-Normative)
G Revision Log (Non-Normative)
H Acknowledgements (Non-Normative)


1 Introduction

This section is informative.

ITS is a technology to easily create XML which is internationalized and can be localized effectively. On the one hand, the ITS specification identifies concepts (such as "directionality") which are important for internationalization and localization. On the other hand, the ITS specification defines implementations of these concepts (termed "ITS data categories") as a set of elements and attributes called the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS). The document provides implementations for three schema languages: XML DTD [XML 1.0], XML Schema [XML Schema] and RELAX NG [RELAX NG].

This document aims to realize many of the ideas formulated in [Localizable DTDs].

Requirements for this document are formulated in [ITS REQ]. Not all requirements listed there are addressed in this document. Those which are not addressed here are either covered in [XML i18n BP] or may be addressed in a future version of this specification.

This document covers the following requirements:

The following requirements will be addressed in [XML i18n BP]:

The Working Group decided not to cover the following requirements at this time to be able to focus on the most important ones.

1.1 Motivation for ITS

Content or software that is authored in one language (so-called source language) is often made available in additional languages or adapted with regard to other cultural aspects. This is done through a process called localization, where the original material is translated and adapted to the target audience.

In addition, document formats expressed by schemas may be used by people in different parts of the world, and these people may need special markup to support the local language or script. For example, people authoring in languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Urdu need special markup to specify directionality in mixed direction text.

From the viewpoints of feasibility, cost, and efficiency, it is important that the original material should be suitable for localization. This is achieved by appropriate design and development, and the corresponding process is referred to as internationalization. For a detailed explanation of the terms "localization" and "internationalization", see [l10n i18n].

The increasing usage of XML as a medium for documentation-related content (e.g. DocBook and DITA as formats for writing structured documentation, well suited to computer hardware and software manuals) and software-related content (e.g. the eXtensible User Interface Language [XUL]) creates challenges and opportunities in the domain of XML internationalization and localization.

1.1.1 Typical Problems

The following examples sketch one of the issues that currently hinder efficient XML-related localization: the lack of a standard, declarative mechanism which identifies which parts of an XML document need to be translated. Tools often cannot automatically do this identification.

1.2 Users and Usages of ITS

1.2.1 Potential Users of ITS

The ITS specification aims to provide different types of users with information about what markup should be supported to enable worldwide use and effective internationalization and localization of content. The following paragraphs sketch these different types of users, and their usage of ITS.

In order to support all of these users, the information about what markup should be supported to enable worldwide use and effective localization of content is provided in this specification in two ways:

1.2.2 Ways to Use ITS

The ITS specification proposes several mechanisms for supporting worldwide use and effective internationalization and localization of content. We will sketch them below by looking at them from the perspectives of certain user types. For the purpose of illustration, we will demonstrate how ITS can indicate that certain parts of content should or should not be translated.

  • A content author or information architect uses markup at the top of the document to identify a particular type of element or context in which the content should not be translated.

The translateRule element is used in the header of the document to indicate that none of the fexp elements should be translated.

<book
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <head>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:translateRule selector="//fexp" translate="no"/>
  </its:rules>
  <title>The Life of a Simple Man</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <p>Everything started when Zebulon discovered that he had 
     a <fexp>doppelgänger</fexp> who was a serious 
     baseball <fexp>aficionado</fexp>.</p>
 </body>
</book>

[Source file: EX-ways-to-use-its-2.xml]

  • A processor may insert markup at the top of the document which links to ITS information outside of the document.

A rules element is inserted in the header of the document. It has a XLink href attribute used to link to an ITS external rule document.

<book
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" >
 <head>
  <its:rules version="1.0" xlink:href="EX-ways-to-use-its-4.xml" xlink:type="simple"/>
  <title>The Life of a Simple Man</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <p>Everything started when Zebulon discovered that he had 
     a <fexp>doppelgänger</fexp> who was a serious 
     baseball <fexp>aficionado</fexp>.</p>
 </body>
</book>

[Source file: EX-ways-to-use-its-3.xml]

The rules element contains several ITS rules that are common to different documents. One of them is a translateRule element that indicates that no fexp element should be translated.

<its:rules
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  version="1.0">
 <its:translateRule selector="//fexp" translate="no"/>
 <its:withinTextRule selector="//fexp|//strong" withinText="yes"/>
 <its:termRule selector="//term|//fexp" term="yes"/>
</its:rules>

[Source file: EX-ways-to-use-its-4.xml]

  • A schema developer integrates ITS markup declarations in his schema to allow users to indicate that specific parts of the content should not be translated.

The declarations for the translate attribute is added to a group of common attributes commonAtts. This allows to use the translate attribute within the documents like in Example 3.

<xs:schema
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  elementFormDefault="qualified">
 <xs:import namespace="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" schemaLocation="its.xsd"/>
 <xs:attributeGroup name="commonAtts">
  <xs:attributeGroup ref="its:att.local.with-ns.attribute.translate"/>
  <xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:ID" use="optional"/>
 </xs:attributeGroup>
 <xs:element name="book">
  <xs:complexType>
   <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="head">
     <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
       <xs:element name="title" type="xs:string"/>
      </xs:sequence>
      <xs:attributeGroup ref="commonAtts"/>
     </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
    <xs:element name="body">
     <xs:complexType>
      <xs:choice minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
       <xs:element name="p">
        <xs:complexType mixed="true">
         <xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
          <xs:element ref="fexp"/>
         </xs:choice>
         <xs:attributeGroup ref="commonAtts"/>
        </xs:complexType>
       </xs:element>
      </xs:choice>
     </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
   </xs:sequence>
   <xs:attributeGroup ref="its:att.version.attribute.version"/>
  </xs:complexType>
 </xs:element>
 <xs:element name="fexp">
  <xs:complexType mixed="true">
   <xs:attributeGroup ref="commonAtts"/>
  </xs:complexType>
 </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

[Source file: EX-ways-to-use-its-5.xsd]

The first two approaches above can be likened to the use of CSS in [XHTML 1.0]. Using a style attribute, an XHTML content author may assign a color to a particular paragraph. That author could also have used the style element at the top of the page to say that all paragraphs of a particular class or in a particular context would be colored red.

1.4 Important Design Principles

Abstraction via data categories: ITS defines data categories as an abstract notion for information for internationalization and localization of XML schemas and documents. This abstraction is helpful in realizing independence from a particular implementation using for example an element or attribute. See 3.3 Data category for a definition of the term data categories, 6 Description of Data Categories for the definition of the various ITS data categories, and subsections in 6 Description of Data Categories for the data category implementations.

Powerful selection mechanism: For ITS markup which appears in an XML instance, it has to be clearly defined to which XML nodes the ITS-related information pertains. Thus, ITS defines selection mechanisms to specify to what parts of an XML document an ITS data category and its values should be applied. Selection relies on the information which is given in the XML Information Set [XML Infoset]. ITS applications may implement inclusion mechanisms such as XInclude or DITA's [DITA 1.0] conref.

Content authors need, for example, a simple way to work with the Translate data category in order to express whether the content of an element or attribute should be translated or not. Localization coordinators, on the other hand, need an efficient way of managing translations of large document sets based on the same schema. This could by realized by a specification of defaults for the Translate data category and exceptions from the defaults (e.g. all p elements should be translated, but not p elements inside of an index element).

To meet these requirements this specification introduces mechanisms that add ITS information to XML documents, see 5 Processing of ITS information. These mechanisms also provide a means for specifying ITS information for attributes (a task for which no standard means yet exists).

The ITS selection mechanisms allows you to provide information about content locally (specified at the XML node to which it pertains) or globally (specified in another part of the document). Global selection mechanisms can be in the same document, or in a separate file.

No dedicated extensibility: It may be useful or necessary to extend the set of information available for internationalization or localization purposes beyond what is provided by ITS. This specification does not define a dedicated extension mechanism, since ordinary XML mechanisms (e.g. XML Namespaces [XML Names]) may be used.

Ease of integration:

  • ITS follows the example from section 4 of [XLink 1.0], by providing mostly global attributes for the implementation of ITS data categories. Avoiding elements for ITS purposes as much as possible ensures ease of integration into existing markup schemes, see section 3.14 in [ITS REQ]. Only for some requirements do additional child elements have to be used, see for example 6.6 Ruby.

  • ITS has no dependency on technologies which are still under development

  • ITS fits with existing work in the W3C architecture (e.g. use of [XPath 1.0] for the selection mechanism)

1.5 Development of this Specification

This specification has been developed using the ODD (One Document Does it all) language of the Text Encoding Initiative ([TEI]). This is a literate programming language for writing XML schemas, with three characteristics:

  1. The element and attribute set is specified using an XML vocabulary which includes support for macros (like DTD entities, or schema patterns), a hierarchical class system for attributes and elements, and creation of modules.

  2. The content models for elements and attributes are written using embedded RELAX NG XML notation.

  3. Documentation for elements, attributes, value lists etc. is written inline, along with examples and other supporting material.

XSLT transformations are provided by the TEI to create documentation into HTML, XSL FO or LaTeX forms, and to generate RELAX NG documents and DTD. From the RELAX NG documents, James Clark's trang can be used to create XML Schema documents.

2 Basic Concepts

This section is informative.

2.1 Selection

Information (e.g. "translate this") captured by ITS markup (e.g. its:translate='yes') always pertains to one or more XML nodes (mainly element and attribute nodes). In a sense, ITS markup "selects" the XML node(s). Selection may be explicit or implicit. ITS distinguishes two approaches to selection: local, and with global rules.

The mechanisms defined for ITS selection resemble those defined in [CSS 2.1]. The local approach can be compared to the style attribute in HTML/XHTML, and the approach with global rules is similar to the style element in HTML/XHTML. In contrast to CSS, ITS uses XPath for identifying nodes. Thus,

  • the local approach puts ITS markup in the relevant element of the host vocabulary (e.g. the author element in DocBook)

  • the rule-based, global approach puts the ITS markup in elements defined by ITS itself (namely the rules element)

ITS markup can be used with XML documents (e.g. a DocBook article), or schemas (e.g. an XML Schema document for a proprietary document format). Since each usage defines some specific requirements, ITS markup may take different shapes.

