RE: Schema localization? *Newbie alert*

[johns@syscore.com (John F. Schlesinger)]

Jan asked "Is there a mechanism which will allow 'localization' (1:1
mappings)of the tagnames in Dutch, Portugese, Chinese etc. ?"

It seems to me that you have the problem even for the tags in 'English'.

This is a common problem in databases - the physical model column names are
not sufficient to provide titles for the contents of columns let alone
descriptions. Logical (or ceneptual) data models are therefore constructed
outside the database (in ERWin for example) that include titles,
descriptions and enumerations in the languages that are needed by the users.
At Dun and Bradstreet we had a 40mb dll that contained the language
translations of all the titles, descriptions and enumerated types
(distributing it to the workstations was an interesting challenge).

How you do this for XML is up for grabs. If you use XML Schema it could be
done through the annotation capability. What you really need is a repository
for all the translations and generate the metadata for specific
applications.

Yours,
John F Schlesinger
SysCore Solutions
212 619 5200 x 219
917 886 5895 Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: Vegt, Jan [mailto:Jan.Vegt@softwareag.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 9:06 AM
To: 'xml-dev@lists.xml.org'
Subject: Schema localization? *Newbie alert*


Hi,

I can't find an answer in the XSchema docs but I wouldn't be surprised if I
missed something, so hopefully someone can point me to something obvious.

Scenario is as follows : data is exchanged internationally on the basis of
an
established DTD/Schema with descriptive tagnames in the English language. Is
there a mechanism which will allow 'localization' (1:1 mappings)of the
tagnames in Dutch, Portugese, Chinese etc. ?
(Using tags based on number schemes like what MARC used to do in the library
community is not an option in this case)

For some background : this could be useful in situations where the Schema is
used as a database schema and "field labels" need to be available in the
local language (being not English in this case). It is useful to make the
localized tag mapping 'transportable', like the Schema itself.


Thanks for any pointers,

Jan


Jan Vegt, Software AG Nederland