Visual XLIFF Localization

XLIFF is a standard format to store data that needs to be localized.

How does Sisulizer localize XLIFF files?

XLIFF file is a bilingual file. It has source and target languages. When Sisulizer reads XLIFF data it reads the source language. Sisulizer goes through every <trans-unit> element in the file and extracts <source> element data to the project.

When Sisulizer writes localized XLIFF files it replaces the <target> element data with data from Sisulizer project and changes the target language of the XLIFF to the current build language. If the file does not contains a <target> element Sisulizer adds it. As a result you will have as many copies of the original XLIFF files as you have languages in the Sisulizer project.

Some XLIFF files contains user interface elements such as dialogs and menus. Sisulizer can read the visual information from such XLIFF files and lets you localize the elements visually. Sisulizer recognizes coord and font attributes in the <group> and <trans-unit> tags.

XLIFF source (and target) tags may contain inline elements. Inline elements are <g>, <x/>, <bx/>, <ex/>, <bpt>, <ept>, <sub>, <it>, <ph>. Sisulizer shows the inline elemens visually in the editing sheet.

Platforms that use XLIFF

Currently XLIFF is not that widely used. Very few tool can export to XLIFF and import it back. However there are few such tools. The following table lists the XLIFF enabled development or authoring tools:

If you use above tools you can localize their content by first exporting it to XLIFF, thene using Sisulizer to create localized XLIFF files and finally importing localized XLIFF files back to your tool.