The following two examples sketch the distinction between the local and global approaches.

2.1.1 Local Approach

The document in Example 8 shows how a content author may use the ITS translate attribute to indicate that all content inside the author element should be protected from translation. Translation tools that are aware of the meaning of this attribute can then screen the relevant content from the translation process.

For this to work, the schema developer will need to add the translate attribute to the schema as a common attribute or on all the relevant element definitions. Note how there is an expectation in this case that inheritance plays a part in identifying which content does have to be translated and which does not. Tools that process this content for translation will need to implement the expected inheritance.

2.1.2 Global Approach

The document in Example 9 shows a different approach to identifying non-translatable content, similar to that used with a style element in [XHTML 1.0], but using an ITS-defined element called rules . It works as follows: A document can contain a rules element (placed where it does not impact the structure of the document, like in a "head" section). It contains one or more ITS rule elements (for example translateRule ). Each of these specific elements contains a selector attribute. As its name suggests, this attribute selects the XML node or nodes to which a corresponding ITS information pertains. The values of ITS selector attributes are XPath absolute location paths. Information for the handling of namespaces in these path expressions is taken from namespace declarations [XML Names] atin the current rules element.

Note:

Caveat Related to XSLT-based Processing of ITS Selector Attributes

The values of ITS element selector ns attributes are XPath absolute location paths. Accordingly, the following is a legitimate value:

myElement/descendant-or-self::*/@*

Unfortunately, values like this cause trouble when they are used in XSLT-basedchild processing of ITS where the values of the ITS selector attributes are used as values of match attributes of XSLT templates. The reason for this is the following: match attributes may only contain a restriction/subset of XPath expressions, so-called patternsrules .

Basically the following restrictions hold for patterns:

  • only axes "child" or "attribute" allowed

  • "//" or "/" possible

  • id() or key() function possible

  • predicates possible

Using only XSLT patterns in ITS selector attributes helps to avoid this issue. In many cases, this is possible by using patterns with predicates. The value above may for example be rewritten as follows:

*[self::myElement]/@* | myElement//*/@*

For this approach to work, the schema developer needs to add the rules element and associated markup to the schema.

In some cases this may allow the schema developer to avoid adding other ITS markup (such as an translate attribute) to the elements in the schema. However, it is likely that authors will want to use attributes on markup from time to time to override the general rule.

For specification of the Translate data category information, the contents of the rules element would normally be designed by an information architect familiar with the document format and familiar with, or working with someone familiar with, the needs of the localization group.

The global, rule-based approach has the following benefits:

  • Content authors do not have to concern themselves with creating additional markup or verifying that the markup was applied correctly. ITS data categories are associated with sets of XML nodes (for example all p elements in an XML instance)

  • Changes can be done in a single location, rather than by searching and modifying the markup throughout a document (or documents, if the rules element is stored as an external entity)

  • ITS data categories can designate attribute values as well as elements.

  • It is possible to associate ITS markup with existing markup (for example the term element in DITA)

The commonality in both examples above is the markup translate='no'. This piece of ITS markup can be interpreted as follows:

The ITS selector attribute allows:

  • ITS data category attributes to appear in global rules (even outside of an XML document or schema)

  • ITS data categories attributes to pertain to sets of XML nodes (for example all p elements in an XML document)

  • ITS markup to pertain to attributes

  • ITS markup to associate with existing markup (for example theterm element in DITA)

2.2 Overriding and Inheritance

The power of the ITS selection mechanisms comes at a price: rules related to overriding/precedence, and inheritance, have to be established.

The document in Example 10 shows how inheritance and overriding work for the Translate data category. By default elements are translatable. Here, the translateRule element declared in the header overrides the default for the head element inside text and for all its children. Because the title element is actually translatable, the global rule needs to be overridden by a local its:translate="yes". Note that the global rule is processed first, regardless of its position inside the document. In the main body of the document, the default applies, and here it is its:translate="no" that is used to set "faux pas" as non-translatable.

2.3 Adding Information or Pointing to Existing Information

For some data categories, special attributes add or point to information about the selected nodes. For example, the Localization Note data category can add information to selected nodes (using a locNote element), or point at existing information elsewhere in the document (using a locNotePointer attribute).

The functionality of adding information to the selected nodes is available for each data category except Language Information. Pointing to existing information is not possible for data categories that express a closed set of values; that is: Translate, Directionality and Elements Within Text.

The functionalities of adding information and pointing to existing information are mutually exclusive. That is to say, attributes for pointing and adding must not appear at the same rule element.

3 Notation and Terminology

This section is normative.

3.1 Notation

The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].

The namespace URI that MUST be used by implementations of this specification is:

http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its

The namespace prefix used in this specification for this URI is "its". It is recommended that implementations of this specification use this prefix.

In addition, the following namespaces are used in this document:

  • http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema for the XML Schema namespace, here used with the prefix "xs"

  • http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0 for the RELAX NG namespace, here used with the prefix "rng"

  • http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink for the XLink namespace, here used with the prefix "xlink"

3.2 Schema Language

[Definition: Schema language refers in this specification to an XML-related modelling or validation language such as XML DTD, XML Schema or RELAX NG.]

Note:

This specification provides schemas in the format of XML DTD, XML Schema or RELAX NG. However, these schemas are only non-normative; conformance for ITS markup declarations defines only mandatory positions of ITS declarations in schemas. This makes it possible to use ITS with any schema language that allows for using these positions.

3.3 Data category

[Definition: ITS defines data category as an abstract concept for a particular type of information for internationalization and localization of XML schemas and documents.] The concept of a data category is independent of its implementation in an XML environment (e.g. using an element or attribute).

For each data category, ITS distinguishes between the following:

The Translate data category conveys information as to whether a piece of content should be translated or not.

The simplest formalization of this prose description on a schema language independent level is a translate attribute with two possible values: "yes" and "no". An implementation on a schema language specific level would be the declaration of the translate attribute in, for example, an XML DTD, an XML Schema document or an RELAX NG document. A different implementation would be a translateRule element that allows for specifying global rules about the Translate data category.

3.4 Selection

[Definition: selection encompasses mechanisms to specify to what parts of an XML document an ITS data category and its values should be applied to.] Selection is discussed in detail in 5 Processing of ITS information. Selection can be applied globally, see 5.2.1 Global, Rule-based Selection, and locally, see 5.2.2 Local Selection in an XML Document. As for global selection, ITS information can be added to the selected nodes, or it can point to existing information which is related to selected nodes.

Selection relies on the information that is given in the XML Information Set [XML Infoset]. ITS applications MAY implement inclusion mechanisms such as XInclude or DITA's [DITA 1.0] conref.

Note:

The selection of the ITS data categories applies to textual values contained withintext element or attribute nodes. In some cases these nodes form pointers to other resources; a well-known example is the src attribute on the img element in HTML. The ITS Translate data category applies to the text of the pointer itself, not the object to which it points. Thus in the following example, the translation information specified via the translateRule element applies to the filename "instructions.jpg", and is not an instruction to open the graphic and change the words therein.

3.5 Usage of Internationalized Resource Identifiers in ITS

The attributes href , locNoteRef and termInfoRef which contain resource identifiers MUST allow the usage of Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs, [RFC 3987] or its successor) to ease the adoption of ITS in international application scenarios.

Note:

The ITS schemas in D Schemas for ITS are not normative. Hence this specification defines no validation requirements for IRI values in ITS markup. For processing of these values, relying on IRIs imposes no specific requirements. The reason is that the processing happens on the info set level [XML Infoset], where no difference between IRIs and URIs exists.

4 Conformance

This section is normative.

The usage of the term conformance clause in this section is in compliance with [QAFRAMEWORK].

This specification defines two types of conformance: conformance of 1) ITS markup declarations , and conformance of 2) processing expectations for ITS Markup. These conformance types complement each other. An implementation of this specification MAY use them separately or together.

4.1 Conformance Type 1: ITS Markup Declarations

Description: ITS markup declarations encompass all declarations that are part of the Internationalization Tag Set. They do not concern the usage of the markup in XML documents. Such markup is subject to the conformance clauses in 4.2 Conformance Type 2: The Processing Expectations for ITS Markup.

Definitions related to this conformance type: ITS markup declarations are defined in various subsections in 5 Processing of ITS information and 6 Description of Data Categories (e.g. 6.3.3 Markup Declarations for Localization Note) in a schema language independent manner, relying on the ODD language. Their occurrence in other sections of this document is typographically marked via bold face and color.

Who uses this conformance type: Schema designers integrating ITS markup declarations into a schema. All conformance clauses for this conformance type concern the position of ITS markup declarations in that schema, and their status as mandatory or optional.

Conformance clauses:

  • 1-1: At least one of the following MUST be in the schema:

  • 1-2: If the rules element is used, it MUST be part of the content model of at least one element declared in the schema. It SHOULD be in a content model for meta information, if this is available in that schema (e.g. the head element in [XHTML 1.0]).

  • 1-3: If the ruby element is used, it SHOULD be declared as an inline element.

  • 1-4: If the span element is used, it SHOULD be declared as an inline element.

Full implementations of this conformance type will implement all markup declarations for ITS. Statements related to this conformance type MUST list all markup declarations they implement.

Examples: Examples of the usage of ITS markup declarations in various existing schemas are given in a separate document [XML i18n BP].

Note:

Since the ITS markup declarations are schema language independent, each schema language can use its own, possibly multiple, mechanisms to implement the conformance clauses for ITS markup declarations. For example, an XML DTD can use parameter entities to encapsulate the ITS local attributes, or declare them directly for each element. The appropriate steps to integrate ITS into a schema depend on the design of this schema (e.g. whether it already has a customization layer that uses parameter entities). The ITS schemas in the format of XML DTD, XML Schema and RELAX NG in D Schemas for ITS are only informative examples.

4.2 Conformance Type 2: The Processing Expectations for ITS Markup

Description: Processors need to compute the ITS information that pertains to a node in an XML document. The ITS processing expectations define how the computation has to be carried out. Correct computation involves support for selection mechanism, defaults / inheritance / overriding characteristics, and precedence. The markup MAY be valid against a schema which conforms to the clauses in 4.1 Conformance Type 1: ITS Markup Declarations.

