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Merrill Brink News Reviews and Opinion on Sep 7, 2014: How to Use HTML5 and the Internationalisation Tag Set (ITS) 2.0 Effectively When Localising Websites(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) http://www.merrillbrink.com -- When planning a website localisation project, it can be tempting to place a primary focus on creating localised and translated versions of your website and a secondary focus on the technical implementation. London, UK - When planning a website localisation project, it can be tempting to place a primary focus on creating localised and translated versions of your website and a secondary focus on the technical implementation. However, addressing implementation details at each stage of the project is the best way to keep your content organised and ensure that it displays correctly for all international consumers. A good strategy to address both content and technical details is to use the Internationalisation Tag Set (ITS), a tool that provides a way of labeling a webpage's content for localisation professionals as well as web browsers. The following article explains what the ITS is, the enhancements introduced in ITS 2.0, and how ITS 2.0 works with HTML5 to create a localised web experience for international consumers. Definition of the ITS The ITS is a set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) tags, or metadata, that web content creators can use to label parts of a website's code in a way that is decipherable by both the team responsible for translating the website and also by the actual web browser. These tags can be used to mark areas of a webpage that should be translated, indicate the kinds of characters that are allowed in a string of text, and include notes for localisation professionals about a particular piece of content. Once the webpage is localised and translated, other ITS tags "tell" the web browsers which parts of a page should be displayed for each locale, or country and language combination. If the webpage's code contains localised versions of a single piece of content -- such as a legal notice or privacy policy -- ITS tags tell the web browsers which version to display to international consumers based on their individual locales. New Features in ITS 2.0 ITS 1.0 offered several core features that have become essential tools in the website localisation industry. ITS 1.0 catered to a simple "write, internationalise, then translate and localise" model of the localisation process.1 However, localising a website often involves more steps than this, such as reviews and revisions, and contributions from non-human sources such as content management systems and translation memory tools. ITS 2.0, released in October 2013, includes new features to address the complex workflows found in many translation projects. To reflect these added complexities in the localisation process, ITS 2.0 introduces new data categories and corresponding tags, including Localisation Quality Rating, Machine Translation (MT) Confidence, ID Value, and External Resource.2 How does ITS 2.0 work with HTML5? All ITS tags, both in ITS 1.0 and ITS 2.0, are XML tags, which must be applied in conjunction with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in order to be used in webpages. HTLM5 includes a Geolocation API that can detect a user's location based on the GPS information from their mobile device, the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the mobile device or computer, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth Media Access Control (MAC) address assigned to the user's machine.3 Using this data, the Geolocation API determines which localised webpage version to show the user. Another key aspect of HTML5 that works hand-in-hand with ITS 2.0 is the "translate" attribute, which indicates whether a certain page element should be translated when the page is localised.4 ITS 2.0 relies on this attribute of HTML5 to function properly, meaning that ITS 2.0 is compatible only with HTML5 and not any prior versions of HTML.5 When used together, both ITS 2.0 and HTML5 can help ensure that the content you've invested in developing will be localised properly, and displayed to international consumers in the ways you envisioned. By working with language service providers who are familiar with web content in your target languages, pre- and post-localisation engineering and bug fixing to sure that the international versions of your website convey your brand's message accurately and effectively. References: 1 "Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 2.0," World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), October 29, 2013, accessed August 8, 2014, http://www.w3.org/TR/its20/. 2 Ibid. 3 "Geolocation API Specification," W3C, July 11, 2014, accessed August 8, 2014, http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html. 4 "HTML5: A Vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML," W3C, August 6, 2013, accessed August 8, 2014, http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/CR-html5-20130806/dom.html. 5 "Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 2.0." Full article: http://www.merrillbrink.com/how-to-use-html5-and-ITS-when-localizing-websites-09022014.htm About Merrill Brink International Merrill Brink International (http://www.merrillbrink.com) is a leading provider of complete translation and language solutions for global companies and law firms, with special expertise in serving the legal, financial, life sciences, software, heavy machinery and corporate markets. A proven leader with more than 30 years of experience, Merrill Brink offers a wide range of language solutions including translation, localisation, desktop publishing and globalisation services. Merrill Brink is recognised in the industry for its commitment to quality and its pioneering approach of leveraging technology to reduce costs, eliminate redundant processes and accelerate translation life cycles. Merrill Brink is certified to ISO 9001:2008; ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and ISO 13485:2003, and compliant to EN 15038:2006 and ISO 14971:2007.Together, these standards provide assurance that the most stringent process and quality standards for translation are followed. Merrill Brink International is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrill Corporation. . (c) 2014 M2 COMMUNICATIONS |