Re: [xsl] how to extract text, translate and re-insert it in XHTML

[Ken Starks <ken@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, here is the approach used in the Internationalisation ('I18n') 
transformer of the Apache Cocoon project.
It usually uses a namespace prefix of  I18n: This 'transformer' is part 
of the Cocoon pipeline and works on the fly.

See http://cocoon.apache.org/2.1/userdocs/i18nTransformer.html

Stage One, you wrap up any fragments of text that you want translated in 
an <I18n:text> element, which has
an optional attribute I18n:key. This is the hard part, and very 
difficult to automate. It needs a certain amount of
judgement about how large to make the fragments, and whether to include 
punctuation, among other things.

<I18n:text>Good morning</I18n>, <I18n:text I18n:key = "everyone" >Ladies 
and Gentlemen</I18n>

Stage Two. Your translators, for whatever language, must create a 
catalog file, which is a kind
of phrase book. The 'I18n:key' used here corresponds either to the 
content above ('Good morning') or the
i18m:key already specified.

<catalog xml:lang="fr">
<message key="Good morning">Bonjour</message>
<message key="everyone">Monseiurs et Madames</message>
</catalog>


You would have a catalog file for kilingon and any other languages you want.

The transformation system has other elements to help: translation of stock
... phrases with parameters, translation of dates.

The various files also have to follow a  naming convention and be saved 
in a  specific location
in the cocoon setup.


Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>   it's been a while since i've written anything in XSLT so i'm going
> to try to explain what a colleague is trying to do, assuming *i*
> understand it.
>
>   1) start with an involved XHTML document
>   2) "extract" just those (english) parts that involve translatable
>      text, and hand it to a translator
>   3) translator translates english to, say, klingon
>   4) rebuild original document with klingon content instead of english
>
> as i understand it, the point of the extraction is that no one wants
> to burden the translator with all of the XHTML tagging -- the
> translator wants to get the text stripped of all the "clutter", at
> which point, after translation, someone needs to be able to put the
> document back together.
>
>   is this even a reasonable thing to ask?  in order to reassemble the
> document, i'm assuming one is going to have to ID every single bit of
> text to have a reference to build backwards.
>
>   thoughts on this?  has anyone done something like this?  or are you
> all too busy laughing hysterically by now?
>
> rday