Definitions related to this conformance type: The processing expectations for ITS markup make use of selection mechanisms defined in 5 Processing of ITS information. The individual data categories defined in 6 Description of Data Categories have defaults / inheritance / overriding characteristics, and allow for using ITS markup in various positions (global and local).

Who uses this conformance type: Applications that need to process for internationalization or localization the nodes captured by a data category. Examples of this type of application are: ITS markup-aware editors, or translation tools that make use of ITS markup to filter translatable text as an input to the localization process.

Note:

Application-specific processing (that is processing that goes beyond the computation of ITS information for a node) such as automated filtering of translatable content based on the Translate data category is not covered by the conformance clauses below.

Note:

The ITS Working group provides a test suite to help implementors to write applications that support the ITS specifications. The test suite provides pairs of input and output files.

Conformance clauses:

Statements related to this conformance type MUST list all data categories they implement, and for each data category which type of selection they support.

5 Processing of ITS information

This section is normative.

5.1 Indicating the Version of ITS

The version of the ITS schema defined in this specification is "1.0". The version is indicated by the ITS version attribute. This attribute is mandatory for the rules element, where it MUST be in nothe ITS namespace and use its prefix, for example namespace.its:version. If there is no rules element in an XML document, a prefixed ITS version attribute (e.g. its:version) MUST be provided at the root element of the document. If there is both a version attribute at the root element and a rules element in a document, they MUST NOT specify different versions.

Each XML document can have a different version. That is: if external rules are linked via an XLink href attribute on the rules element, they can specify a different version than the rules element.

5.2 Locations of Data Categories

ITS data categories can appear in two places:

The two locations are described in detail below.

5.2.1 Global, Rule-based Selection

Global, rule-based selection is implemented using the rules element. It contains zero or more rule elements. Each rule element has a mandatory selector attribute. This attribute and all other possible attributes on rule elements are in the empty namespace and used without a prefix.

If there is more than one rules element in an XML document, the rules from each section are to be processed at the same precedence level. The rules sections are to be read in document order, and the ITS rules with them processed sequentially. The versions of these rules elements MUST NOT be different.

Depending on the data category and its usage, there are additional attributes for adding information to the selected nodes, or for pointing to existing information in the document. For example, the Localization Note data category can be used for adding notes to selected nodes, or for pointing to existing notes in the document. For the former purpose, a locNote element can be used. For the latter purpose, a locNotePointer attribute can be used.

Each data category allows you to add information to the selected nodes except for language information. Pointing to existing information is not possible for data categories that express a closed set of values, that is: Translate, Directionality and Elements Within Text.

The functionalities of adding information and pointing to existing information are mutually exclusive. That is: markup for pointing and adding MUST NOT appear in the same rule element.

Another difference between adding and pointing is the usage of XPath:

If namespaces [XML Names] are used in XPath expressions in the selector attribute or the pointing attributes, the following rules MUST be applied while processing XPath:

  1. For each prefix, there MUST be an xmlns element as a attribute at the same rules element. The rule ns element which allows to resolve prefix (for the namespace URIprefix) and uri of the namespace prefix.

  2. Element and attribute names without a prefix are interpreted as having no namespace.

  3. To avoid a conflict with rule 2., default namespaces MUST NOT be used in the XPath expressions.

The usage of the ns element is inspired by and compliant to the requirements on namespace bindings described in .

Global rules can appear in the XML document they will be applied to, or in a separate XML document. The precedence of their processing depends on these variations. See also 5.4 Precedence between Selections.

Markup for global, rule-based selection is defined as follows.

rules
rules
[1] rules ::= element its:rules { rules.content, rules.attributes }
[2] rules.content ::= ns*, ( translateRule | locNoteRule | termRule | dirRule | rubyRule | langRule | withinTextRule )*
[3] rules.attributes ::= att.version.attributes, attribute versionxlink:href { xsd:anyURI }?nsnsns element its:ns { xsd:floatns.content, ns.attributes }ns.content emptyns.attributes }, attribute xlink:href { xsd:anyURIxsd:NCName }, }?, attribute xlink:type { "simple" }?
att.selector
att.selector
[4] att.selector.attributes ::= att.selector.attribute.selector
[5] att.selector.attribute.selector ::= attribute selector { string }
att.version
att.version
[6] att.version.attributes ::= att.version.attribute.version
[7] att.version.attribute.version ::= attribute its:version { xsd:float }

5.2.2 Local Selection in an XML Document

Local selection in XML documents is realized with local ITS attributes, the ruby element, or the span element. span serves just as a carrier for the local ITS attributes and a container for ruby .

The content model of span permits arbitrary nesting of ruby markup, since the rb and rt elements themselves can contain span . An application of ruby MUST not use such arbitrary nesting.

The data category determines what is being selected. The necessary data category specific defaults are described in 6.1 Position, Defaults, Inheritance and Overriding of Data Categories.

By default the content of all elements in a document is translatable. The attribute its:translate="no" in the head element means that the content of this element, including child elements, should not be translated. The attribute its:translate="yes" in the title element means that the content of this element, should be translated (overriding the its:translate="no" in head. Attribute values of the selected elements or their children are not affected by local translate attributes. By default they are not translatable.

The default directionality of a document is left-to-right. The its:dir="rtl" in the quote element means that the directionality of the content of this element, including child elements and attributes, is right-to-left. Note that xml:lang indicates only the language, not the directionality.

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  its:version="1.0" xml:lang="en">
 <head
   its:translate="no">
  <author>Sven Corneliusson</author>
  <date>2006-09-26T17:34:04Z</date>
  <title
    its:translate="yes" role="header">Bidirectional Text</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <par>In Arabic, the title <quote xml:lang="ar"
     its:dir="rtl">نشاط التدويل، W3C</quote>
     means <quote>Internationalization Activity, W3C</quote>.</par>
 </body>
</text>

[Source file: EX-selection-local-1.xml]

Markup for local selection is defined as follows. The attribute group att.local.no-ns.attributes contains ITS attributes in no namespace and is used with the ITS elements span , locNote , ruby , rb , rt , rbc , rtc and rp . The attribute group att.local.with-ns.attributes contains namespace qualified ITS attributes and is used with elements from different namespaces.

att.local.no-ns
att.local.no-ns
[8] att.local.no-ns.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attribute.translate, att.local.no-ns.attribute.locNote, att.local.no-ns.attribute.locNoteType, att.local.no-ns.attribute.locNoteRef, att.local.no-ns.attribute.termInfoRef, att.local.no-ns.attribute.term, att.local.no-ns.attribute.dir
[9] att.local.no-ns.attribute.translate ::= attribute translate { "yes" | "no" }?
[10] att.local.no-ns.attribute.locNote ::= attribute locNote { string }?
[11] att.local.no-ns.attribute.locNoteType ::= attribute locNoteType { "alert" | "description" }?
[12] att.local.no-ns.attribute.locNoteRef ::= attribute locNoteRef { xsd:anyURI }?
[13] att.local.no-ns.attribute.termInfoRef ::= attribute termInfoRef { xsd:anyURI }?
[14] att.local.no-ns.attribute.term ::= attribute term { "yes" | "no" }?
[15] att.local.no-ns.attribute.dir ::= attribute dir { "ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo" }?
att.local.with-ns
att.local.with-ns
[16] att.local.with-ns.attributes ::= att.local.with-ns.attribute.translate, att.local.with-ns.attribute.locNote, att.local.with-ns.attribute.locNoteType, att.local.with-ns.attribute.locNoteRef, att.local.with-ns.attribute.termInfoRef, att.local.with-ns.attribute.term, att.local.with-ns.attribute.dir
[17] att.local.with-ns.attribute.translate ::= attribute its:translate { "yes" | "no" }?
[18] att.local.with-ns.attribute.locNote ::= attribute its:locNote { string }?
[19] att.local.with-ns.attribute.locNoteType ::= attribute its:locNoteType { "alert" | "description" }?
[20] att.local.with-ns.attribute.locNoteRef ::= attribute its:locNoteRef { xsd:anyURI }?
[21] att.local.with-ns.attribute.termInfoRef ::= attribute its:termInfoRef { xsd:anyURI }?
[22] att.local.with-ns.attribute.term ::= attribute its:term { "yes" | "no" }?
[23] att.local.with-ns.attribute.dir ::= attribute its:dir { "ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo" }?
span
span
[24] span ::= element its:span { span.content, span.attributes }
[25] span.content ::= ( text | ruby | span )*
[26] span.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes

5.3 Link to External Rules

One way to associate a document with a set of external ITS rules is to use the optional XLink [XLink 1.0] href attribute in the rules element, accompanied by the XLink type attribute whith the value "simple".element. The referenced document must be a valid XML document containing at most one rules element. That rules element can be the root element or anywhere within the document tree (for example, the document could be an XML Schema).

The rules contained in the referenced document MUST be processed as if they were at the top of the rules element with the XLink href attribute.

The result of processing the two documents above is the same as processing the following document.

Applications processing global ITS markup MUST recognize the XLink href attribute in the rules element; they MUST load the corresponding referenced document and process its rules element before processing the content of the rules element where the original XLink href attribute is.

External rules may also have links to other external rules. The linking mechanism is recursive, the deepest rules being overridden by the top-most rules, if any.

5.4 Precedence between Selections

The following precedence order is defined for selections of ITS information in various positions (the first item in the list has the highest precedence):

  1. Implicit local selection in documents (ITS local attributes on a specific element)

  2. Global selections in documents (using a rules element)

    InsideGlobal selections each rules an element the precedence order is:

    1. Any rules inside the rules element

    2. Any element), rules linked via the XLink href attribute

    Note:

    If or identical selectionsa are defined in different rules elements within one document, the selection defined by the last takes precedence.mechanism

    Note:

    ITS doesn't define precedence related to rules defined or linked based on non-ITS mechanisms (such as processing instructions for linking rules).

  3. Selections via defaults for data categories, see 6.1 Position, Defaults, Inheritance and Overriding of Data Categories

In case of conflicts between global selections via multiple rule elements, the last selector has higher precedence.

