On behalf of the DITA Adoption Technical Committee
Rodolfo Raya, Bryan Schnabel, and JoAnn Hackos
21 May 2012
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. The consortium produces open standards for Web services, security, e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets. OASIS was founded in 1993. More information can be found on the OASIS website at http://www.oasis-open.org.
The OASIS DITA Adoption Technical Committee members collaborate to provide expertise and resources to educate the marketplace on the value of the DITA OASIS standard. By raising awareness of the benefits offered by DITA, the DITA Adoption Technical Committee expects the demand for, and availability of, DITA conforming products and services to increase, resulting in a greater choice of tools and platforms and an expanded DITA community of users, suppliers, and consultants.
DISCLAIMER: All examples presented in this article were produced using one or more tools chosen at the author's discretion and in no way reflect endorsement of the tools by the OASIS DITA Adoption Technical Committee.
This white paper was produced and approved by the OASIS DITA Adoption Technical Committee as a Committee Draft. It has not been reviewed and/or approved by the OASIS membership at-large.
Copyright © 2012 OASIS. All rights reserved.
All capitalized terms in the following text have the meanings assigned to them in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights Policy (the "OASIS IPR Policy"). The full Policy may be found at the OASIS website. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published, and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references to OASIS, except as needed for the purpose of developing any document or deliverable produced by an OASIS Technical Committee (in which case the rules applicable to copyrights, as set forth in the OASIS IPR Policy, must be followed) or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by OASIS or its successors or assigns. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and OASIS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY OWNERSHIP RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
| Revision | Date | Author | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Draft | 29 August 2011 | Hackos | Draft of the Committee Note -- Feature Article |
| Draft | 7 October 2011 | Hackos, Schnabel,Raya | Draft for committee vote |
| Draft | 7 March 2012 | Raya | Added workflow diagrams |
| Committee Approved Draft | 21 May 2012 | Hackos (Chair) | Adoption TC approved final draft |
DITA promises cost reductions in translation thanks to content reuse. Content reuse can lead to translation cost reduction when proper planning is done. DITA topics are written once, updated once, and used in multiple deliverables. With careful planning, costs can indeed be lowered. However, cost reduction depends on the nature of the project; it is not possible to predict the level of cost reductions in advance.
Ideally, you should never pay twice for the translation of your content. The real world is not perfect, but with careful selection of tools and strategies, you can get excellent results.
If you use DITA topics in the different DITA maps that make up your projects, you can also reuse the translations of those topics.
XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) is an open standard published by OASIS (like DITA) that you can use in your project workflow to manage the content that needs to be translated.
The XLIFF vocabulary has a rich set of elements and attributes that permit XLIFF-supporting applications to
The XLIFF standard was first published by OASIS in 2002. Most modern translation environments currently support it. A Localization Service Provider (LSP) using up-to-date tools should be able to accept XLIFF files that you pre-process in-house.
You can translate DITA maps or individual topics using XLIFF as an intermediate format. When translating DITA maps, it is very important to use a tool that is aware of the different content-linking mechanisms offered by DITA. It is not necessary to resolve referenced content when translating individual topics, but you can still make good use of the translation reuse strategies described in this article.
As a technical author, you write your DITA topics, prepare your maps, and publish source-language drafts as you would usually do. Refine your content as necessary, until you are satisfied with the published results. Once your project is ready for translation, convert your maps and topics to XLIFF format using a translation tool that supports DITA.
A translation tool that supports DITA will be able to
The conversion to XLIFF will flatten the DITA map to a single file with all of the references resolved. The XLIFF file allows your Localization Service Provider (LSP) to work with one file rather than hundreds of files, simplifying administrative activities and reducing administrative costs.
The initial workflow proceeds as follows:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd">
<map id="birds" xml:lang="en-US">
<title>Birds</title>
<topicref href="hummingbird.dita" type="concept"></topicref>
<topicref href="ostrich.dita" type="concept"></topicref>
<topicref href="swift.dita" type="concept"></topicref>
</map>
This map references three topics.
