Open Standards

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The localization and translation 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.

XLIFF - XML Localisation Interchange File Format

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

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

TMX - Translation Memory eXchange

TMX covers the exchange of translation memory data.

TMX was originally maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA. In March 2011 LISA was closed. The OSCAR standards have been put under Creative Commons license and the specifications moved to new hosts.

Many components of the framework use TMX. The framework also includes a TMX Filter.

SRX - Segmentation Rules eXchange

SRX addresses the exchange of segmentation rules between 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 was originally maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA. In March 2011 LISA was closed. The OSCAR standards have been put under Creative Commons license and the specifications moved to new hosts.

The segmentation engine provided in the framework implements SRX 2.0. You can see it in action in Ratel, the framework's editor to create and maintain SRX documents.

TBX - Term Base eXchange

TBX is designed to allow the exchange of terminology databases between tools. TBX the same as ISO 30042. Because TBX is quite complex, its adoption has been slow and OSCAR has come up with TBX-Basic, a sub-set of the more general TBX.

TBX was originally maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA. In March 2011 LISA was closed. The OSCAR standards have been put under Creative Commons license and the specifications moved to new hosts.

The Quality Check Step, which is also used in CheckMate, supports TBX as one of its glossary formats.

ITS - Internationalization Tag Set

ITS is a W3C namespace that provides internationalization information and support in XML documents.

Several components of the framework support and use ITS. See the ITS Components page for details.

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.

GMX - Global information management Metrics eXchange

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.

GMX was originally maintained by the OSCAR Committee at LISA. In March 2011 LISA was closed. The OSCAR standards have been put under Creative Commons license and the specifications moved to new hosts.

Steps such as the Word Count Step, Character Count Step, and the Scoping Report Step provided in the framework use GMX-V 2.0.

OAXAL - Open Architecture for XML Authoring and Localization

Maintain by OASIS, OAXAL is a reference architecture that describes a processing model for authoring and localizing XML documents using open standards.

OAXAL 1.0 Conformance Statement

This statement confirms that the Okapi Framework is an OAXAL 1.0 Level 2 compliant application as per the OAXAL Reference Architecture 1.0 Specification conformance requirements, implementing the following constituent standards:

  • W3C ITS 1.0
  • OASIS XLIFF 1.2
  • LISA TMX 1.4b
  • LISA SRX 2.0
  • LISA TBX 1.0
  • LISA GMX/V 1.0