Note:

The precedence order fulfills the same purpose as the built-in template rules of [XSLT 1.0].

The two elements title and author of this document should be treated as separate content when inside a prolog element, but as part of the content of their parent element otherwise. In order to make this distinction two withinTextRule elements are used:

The first rule specifies that title and author in general should be treated as an element within text. This overrides the default.

The second rule indicates that when title or author are found in a prolog element their content should be treated separately. This is normally the default, but the rule is needed to override the first rule.

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <prolog>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:withinTextRule withinText="yes" selector="//title|//author"/>
   <its:withinTextRule withinText="no" selector="//prolog/title|//prolog/author"/>
  </its:rules>
  <title>Designing User Interfaces</title>
  <author>Janice Prakash</author>
  <keywords>user interface, ui, software interface</keywords>
 </prolog>
 <body>
  <p>The book <title>Of Mice and Screens</title> by <author>Aldus 
     Brandywine</author> is one of the best introductions to the vast 
    topic of designing user interfaces.</p>
 </body>
</text>

[Source file: EX-selection-precedence-1.xml]

5.5 Associating ITS Data Categories with Existing Markup

Some markup schemes provide markup which can be used to express ITS data categories. ITS data categories can be associated with such existing markup, using the global selection mechanism described in 5.2.1 Global, Rule-based Selection.

Associating existing markup with ITS data categories can be done only if the processing expectations of the host markup are the same as, or greater than, those of ITS.

<topic
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  id="myTopic">
 <title>The ITS Topic</title>
 <prolog>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:translateRule selector="//*[@translate='no']" translate="no"/>
   <its:translateRule selector="//*[@translate='yes']" translate="yes"/>
   <its:termRule selector="//term | //dt" term="yes"/>
  </its:rules>
 </prolog>
 <body>
  <dl>
   <dlentry id="tDataCat">
    <dt>Data category</dt>
    <dd>ITS defines <term>data category</term> as an abstract concept for
    a particular type of information related to internationalization and 
    localization of XML schemas and documents.</dd>
   </dlentry>
  </dl>
  <p>For the implementation of ITS, apply the rules in the order:</p>
  <ul>
   <li>Defaults</li>
   <li>Rules in external files</li>
   <li>Rules in the document</li>
   <li>Local attributes</li>
  </ul>
  <p>
   <ph translate="no" xml:lang="fr">Et voilà !</ph>.</p>
 </body>
</topic>

[Source file: EX-associating-its-with-existing-markup-1.xml]

Global rules can be associated with a given XML document using different means:

  • By using an rules element in the document itself:

    • with the rules directly inside the document, as shown in Example 20

    • with a link to an external rules file using the XLink href attribute, as shown in Example 16

  • By associating the rules and the document through a tool-specific mechanism. For example, for a command-line tool: providing the paths of both the XML document to process and its corresponding external rules file.

6 Description of Data Categories

This section is normative.

6.1 Position, Defaults, Inheritance and Overriding of Data Categories

The following table summarizes for each data category which selection, default value, and inheritance and overriding behavior applies.

  • Default values apply if both local or global selection are absent. The default value for the Translate data category for example mandates that elements are translatable, and attributes are not translatable if there is no translateRule element and no translate attribute available.

  • Inheritance describes whether ITS information is applicable to child elements of nodes and attributes related to these nodes or their child notes. The inheritance for the Translate data category for example mandates that all child elements of nodes are translatable whereas all attributes related to these the nodes or their child notes are not translatable.

  • Overriding describes whether ITS information can be overridden or not. Overriding is only applicable for data categories with inheritance. Overriding thus is not applicable for the Terminology and the Ruby data category.

Data categoryLocal UsageGlobal, rule-based selectionGlobal adding of informationGlobal pointing to existing informationDefault ValuesInheritanceOverriding
Translate YesYesYesNo translate="yes" for elements, and translate="no" for attributesTextual content of element, including content of child elements, but excluding attributesYes
Localization Note YesYesYesYesNoneTextual content of element, including content of child elements, but excluding attributesYes
Terminology YesYesYesYes term="no" NoneNot applicable
Directionality YesYesYesNo dir="ltr" Textual content of element, including attributes and child elementsYes
Ruby YesYesYesYesNoneNoneNot applicable
Language Information NoYesNoYesNoneTextual content of element, including attributes and child elementsYes
Elements Within Text NoYesYesNo withinText="no" NoneNot applicable

In this example, the content of all the data elements is translatable because the default for the Translate data category in elements is "yes". The content of revision and locNote is not translatable because the default is overridden by the local its:translate="no" attribute in the prolog element, and that value is inherited by all the children of prolog.

The localization note for the two first data elements is the text defined globally with the locNoteRule element. And this note is overridden for the last data element by the local its:locNote attribute.

<Res
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  its:version="1.0">
 <prolog
   its:translate="no">
  <revision>Sep-07-2006</revision>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:translateRule selector="//msg/notes" translate="no"/>
   <its:locNoteRule locNoteType="description" selector="//msg/data">
    <its:locNote>The variable {0} is the name of the host.</its:locNote>
   </its:locNoteRule>
  </its:rules>
 </prolog>
 <body>
  <msg id="HostNotFound">
   <data>Host {0} cannot be found.</data>
  </msg>
  <msg id="HostDisconnected">
   <data>The connection with {0} has been lost.</data>
  </msg>
  <msg id="FileNotFound">
   <data
     its:locNote="{0} is a filename">{0} not found.</data>
  </msg>
 </body>
</Res>

[Source file: EX-datacat-behavior-1.xml]

Note:

The data categories differ with respect to defaults. This is due to existing standards and practices. It is common practice for example that information about translation refers only to textual content of an element. Thus, the default selection for the Translate data category is the textual content.

6.2 Translate

6.2.1 Definition

The Translate data category expresses information about whether the content of an element or attribute should be translated or not. The values of this data category are "yes" (translatable) or "no" (not translatable).

6.2.2 Implementation

The Translate data category can be expressed with global rules, or locally on an individual element. The information applies to the textual content of the element, including child elements, but excluding attributes. The default is that elements are translatable and attributes are not.

GLOBAL: The translateRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

  • A required translate attribute with the value "yes" or "no".

Example: The Translate data category expressed globally

The translateRule element specifies that the elements code must not be translated.

<its:rules
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  version="1.0">
 <its:translateRule translate="no" selector="//code"/>
</its:rules>

[Source file: EX-translate-selector-1.xml]

LOCAL: The following local markup is available for the Translate data category:

Note:

It is not possible to override the Translate data category settings of attributes using local markup. This limitation is consistent with the advised practice of not using translatable attributes.

Example: The Translate data category expressed locally

The local its:translate="no" specifies that the content of panelmsg must not be translated.

<messages
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  its:version="1.0">
 <msg num="123">Click Resume Button on Status Display or  
    <panelmsg
    its:translate="no">CONTINUE</panelmsg> Button
    on printer panel</msg>
</messages>

[Source file: EX-translate-selector-2.xml]

6.2.3 Markup Declarations for Translate

translateRule
translateRule
[27] translateRule ::= element its:translateRule { translateRule.content, translateRule.attributes }
[28] translateRule.content ::= empty
[29] translateRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute translate { "yes" | "no" }
att.translate
att.translate
[30] att.translate.attributes ::= att.translate.attribute.translate
[31] att.translate.attribute.translate ::= attribute its:translate { "yes" | "no" }?

6.3 Localization Note

6.3.1 Definition

The Localization Note data category is used to communicate notes to localizers about a particular item of content.

This data category can be used for several purposes, including, but not limited to:

  • Tell the translator how to translate parts of the content

  • Expand on the meaning or contextual usage of a specific element, such as what a variable refers to or how a string will be used on the user interface

  • 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.)

  • Indicate why a piece of text is emphasized (important, sarcastic, etc.)

Two types of informative notes are needed:

  • An alert contains information that the translator must read before translating a piece of text. Example: an instruction to the translator to leave parts of the text in the source language.

  • A description provides useful background information that the translator will refer to only if they wish. Example: a clarification of ambiguity in the source text.

Editing tools may offer an easy way to create this type of information. Translation tools can be made to recognize the difference between these two types of localization notes, and present the information to translators in different ways.

6.3.2 Implementation

The Localization Note data category can be expressed with global rules, or locally on an individual element. The information applies to the textual content of the element, including child elements, but excluding attributes.

GLOBAL: The locNoteRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

  • A required locNoteType attribute with the value "description" or "alert".

  • Exactly one of the following:

    • A locNote element that contains the note itself and allows for local ITS markup.

    • A locNotePointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that holds the localization note.

    • A locNoteRef attribute that contains a URI referring to the location of the localization note.

    • A locNoteRefPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that holds the URI referring to the location of the localization note.

The locNoteRule element associates the content of the locNote element with the message with the identifier 'DisableInfo' and flags it as important. This would also work if the rule was in an external file, allowing to provide notes without modifying the source document.

<myRes
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <head>
  <its:rules version="1.0"
    its:translate="no">
   <its:locNoteRule locNoteType="alert" selector="//msg[@id='DisableInfo']">
    <its:locNote>The variable {0} has three possible values: 'printer', 
        'stacker' and 'stapler options'.</its:locNote>
   </its:locNoteRule>
  </its:rules>
 </head>
 <body>
  <msg id="DisableInfo">The {0} has been disabled.</msg>
 </body>
</myRes>

[Source file: EX-locNote-element-1.xml]

The locNotePointer attribute is a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that holds the note.

<Res
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <prolog>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:translateRule selector="//msg/notes" translate="no"/>
   <its:locNoteRule locNoteType="description" selector="//msg/data" locNotePointer="../notes"/>
  </its:rules>
 </prolog>
 <body>
  <msg id="FileNotFound">
   <notes>Indicates that the resource file {0} could not be loaded.</notes>
   <data>Cannot find the file {0}.</data>
  </msg>
  <msg id="DivByZero">
   <notes>A division by 0 was going to be computed.</notes>
   <data>Invalid parameter.</data>
  </msg>
 </body>
</Res>

[Source file: EX-locNotePointer-attribute-1.xml]

The locNoteRule element specifies that the message with the identifier 'NotFound' has a corresponding explanation note in an external file. The URI for the exact location of the note is stored in the locNoteRef attribute.