The first topic is Hummingbird (hummingbird.dita).
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="hummingbird" xml:lang="en-US">
<title>Hummingbird</title>
<conbody>
<p>Smallest bird: Dwarf hummingbird (2-1/4 in)</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
The second topic is Ostrich (ostrich.dita).
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="ostrich" xml:lang="en-US">
<title>Ostrich</title>
<conbody>
<p>Heaviest bird: Ostrich (330 lb)</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
The third topic is Swift (swift.dita).
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="swift" xml:lang="en-US">
<title>Swift</title>
<conbody>
<p>Fastest bird flying: Common Swift (125 mi/hr)</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
<xliff version="1.2">
<file original="birds.ditamap" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="birds_t" resname="title">
<source>Birds</source>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
<file original="hummingbird.dita" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="hummingbird_t" resname="title">
<source>Hummingbird</source>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="hummingbird_p" resname="p">
<source>Smallest bird: Dwarf hummingbird (2-1/4 in)</source>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
<file original="ostrich.dita" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="ostrich_t" resname="title">
<source>Ostrich</source>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="ostrich_p" resname="p">
<source>Heaviest bird: Ostrich (330 lb)</source>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
<file original="swift.dita" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="swift_t" resname="title">
<source>Swift</source>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="swift_p" resname="p">
<source>Fastest bird flying: Common Swift (125 mi/hr)</source>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
</xliff>
<xliff version="1.2">
<file original="birds.ditamap" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="birds_t" resname="title">
<source>Birds</source>
<target>Vögel</target>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
<file original="hummingbird.dita" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="hummingbird_t" resname="title">
<source>Hummingbird</source>
<target>Kolibri</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="hummingbird_p" resname="p">
<source>Smallest bird: Dwarf hummingbird (2-1/4 in)</source>
<target>Kleinster Vogel: Zwergkolibri (5,7 cm)</target>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
<file original="ostrich.dita" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="ostrich_t" resname="title">
<source>Ostrich</source>
<target>Strauß</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="ostrich_p" resname="p">
<source>Heaviest bird: Ostrich (330 lb)</source>
<target>Schwerster Vogel: Strauß (150 kg)</target>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
<file original="swift.dita" source-language="en-US" datatype="xml">
<body>
<trans-unit id="swift_t" resname="title">
<source>Swift</source>
<target>Mauersegler</target>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="swift_p" resname="p">
<source>Fastest bird flying: Common Swift (125 mi/hr)</source>
<target>Schnellster Vogel: fliegend: Mauersegler (200 km/h)</target>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
</xliff>
After the XLIFF file is transformed back to DITA, the result is an identical German DITA map and topics:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE map PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Map//EN" "map.dtd"> <map id="de-birds" xml:lang="de-DE"> <title>Vögel</title> <topicref href="de-hummingbird.dita" type="concept"></topicref> <topicref href="de-ostrich.dita" type="concept"></topicref> <topicref href="de-swift.dita" type="concept"></topicref> </map>
The map references these three topics in German.
The first topic is Kolibri (de-hummingbird.dita).
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="de-hummingbird" xml:lang="de-DE">
<title>Kolibri</title>
<conbody>
<p>Kleinster Vogel: Zwergkolibri (5,7 cm)</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
The second topic is Strauß (de-ostrich.dita).
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="de-ostrich" xml:lang="de-DE">
<title>Strauß</title>
<conbody>
<p>Schwerster Vogel: Strauß (150 kg)</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
The third topic is Mauerselger (de-swift.dita).
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="de-swift" xml:lang="de-DE">
<title>Mauersegler</title>
<conbody>
<p>Schnellster Vogel fliegend: Mauersegler (200 km/h)</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
You should have a directory structure for the translated content that is
identical to the original directory of the source content.The following workflow diagram illustrates the initial process, including some optional steps not described above:
As products and processes are updated, you will update some of your topics, write new ones, and need to update your translations. At that point, you will see the benefits of translation reuse with these techniques:
The maintenance workflow proceeds as follows:
The full maintenance workflow is shown in the following diagram:
