Introduction Downloads Standards Components Applications Help and Support Developers Notes Screen Shots	Okapi Framework Standards

Overview

The localization industry uses several standards to exchange data between tools. It is very important for tools to support such standards. They avoid your data to be locked into proprietary formats. Using standards also allows you to approach the translation process with a broader choice of options and more flexibility. The applications and components of the Okapi Framework support standards when possible. Some of them are:

• XLIFF - XML Localisation Interchange File Format
• TMX - Translation Memory eXchange
• ITS - Internationalization Tag Set
• SRX - Segmentation Rules eXchange
• GMX - Global information management Metrics eXchange

XLIFF - XML Localisation Interchange File Format

Maintained by the XLIFF Technical Committee at OASIS, XLIFF provides a common markup language for extracted localizable text.

• XLIFF 1.2 specification
• The OASIS XLIFF Technical Committee home page
• Example of XLIFF 1.2 document

Many components of the framework use XLIFF. The framework also includes an XLIFF filter.

TMX - Translation Memory eXchange

Maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA, TMX covers the exchange of translation memory data.

• TMX 1.4b specification
• TMX main page at LISA
• Example of TMX 1.4b document

Many components of the framework use TMX.

ITS - Internationalization Tag Set

ITS is a W3C namespace to provide internationalization information and support in XML documents.

• ITS 1.0 specification
• The W3C ITS Interest Group home page
• Example of XML document with ITS markup

The XML Filter that is part of the framework supports ITS.

Related to ITS, the Best Practices for XML Internationalization W3C Note can help you designing and authoring XML documents in a way they are easier to localize.

SRX - Segmentation Rules eXchange

Maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA, SRX addresses the exchange of segmentation rules among tools. The version 1.0 of SRX has been implemented different ways by different tools and has limited usage for exchange. The version 2.0 of SRX has been implemented with better consistency.

• SRX 2.0 specification
• SRX main page at LISA
• Example of SRX 2.0 document

The segmentation engine provided in the framework implements SRX 2.0. See the Segmentation page of the Developer's Guide for more details. In addition, Ratel is an editor to create and maintain SRX documents.

GMX - Global information management Metrics eXchange

Maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA, GMX is a family of standards of globalization- and localization-related metrics. The three components of GMX are:

• Volume (V) Global Information Management Metrics Volume addresses the issue of quantifying the workload for a given localization or translation task. GMX-V provides a standard and more precise definition of the statistics necessary for to assess the quantity of text (and costs) associated with language-related globalization tasks.
• Complexity (C) (proposed). GMX-C will provide a standard metric for the assessment of textual complexity with regard to globalization tasks. This format has not yet been defined.
• Quality (Q) (proposed). GMX-Q will provide a standard format for the specification of quality requirements for globalization tasks, thus allowing quality expectations to be specified in contracts and other agreements and verified. This format has not yet been defined.

The Word Count step provided in the framework implements GMX-V 1.0.

• GMX-V 1.0 specification
• GMX-V main page at LISA