<myRes
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <head>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:locNoteRule locNoteType="description" selector="//msg[@id='NotFound']" locNoteRef="ErrorsInfo.html#NotFound"/>
  </its:rules>
 </head>
 <body>
  <msg id="NotFound">Cannot find {0} on {1}.</msg>
 </body>
</myRes>

[Source file: EX-locNoteRef-attribute-1.xml]

The locNoteRefPointer attribute contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that holds the URI referring to the location of the note.

<dataFile
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <prolog>
  <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:locNoteRule locNoteType="description" selector="//data" locNoteRefPointer="../@noteFile"/>
  </its:rules>
 </prolog>
 <body>
  <string id="FileNotFound" noteFile="Comments.html#FileNotFound">
   <data>Cannot find the file {0}.</data>
  </string>
  <string id="DivByZero" noteFile="Comments.html#DivByZero">
   <data>Invalid parameter.</data>
  </string>
 </body>
</dataFile>

[Source file: EX-locNoteRefPointer-attribute-1.xml]

LOCAL: The following local markup is available for the Localization Note data category:

  • One of the following:

    • A locNote attribute that contains the note itself.

    • A locNoteRef attribute that contains a URI referring to the location of the localization note.

  • An optional locNoteType attribute with the value "description" or "alert". If the locNoteType attribute is not present, the type of localization note will be assumed to be "description".

Example: The Localization Note data category expressed locally
<msgList
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  xml:space="preserve"
  its:version="1.0">
 <data name="LISTFILTERS_VARIANT"
   its:locNote="Keep the leading space!"
   its:locNoteType="alert">
  <value> Variant {0} = {1} ({2})</value>
 </data>
 <data
   its:locNote="%1\$s is the original text's date in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM always in GMT">
  <value>Translated from English content dated <span id="version-info">%1\$s</span> GMT.</value>
 </data>
</msgList>

[Source file: EX-locNote-selector-2.xml]

Note:

It is generally recommended to avoid using attributes to store text, however, in this specific case, the need to provide the notes without interfering with the structure of the host document is outweighing the drawbacks of using an attribute.

6.3.3 Markup Declarations for Localization Note

locNoteRule
locNoteRule
[32] locNoteRule ::= element its:locNoteRule { locNoteRule.content, locNoteRule.attributes }
[33] locNoteRule.content ::= locNote?
[34] locNoteRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute locNotePointer { string }?, attribute locNoteType { "alert" | "description" }, attribute locNoteRef { xsd:anyURI }?, attribute locNoteRefPointer { string }?
locNote
locNote
[35] locNote ::= element its:locNote { locNote.content, locNote.attributes }
[36] locNote.content ::= ( text | ruby | span )*
[37] locNote.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes
att.locNote
att.locNote
[38] att.locNote.attributes ::= att.locNote.attribute.locNote, att.locNote.attribute.locNoteType, att.locNote.attribute.locNoteRef
[39] att.locNote.attribute.locNote ::= attribute its:locNote { string }?
[40] att.locNote.attribute.locNoteType ::= attribute its:locNoteType { "alert" | "description" }?
[41] att.locNote.attribute.locNoteRef ::= attribute its:locNoteRef { xsd:anyURI }?

6.4 Terminology

6.4.1 Definition

The Terminology data category is used to mark terms and optionally associate them with information, such as definitions. This helps to increase consistency across different parts of the documentation. It is also helpful for translation.

Note:

Existing terminology standards such as [ISO 12200] and its derived formats are about coding terminology data, while the ITS Terminology data category simply allows to identify terms in XML documents and optionally to point to corresponding information.

6.4.2 Implementation

The Terminology data category can be expressed with global rules, or locally on an individual element. There is no inheritance. The default is that neither elements nor attributes are terms.

GLOBAL: The termRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

  • A required term attribute with the value "yes" or "no".

  • Exactly one of the following:

    • A termInfoPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that holds the terminology information.

    • A termInfoRef attribute that contains a URI referring to the resource providing information about the term.

    • A termInfoRefPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that holds the URI referring to the location of the terminology information.

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <its:rules version="1.0">
  <its:termRule selector="//term" term="yes" termInfoPointer="id(@def)"/>
 </its:rules>
 <p>We may define <term def="TDPV">discoursal point of view</term>
 as <gloss xml:id="TDPV">the relationship, expressed through discourse
  structure, between the implied author or some other addresser,
  and the fiction.</gloss>
 </p>
</text>

[Source file: EX-terms-selector-1.xml]

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <its:rules version="1.0">
  <its:termRule selector="//term[1]" term="yes" termInfoRef="#TDPV"/>
 </its:rules>
 <p>We may define <term>discoursal point of view</term>
 as <gloss xml:id="TDPV">the relationship, expressed through discourse
  structure, between the implied author or some other addresser,
  and the fiction.</gloss>
 </p>
</text>

[Source file: EX-terms-selector-2.xml]

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <its:rules version="1.0">
  <its:termRule selector="//term" term="yes" termInfoRefPointer="@target"/>
 </its:rules>
 <p>We may define <term target="#TDPV">discoursal point of view</term>
 as <gloss xml:id="TDPV">the relationship, expressed through discourse
  structure, between the implied author or some other addresser,
  and the fiction.</gloss>
 </p>
</text>

[Source file: EX-terms-selector-3.xml]

LOCAL: The following local markup is available for the Terminology data category:

  • A term attribute with the value "yes" or "no".

  • An optional termInfoRef attribute that contains a URI referring to the resource providing information about the term.

Example: The Terminology data category expressed locally
<book
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  its:version="1.0">
 <head>...</head>
 <body> ...  <p>And he said: you need a
   new <quote
     its:term="yes">motherboard</quote>
  </p> ...
  </body>
</book>

[Source file: EX-terms-selector-4.xml]

6.4.3 Markup Declarations for Terminology

termRule
termRule
[42] termRule ::= element its:termRule { termRule.content, termRule.attributes }
[43] termRule.content ::= empty
[44] termRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute term { "yes" | "no" }, attribute termInfoRef { xsd:anyURI }?, attribute termInfoRefPointer { string }?, attribute termInfoPointer { string }?
att.term
att.term
[45] att.term.attributes ::= att.term.attribute.termInfoRef, att.term.attribute.term
[46] att.term.attribute.termInfoRef ::= attribute its:termInfoRef { xsd:anyURI }?
[47] att.term.attribute.term ::= attribute its:term { "yes" | "no" }?

6.5 Directionality

6.5.1 Definition

The Directionality data category allows the user to specify the base writing direction of blocks, embeddings and overrides for the Unicode bidirectional algorithm. It has four values: "ltr", "rtl", "lro" and "rlo".

Note:

ITS defines only the values of the Directionality data category and their inheritance. The behavior of text labelled in this way may vary, according to the implementation. Implementors are encouraged, however, to model the behavior on that described in the CSS 2.1 specification or its successor. In such a case, the effect of the data category's values would correspond to the following CSS rules:

  • Data category value: "ltr" (left-to-right text)

    CSS rule: *[dir="ltr"] { unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr}

  • Data category value: "rtl" (right-to-left text)

    CSS rule: *[dir="rtl"] { unicode-bidi: embed; direction: rtl}

  • Data category value: "rlo" (left-to-right override)

    CSS rule: *[dir="lro"] { unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr}

  • Data category value: "rlo" (right-to-left text)

    CSS rule: *[dir="rlo"] { unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: rtl}

More information about how to use this data category is provided by [Bidi Article].

6.5.2 Implementation

The Directionality data category can be expressed with global rules, or locally on an individual element. The information applies to the textual content of the element, including child elements and attributes. The default is that both elements and attributes have the directionality of left-to-right.

GLOBAL: The dirRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

  • A required dir attribute with the value "ltr", "rtl", "lro" or "rlo".

Example: The Directionality data category expressed with global rules

The dirRule element indicates that all elements with an attribute direction="rtlText" have right-to-left content.

<its:rules
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  version="1.0">
 <its:dirRule dir="rtl" selector="//*[@direction='rtlText']"/>
</its:rules>

[Source file: EX-dir-selector-2.xml]

LOCAL: The following local markup is available for the Directionality data category:

  • A dir attribute with the value "ltr", "rtl", "lro" or "rlo".

Example: The Directionality data category expressed locally

On the first quote element, the its:dir="rtl" attribute indicates a right-to-left content.

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  xml:lang="en"
  its:version="1.0">
 <body>
  <par>In Arabic, the title <quote xml:lang="ar"
     its:dir="rtl">نشاط التدويل، W3C</quote>
     means <quote>Internationalization Activity, W3C</quote>.</par>
 </body>
</text>

[Source file: EX-dir-selector-3.xml]

6.5.3 Markup Declarations for Directionality

dirRule
dirRule
[48] dirRule ::= element its:dirRule { dirRule.content, dirRule.attributes }
[49] dirRule.content ::= empty
[50] dirRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute dir { "ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo" }
att.dir
att.dir
[51] att.dir.attributes ::= att.dir.attribute.dir
[52] att.dir.attribute.dir ::= attribute its:dir { "ltr" | "rtl" | "lro" | "rlo" }?

6.6 Ruby

6.6.1 Definition

The Ruby data category 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.

6.6.2 Implementation

The Ruby data category can be expressed with global rules, or locally. There is no inheritance.

GLOBAL: The rubyRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies. This is the ruby base text.

  • An optional rubyPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the ruby element.

  • An optional rpPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the ruby parenthesis.

  • An optional rbcPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the ruby base container.

  • An optional rtcPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the ruby text container.

  • An optional rbspanPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the rbspan attribute.

  • An optional rubyText element that contains the ruby text.

  • An optional rtPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the ruby text.

  • An optional rpPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that corresponds to the ruby parenthesis.

Note:

Where legacy formats do not contain ruby markup, it is still possible to associate ruby text with a specified range of document content using the rubyRule element.

