W3C Sets Standard for Internationalized Web Content - W3C ITS 1.0

April 9, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

This content can be adapted, at lower cost, to the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market, a process called localization, said the W3C.

Whether W3C ITS 1.0 is used to build an internationalized XML schema from scratch, to add support to an existing schema or to improve the internationalization of existing content, the standard gives users the power to create XML for worldwide use, said the W3C.

"It's all too common for international users and localizers to struggle with document formats due to a lack of internationalization during schema design," said Richard Ishida, W3C Internationalization Activity lead.

"Developers may not know what's needed, or may only provide part of what's needed and then do so inconsistently from schema to schema. ITS is there to help with this, whether you are creating a new schema or working with an established one."

W3C ITS 1.0 addresses a number of internationalization requirements including being able to identify the language of a piece of text, to specify the directionality of text (such as right-to-left Hebrew and Arabic or mixed directionality texts), to provide Ruby annotations (used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or to provide a short annotation) and to indicate whether content should be translated (an important requirement for people building tools to help with localization).

An internationalized XML schema takes into consideration these requirements and others, ideally early in the design process. With W3C ITS 1.0, XML schema designers can build localization-ready schemas at lower cost by reusing the "predefined" standard constructs, such as the "its:dir" attribute to specify text directionality, said the W3C.

W3C ITS 1.0 also enables people to improve the internationalization of existing XML documents without modifying them. To do so, one describes how the features of the existing format relate to the corresponding features.

By creating this association with the powerful features of W3C ITS 1.0, localization tools that support the standard can be expanded at low cost to handle legacy content including content in formats such as eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML), DocBook and the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), said the W3C. W3C ITS 1.0 also makes it easier and less expensive to build localization tools by offering a standard for localization concepts.

In designing W3C ITS 1.0, the Internationalization Activity took into account the diverse internationalization and localization requirements of schema developers (with new or existing schemas), vendors of content-related tools and content providers.

W3C ITS 1.0 was developed in liaison with other standardization efforts in the localization industry such as the XML Localisation Interchange File Format Technical Committee (XLIFF TC) in the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-Use Special Interest Group (OSCAR SIG) at the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA).

Source: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).