<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" >
 <head> ... 
   <its:rules version="1.0">
   <its:rubyRule selector="/text/body/img[1]/@alt">
    <its:rubyText>World Wide Web Consortium</its:rubyText>
   </its:rubyRule>
  </its:rules>
 </head>
 <body>
  <img src="w3c_home.png" alt="W3C"/> ...
  </body>
</text>

[Source file: EX-ruby-legacy-1.xml]

LOCAL: In a document, the Ruby data category is realized with a ruby element. It contains the following:

  • An rb element that contains the ruby base text and allows for local ITS markup.

  • An rp element that contains the ruby parenthesis. It is used in case of simple markup to specify characters that can denote the beginning and end of ruby text when user agents do not have other ways to present ruby text distinctively from the base text.

  • An rt element that contains the ruby text and allows for local ITS markup. It has an optional rbspan attribute. The rbspan attribute allows an rt element to span multiple rb elements.

  • An rbc element that contains the ruby base container.

  • An rtc element that contains the ruby text container.

All these elements share the attributes of the span element.

Example: The Ruby data category expressed locally
<text
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" 
  its:version="1.0">
 <head> ... </head>
 <body>
  <p>この本は <its:ruby>
    <its:rb>慶応義塾大学</its:rb>
    <its:rp>(</its:rp>
    <its:rt>けいおうぎじゅくだいがく</its:rt>
    <its:rp>)</its:rp>
   </its:ruby>の歴史を説明するものです。</p>
 </body>
</text>

[Source file: EX-ruby-implementation-1.xml]

Note:

The structure of the content model for the ruby element is identical with the structure of ruby markup as defined in [Ruby-TR]. An implementation of the Ruby data category is encouraged, but not mandated follow the conformance critera for ruby defined in that specification.

The structure of ruby defined in section 5.4 of [OpenDocument] is also compliant with ruby defined in this specification.

6.6.3 Markup Declarations for Ruby

rubyRule
rubyRule
[53] rubyRule ::= element its:rubyRule { rubyRule.content, rubyRule.attributes }
[54] rubyRule.content ::= rubyText?
[55] rubyRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute rubyPointer { string }?, attribute rtPointer { string }?, attribute rpPointer { string }?, attribute rbcPointer { string }?, attribute rtcPointer { string }?, attribute rbspanPointer { string }?
rubyText
rubyText
[56] rubyText ::= element its:rubyText { rubyText.content, rubyText.attributes }
[57] rubyText.content ::= text
[58] rubyText.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes, attribute rbspan { string }?
ruby
ruby
[59] ruby ::= element its:ruby { ruby.content, ruby.attributes }
[60] ruby.content ::= ( rb, ( rt | ( rp, rt, rp ) ) ) | ( rbc, rtc, rtc? )
[61] ruby.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes
rb
rb
[62] rb ::= element its:rb { rb.content, rb.attributes }
[63] rb.content ::= ( text | span )*
[64] rb.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes
rt
rt
[65] rt ::= element its:rt { rt.content, rt.attributes }
[66] rt.content ::= ( text | span )*
[67] rt.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes, attribute rbspan { string }?
rbc
rbc
[68] rbc ::= element its:rbc { rbc.content, rbc.attributes }
[69] rbc.content ::= rb+
[70] rbc.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes
rtc
rtc
[71] rtc ::= element its:rtc { rtc.content, rtc.attributes }
[72] rtc.content ::= rt+
[73] rtc.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes
rp
rp
[74] rp ::= element its:rp { rp.content, rp.attributes }
[75] rp.content ::= text
[76] rp.attributes ::= att.local.no-ns.attributes att.translate.attributes, att.locNote.attributes, att.term.attributes, att.dir.attributes

6.7 Language Information

6.7.1 Definition

The element langRule is used to express the language of a given piece of content. The langPointer attribute points to the markup which expresses the language of the text selected by the selector attribute. This markup MUST use values that conform to [RFC 4646] or its successor. The recommended way to specify language identification is to use xml:lang. The langRule element is intended only as a fall-back mechanism for documents where language is identified with another construct.

The following langRule element expresses that the content of all p elements (including attribute values and textual content of child elements) are in the language indicated by mylangattribute, which is attached to the p elements, and expresses language using values conformant to [RFC 4646] or its successor.

<its:rules
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  version="1.0">
 <its:langRule selector="//p" langPointer="@mylangattribute"/>
</its:rules>

[Source file: EX-lang-definition-1.xml]

Note:

The Language Information data category only provides for rules to be expressed at a global level. Locally users are able to use xml:lang (which is defined by XML) or an attribute specific to the format in question (as in Example 38).

xml:lang is the preferable means of language identification. To ease the usage of xml:lang, a declaration for this attribute is part of the non-normative XML DTD and XML Schema document for ITS markup declarations. There is no declaration of xml:lang in the non-normative RELAX NG document for ITS, since in RELAX NG it is not necessary to declare attributes from the XML namespace.

Applying the Language Information data category to xml:lang attributes using global rules is not necessary, since xml:lang is the standard way to specify language information in XML. xml:lang is defined in terms of RFC 3066 or its successor ([RFC 4646] is the successor to [RFC 3066]).

6.7.2 Implementation

The Language Information data category can be expressed only with global rules. The information applies to the textual content of the element, including child elements and attributes. There is no default.

GLOBAL: The langRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

  • A required langPointer attribute that contains a relative XPath expression pointing to a node that contains language information.

6.7.3 Markup Declarations for Language Information

langRule
langRule
[77] langRule ::= element its:langRule { langRule.content, langRule.attributes }
[78] langRule.content ::= empty
[79] langRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute langPointer { string }

6.8 Elements Within Text

6.8.1 Definition

The Elements Within Text data category reveals if and how an element affects the way text content behaves from a linguistic viewpoint. This information is for example relevant to provide basic text segmentation hints for tools such as translation memory systems. The values associated with this data category are:

  • "yes" : The element and its content are part of the flow of its parent element. For example the element strong in [XHTML 1.0]:

    <strong>Appaloosa horses</strong> have spotted coats.

  • "nested" : The element is part of the flow of its parent element, its content is an independent flow. For example the element fn in [DITA 1.0]:

    Palouse horses<fn>A Palouse horse is the same as an Appaloosa.</fn> have spotted coats.

  • "no" : The element splits the text flow of its parent element and its content is an independent text flow. For example the element p when inside the element li in DITA or XHTML:

    <li>Palouse horses: <p>They have spotted coats.</p> <p>They have been bred by the Nez Perce.</p> </li>

6.8.2 Implementation

The Elements Within Text data category can be expressed only with global rules. There is no inheritance. The default is that elements are not within text.

GLOBAL: The withinTextRule element contains the following:

  • A required selector attribute. It contains an XPath expression which selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

  • A required withinText attribute with the value "yes", "no" or "nested".

<its:rules
  xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"  version="1.0">
 <its:withinTextRule withinText="yes" selector="//b | //em | //i"/>
</its:rules>

[Source file: EX-within-text-implementation-1.xml]

6.8.3 Markup Declarations for Elements Within Text

withinTextRule
withinTextRule
[80] withinTextRule ::= element its:withinTextRule { withinTextRule.content, withinTextRule.attributes }
[81] withinTextRule.content ::= empty
[82] withinTextRule.attributes ::= att.selector.attributes, attribute withinText { "yes" | "no" | "nested" }

A References

QAFRAMEWORK
Karl Dubost, Lynne Rosental, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, Lofton Henderson. QA Framework: Specification Guidelines. W3C Recommendation 17 August 2005. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-qaframe-spec-20050817/. The latest version of QAFRAMEWORK is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/.
RELAX NG
James Clark, Makoto Murata. RELAX NG Specification. OASIS Committee Specification 3 December 2001. Available at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/relax-ng/spec-20011203.html. The latest version of RELAX NG is available at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=relax-ng.
RFC 2119
S. Bradner. Key Words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. IETF RFC 2119, March 1997. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.
RFC 3987
Martin Dürst, Michel Suignard. Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs). RFC 3987, January 2005. See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3987.txt.
RFC 4646
Addison Phillips, Mark Davis. Tags for the Identification of Languages. RFC 4646, September 2006. See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4646.txt.
XLink 1.0
Steve DeRose, Eve Maler, David Orchard. XML Linking Language 1.0. W3C Recommendation 27 June 2001. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xlink-20010627/. The latest version of XLink 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xlink/.
XML 1.0
Tim Bray, Jean Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, et al., editors.Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition), W3C Recommendation 16 August 2006. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-20060816/. The latest version of XML 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/.
xml:lang
Tim Bray, Jean Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, et al., editors. Section 2.12 Language Identification in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition), W3C Recommendation 16 August 2006. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-20060816/.
XML Infoset
John Cowan, Richard Tobin. XML Information Set (Second Edition). W3C Recommendation 4 February 2004. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-infoset-20040204/. The latest version of XML Infoset is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/.
XML Names
Tim Bray, Dave Hollander, Andrew Layman. Namespaces in XML. W3C Recommendation 14 January 1999. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xml-names-19990114/. The latest version of XML Names is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/.
XML Schema
Henry S. Thompson, David Beech, Murray Maloney, Noah Mendelsohn. XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition. W3C Recommendation 28 October 2004. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028/. The latest version of XML Schema is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/.
XPath 1.0
James Clark. XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0. W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116. The latest version of XPath 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath.

B References (Non-Normative)

Bidi Article
Richard Ishida. What you need to know about the bidi algorithm and inline markup. Article of the W3C Internationalization Activity, June 2005.
CSS 2.1
Bert Bos, Tantek Çelik, Ian Hickson Håkon Wium Lie. Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 revision 1 CSS 2.1 Specification. W3C Working Draft 11 April 2006. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-CSS21-20060411/. The latest version of CSS2 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/.
DITA 1.0
Michael Priestley, JoAnn Hackos, et. al., editors. OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Language Specification v1.0. OASIS Standard 9 May 2005. Available at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/15316/dita10.zip.
DocBook
Norman Walsh and Leonard Muellner. DocBook: The Definitive Guide. Available at http://www.docbook.org/.
l10n i18n
Richard Ishida, Susan Miller. Localization vs. Internationalization. Article of the W3C Internationalization Activity, January 2006.
ISO 12200
(International Organization for Standardization). Machine-readable terminology interchange format (MARTIF) -- Negotiated interchange. [Geneva]: International Organization for Standardization, 1999.
ITS REQ
Yves Savourel. Internationalization and Localization Markup Requirements. W3C Working Draft 18 May 2006. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-itsreq-20060518/. The latest version of ITS REQ is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/itsreq/.
Localizable DTDs
Richard Ishida, Yves Savourel Requirements for Localizable DTD Design. Working Draft 7 July 2003. Available at http://people.w3.org/rishida/localizable-dtds/.
OpenDocument
Michael Brauer et al. OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument).. Oasis Standard 1 May 2005. Available at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office. The latest version of OpenDocument is available at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office.
RFC 3066
Harald Alvestrand. Tags for the Identification of Languages. RFC 3066, January 2001. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3066.txt.
Ruby-TR
Marcin Sawicki (until 10 October, 1999), Michel Suignard, Masayasu Ishikawa XXXXXX,(石川 雅康), Martin Dürst, Tex Texin, Ruby Annotation. W3C Recommendation 31 May 2001. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-ruby-20010531/ . The latest version of Ruby Annotation is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/ruby/.
Schematron
. Available at http://www.schematron.com/.
Tag Namespace Finding
Norman Walsh. Using Qualified Names (QNames) as Identifiers in XML Content. TAG Finding 17 March 2004. Available at http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/qnameids.html.
TEI
Lou Burnard and Syd Bauman (eds). Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines development version (P5). TEI Consortium, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, Text Encoding Initiative.
XHTML 1.0
Steven Pemperton et al. XHTML™ 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition). W3C Recommendation 26 January 2000, revised 1 August 2002. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/. The latest version of XHTML 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/.
XHTML 2.0
Jonny Axelsson, Mark Birbeck, Micah Dubinko, Beth Epperson, Masayasu Ishikawa, Shane McCarron, Ann Navarro, Steven Pemperton. XHTML™ 2.0. W3C Working Draft 27 May 2005. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xhtml2-20060726/. The latest version of XHTML 2.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2.
XML i18n BP
Yves Savourel, Diane Stoick. Best Practices for XML Internationalization. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xml-i18n-bp-20060518/. The latest version of xml-i18n-bp is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-i18n-bp/.
XMLSPEC
The XML Spec Schema and Stylesheets. Available at http://www.w3.org/2002/xmlspec/.
XSLT 1.0
James Clark. XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0. W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116. The latest version of XSLT 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt.
XUL
exTensible User Inferface Language. Available at http://www.xulplanet.com/.
NVDL

C Summary of ITS Markup (Non-Normative)

This section is informative.

The following list summarizes elements relating to global rules and their attributes:

The following list summarizes elements that are available for local use:

The following list summarizes attributes that are available for local use, with the local elements mentioned above, or with other elements in a host schema:

D Schemas for ITS (Non-Normative)

This section is informative.

The following schemas define ITS elements and attributes and could be used as building blocks when you want to integrate ITS markup into your own XML vocabulary. You can see examples of such integration in Best Practices for XML Internationalization. The schemas are not intended to be used alone for validation of documents with ITS markup.

The following schemas are provided:

E Checking ITS Markup Constraints With Schematron (Non-Normative)

This section is informative.

Several constraints of ITS markup cannot be validated with ITS schemas. The following [Schematron] document allows for validating some of these constraints.

<sch:schema
  xmlns:sch="http://www.ascc.net/xml/schematron" >
<!-- Schematron document to test constraints for global and local ITS markup.
 For ITS markup definitions, see http://www.w3.org/TR/its/ . -->

 <sch:ns prefix="its" uri="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"/>
 <sch:pattern
   name="Check ITS Global Rules and Local Constraints, and Version Constraints">
  <sch:rule context="*">
<!-- Tests for locNoteRule -->

   <sch:report
     test="self::its:locNoteRule and child::its:locNote and @its:locNotePointer">
   locNoteRule error: A locNoteRule element must not have both a locNote child element
    and a locNotePointer attribute.</sch:report>
   <sch:report
     test="self::its:locNoteRule and @its:locNoteRef and @its:locNoteRefPointer">
   locNoteRule error: A locNoteRule element must not have both a locNoteRef attribute
    and a locNoteRefPointer attribute.</sch:report>
   <sch:report
     test="self::its:locNoteRule and child::its:locNote and @its:locNoteRef">
   locNoteRule error: A locNoteRule element must not have both a locNote child element
   and a locNoteRef attribute.</sch:report>
<!-- Test for termRule -->

   <sch:report
     test="self::its:termRule and @its:termInfoRef and @its:termInfoRefPointer">
   termRule error: A termRule element must not have both a termInfoRef attribute and a
   termInfoRefPointer attribute.</sch:report>
   <sch:report
     test="self::its:termRule and @its:termInfo and @its:termInfoPointer">
   termRule error: A termRule element must not have both a termInfo attribute and a
   termInfoPointer attribute.</sch:report>
   <sch:report
     test="self::its:termRule and @its:termInfoRef and @its:termInfoPointer">
   termRule error: A termRule element must not have both a termInfoRef attribute and a
   termInfoPointer attribute.</sch:report>
<!-- Test for rubyRule -->

   <sch:report
     test="self::its:rubyRule and child::its:rubyText and @its:rtPointer">
   rubyRule error: A rubyRule element must not have both a rubyText child element and 
   a rtPointer attribute.</sch:report>
<!-- Test for locNote (local) -->

   <sch:report test="@its:locNote and @its:locNoteRef">
   Local ITS usage error: The locNote attribute and the locNoteRef attribute
   must not be used together.</sch:report>
<!-- Test for term (local) -->

   <sch:report
     test="@its:termInfoRef and not(its:term) and not(self::its:termRule)">
   Local ITS usage error: A termInfoRef attribute must not appear locally without
   a term attribute.</sch:report>
<!-- Version attribute test -->

   <sch:report test="/*/@its:version != @its:version">
   The version attribute at the root element and at the rules element
   must not specify different versions of ITS.</sch:report>
  </sch:rule>
 </sch:pattern>
</sch:schema>

[Source file: its-constraints-check-schematron.xml]

G Revision Log (Non-Normative)

The following log records major changes that have been made to this document between the publication in November 2005 and the publication in February 2006.

  1. A section about basic concepts of ITS has been created.

  2. Terminology has been modified: the terms for position of ITS information in situ versus dislocated have been replaced by selection in an instance document versus global, rule-based selection.

  3. The definition of the Directionality data category has been changed, to be compliant to various other specifications. See the comment on bidirectionality for further information.

  4. Terminology within the text of this document and within the markup declarations has been modified: scope of ITS information has been replaced with selection of ITS information.

  5. The schemaRules element has been removed. For ITS information as schema annotation, where is now only aschemaRule element.

  6. All ITS attributes are now defined as qualified attributes. This leads to changes in the generated ITS schemas, for example the generation of parameter entities for prefixes in the XML DTD. This allows for easy changing of prefixes in element or attribute names.

  7. The possibility of selector attributes in instance documents (in the previous draft this was called scope in an instance document) has been removed. Local selection in an instance document now relies only on default selections of data categories. Due to this change, the definition of precedence between selections and conformance criteria have been simplified, and the issue on namespace requirements and selector values could be resolved.

  8. Definitions of default selections of data categories have been modified.

  9. An ns element has been added to the rules element to allow for specifying namespace bindings.

  10. The implementation of the Ruby data category has been modified, to reflect the removal of selector attributes in instance documents.

  11. A section on mapping of ITS data categories to existing markup has been created.

  12. Examples of integrating ITS markup into a TEI schema and into XML Spec have been created.

  13. A span element has been created.

  14. The examples have been modified to reflect changes mentioned above.

  15. For clarity, various sections have been reworded and re-structured, and the visualization of ITS markup within the text of this document has been modified.

  16. Tracking of issues is now handled via Bugzilla.

  17. A revision log has been added.

The following log records major changes that have been made to this document between the publication in February 2006 and the publication in April 2006.

  1. The schemaRule element, and the notion of schema annotation which was connected to it, have been abandoned.

  2. The section on conformance has been rewritten and placed at the beginning of the document.

  3. In global rules, the documentRule element has been replaced with elements which have data category specific names. This eases the creation and validation of global rules.

  4. In global rules, instead of rule specific attributes for selection, there is now just one selector attribute.

  5. In global rules, the documentRules element has been renamed to rules .

  6. In global rules, in addition to the existing functionality of adding ITS information to selected nodes, a new functionality of pointing to information in an XML document has been created.

  7. An XLink href attribute has been added to the rules element to allow for links to external rules. The precedence between selections has been modified to reflect this change.

  8. Two new data categories Language Information and Elements Within Text have been defined.

  9. The data category Ruby has been redefined, to be conforming to [Ruby-TR].

  10. The declarations for ITS markup have been rewritten, to adopt the changes mentioned above.

  11. The declarations for ITS markup (formally all assembled in a single section) have been separated and placed in the sections there they are described.

  12. A modularization of ITS and XHTML 1.0 has been created.

  13. The informative 1 Introduction and 2 Basic Concepts have been rewritten.

  14. Examples and the modularizations of ITS with existing markup schemes have been changed to reflect the modifications mentioned above.

The following log records major changes that have been made to this document between the publication in April 2006 and the publication in May 2006.

  1. The conformance section has been rewritten.

  2. The terminology of mapping ITS data categories with existing markup has been changed to associating ITS Data Categories with existing markup.

  3. The global rule elements have been rewritten to have attributes in the empty namespace.

  4. The examples have been validated, partially modified and extended.

  5. Documentation strings have been added to elements and attributes.

  6. The Elements Within Text data category has been redefined.

  7. Clarifications about ITS and inclusion mechanisms and selections of pointers to external (possibly non-textual) objects have been made.

  8. The local attributes have been reorganised into various data category specific groups.

  9. A versioning mechanism has been introduced

  10. A summary of ITS markup has been created.

  11. The automatically generated ITS schemas have been augmented with element and attribute documentations.

  12. A description of ITS markup constraints not covered by the ITS schemas has been created.

  13. The attributes termRef and termRefPointer have been renamed to termInfoRef and termInfoRefPointer .

  14. A list of requirements which are formulated in [ITS REQ], but not covered in this document, has been created. See 1 Introduction.

The following log records major changes that have been made to this document between the publication in May 2006 and the publication in November 2006.

  1. In response to issue 3290 (Introduction too "positive" and not enough informative) 1 Introduction has been modified.

  2. In response to issue 3293 (Conformance/Compliance) 4 Conformance has been changed.

  3. In response to issue 3318 (Clarify "within text" data category) the definition of the Elements Within Text data category has been clarified and illustrated with examples.

  4. In response to issue 3321 (Relation of terminology data category to existing standards for terminology) the relation has been described in 6.4.1 Definition.

  5. In response to issue 3323 (Version of XPath: Write "XPath 1.0 or its successor") the reference to [XPath 1.0] has been replaced by a reference to "[XPath 1.0] or its successor".

  6. In response to issue 3330 (lro and rlo explanation) explanations have been modified in 6.5.1 Definition.

  7. In response to issue 3456 (Attribute used for locInfo) a note has been added at the end of 6.3.2 Implementation.

  8. In response to issue 3457 (RFC 3066bis) the references to "RFC 3066bis" been replaced by a reference to "RFC4646 or its successor".

  9. In response to issue 3458 (Default translate value) default values have been made explicit in 6.2.2 Implementation.

  10. In response to issue 3459 (Use of elements) ITS markup is now explicitly allowed inside other ITS markup.

  11. In response to issue 3460 (Loc Info or Loc Note) all attributes and elements starting with locInfo... have been renamed locNote....

  12. In response to issue 3461 (Role of termInfo) 6.4.1 Definition has been clarified.

  13. In response to issue 3462 (Pointing to terms) 6.4.2 Implementation has been clarified.

  14. In response to issue 3463 (termInfoRef should allow for id strings) the termInfoPointer attribute has been added.

  15. In response to issue 3464 (Allowing for xpath expressions to point to term definitions) the termInfoPointer attribute has been added.

  16. In response to issue 3465 (Default is ltr) 6.5.2 Implementation has been clarified.

  17. In response to issue 3466 (Existing ruby markup) 3.5 Usage of Internationalized Resource Identifiers in ITS has been added, the conformance clause 2-2 has been removed, the reference to [Ruby-TR] has been clarified and moved to 6.6.2 Implementation, and the definition of the Directionality data category has been clarified in 6.5.1 Definition.

  18. In response to issue 3467 (rubyText is an attribute) the rubyText attribute has been changed to the rubyText element.

  19. In response to issue 3468 (xml:lang missing) a note at the end of 6.7.1 Definition has been added.

  20. In response to issue 3469 (Example 19 xml:lang) the role of xml:lang for the language information data category has been clarified in 6.7.1 Definition.

  21. In response to issue 3473 (Language information data category overview) the role of the langRule element has been clarified in 6.7.1 Definition.

  22. In response to issue 3479 (Example 33) Example 38 (which was Example 33) has been modified.

  23. In response to issue 3480 (Language information data category overview) the role of xml:lang for the language information data category has been clarified in 6.7.1 Definition.

  24. In response to issue 3481 (Translatability) the data category "Translatability" has been renamed to Translate.

  25. In response to issue 3482 (Inheritance of translation information) the role of inheritance of translation information within global rules has been made more explicit in 6.2.2 Implementation.

  26. In response to issue 3487 (Invert translate examples) Example 23 has been modified.

  27. In response to issue 3488 (6.3 ed 1) 6.3.1 Definition has been modified.

  28. In response to issue 3489 (Mention translation tools) a reference to translation tools has been added in 6.3.1 Definition.

  29. In response to issue 3490 (Examples 22 and 23) Example 24 (which was Example 22) and Example 25 (which was example 23) have been modified.

  30. In response to issue 3491 (Explanations for examples) the examples in 6.3.2 Implementation have been clarified.

  31. In response to issue 3492 (Examples 24) Example 26 (which was Example 24) has been modified.

  32. In response to issue 3493 (Marks terms and meanings) the purpose of the terminology data category has been clarified in 6.4.1 Definition.

  33. In response to issue 3494 (termInfoRefPointer referant's data) the explanation of the termInfoRefPointer attribute has been clarified in 6.4.2 Implementation.

  34. In response to issue 3495 (Hard to know what this is about) 6.8 Elements Within Text has been clarified.

  35. In response to issue 3496 (Standardised wording) all subsections in 6 Description of Data Categories have been reworded to be consistent.

  36. In response to issue 3497 (No implementation section) an implementation section (6.7.2 Implementation) has been added for the language information data category.

  37. In response to issue 3498 (Repetition) 6.5.1 Definition has been modified.

  38. In response to issue 3499 (Is dir mandatory?) it has been made explicit that the dir attribute is mandatory at the dirRule element (see 6.5.2 Implementation).

  39. In response to issue 3500 (Avoid xml:lang='he') 5.2.2 Local Selection in an XML Document (especially Example 15) has been modified.

  40. In response to issue 3501 (Some Hebrew quotation) 6.5.2 Implementation has been modified.

  41. In response to issue 3502 (Example 30) Example 33 (which was Example 30) has been modified.

  42. In response to issue 3503 (Refer to bidi article) a reference to [Bidi Article] in 6.5.1 Definition has been added.

  43. In response to issue 3504 (Example 31 lacks rp) Example 37 (which was Example 31) has been modified.

  44. In response to issue 3505 (Use Japanese in Example 31) Example 37 (which was Example 31) has been modified.

  45. In response to issue 3506 (Make the application of legacy ruby clearer) 6.6.2 Implementation has been modified.

  46. In response to issue 3507 (In the case of no selection) 6.6.2 Implementation has been modified.

  47. In response to issue 3508 (Example 32 head) Example 36 (which was Example 32) has been modified.

  48. In response to issue 3509 (Too many places to look) the section 5.1 Summary of ITS Markup has been changed to C Summary of ITS Markup, and 6 Description of Data Categories has been reworded.

  49. In response to issue 3510 (Spell out the attributes) 5.2.1 Global, Rule-based Selection has been modified to list relevant attributes.

  50. In response to issue 3511 (Example 14 translate) Example 15 (which was Example 14) has been modified.

  51. In response to issue 3512 (Example 14 dir) Example 15 (which was Example 14) has been modified.

  52. In response to issue 3513 (ITS markup must be integrated) the optionality of ITS markup in the targeted XML file(s) has been made explicit in 5.5 Associating ITS Data Categories with Existing Markup.

  53. In response to issue 3514 (Attributes missing?) the attributes that are available for local use have been spelled out in C Summary of ITS Markup.

  54. In response to issue 3515 (xml:lang = language info, please) the role of xml:lang has been clarified in 6.7.1 Definition.

  55. In response to issue 3516 (Editorial comments on ITS) 1 Introduction, 2 Basic Concepts, 3 Notation and Terminology, and 6 Description of Data Categories have been modified.

  56. In response to issue 3612 (Missing term="yes|no" in termRule element) the value "no" has been reinstated for the term attribute.

  57. In response to issue 3640 (Need to handle inheritance for terminology) the description of the inheritance / default / overriding behavior of the data categories has been clarified in 6.1 Position, Defaults, Inheritance and Overriding of Data Categories.

  58. In response to issue 3803 (Both selector and the rbPointer attributes are base text in rubyRule) the rbPointer has been removed.

The following log records major changes that have been made to this document between the publication in November 2006 and January 2007.

  1. In response to issue 3319 (Namespace binding mechanism ) removed the ns element.

  2. In response to issue 4096 (Inheritance and overriding needs to be made clearer) changed wording.

  3. In response to issue 4098 (Need to make more explicit: what is possible with XSLT patterns realizing ITS selectors?) added a note about the subset of XPath in XSLT to 2.1.2 Global Approach.

  4. In response to issue 4099 (Format for implementation output needs to be clear) added note on the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 1.0 testsuite processing to 4.2 Conformance Type 2: The Processing Expectations for ITS Markup.

  5. In response to issue 4152 (Need to make explicit that ITS attributes at its:span are not namespace qualified) created two groups of ITS attributes, namespace qualified and not namespace qualified, the latter used at ITS span , the former for use at elements not from the ITS namespace.

  6. In response to issue 4289 (Various mainly editorial changes) made the editorial changes descriped in the issue.

  7. In response to issue 4290 (Create appendix about NVDL) introduced F Checking ITS Markup with NVDL.

  8. In response to issue 4291 (Have version attribute at its:rules element in no namespace) put the ITS version attribute at the rules element in no namespace.

  9. In response to issue 4293 (Editorial fix in sec. 6.6.2) removed bullet point.

  10. In response to issue 4294 (Add xlink:type to its:rules element) added the XLink type attribute to the rules element.

  11. In response to issue 4295 (Change of XPath expressions in schematron example) updated E Checking ITS Markup Constraints With Schematron.

  12. In response to issue 4322 (Editors to go to the draft and check that there are no "CSS style elements" or the like) removed wording related to CSS style elements.

H Acknowledgements (Non-Normative)

This document has been developed with contributions by the ITS Working Group: Damien Donlon (Sun Microsystems, Inc.), Martin Dürst (W3C Invited Expert), Poonam Gupta (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC)), Richard Ishida (W3C/ERCIM), Jirka Kosek (W3C Invited Expert), Christian Lieske (SAP AG), Sebastian Rahtz (W3C Invited Expert), Francois Richard (HP), Goutam Saha (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC)), Felix Sasaki (W3C/Keio), Yves Savourel (ENLASO Corporation), Diane Stoick (The Boeing Company), Najib Tounsi (Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingenieurs Rabat (EMI)), Andrzej Zydron (W3C Invited Expert).

A special thanks goes to Sebastian Rahtz who introduced us to the ODD language, which was used to create this document, and who provided the stylesheets to generate schemas and the XHTML version out of an ODD document. The generation of XHTML from ODD takes an intermediate step through the xmlspec-i18n.dtd.