This week at Smartling!

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We’ve got a few great events coming up to close out the week.

Today, we’re sponsoring a PandoMonthly Fireside chat where Fred Wilson and our CEO, Jack Welde will be on the hot seat with Sarah Lacy. Tickets sold out quickly, but we’re excited to meet everyone there.

On Friday we will be manning a booth at the Digital Marketing World: Content Marketing Matters virtual conference hosted by MarketingProfs. Stop by our booth… virtually! It all starts at 10:30am ET.

Tweet us at @Smartling if you’ll be in attendance. We’d love to hear from you!

Book Review: Thoughts on Translation

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What does it take to succeed as a professional freelance translator? Here at Smartling, we enjoy connecting our technology customers with professional translators and translation agencies around the world. One of the industry’s most well-recognized translators, Corinne McCay, has published a new book called Thoughts on Translation that we’d highly suggest you check out — especially if you’re a translator or aspire to becoming one someday. The book is now available in paperback or digital (Kindle) form.

The book is based on McCay’s popular industry blog by the same name, and it received a glowing review in this month’s journal of the American Translators Association, the ATA Chronicle. The review was written by Nataly Kelly, our VP of Market Development here at Smartling. Thanks to the ATA, you can download and read the full review right here. The magazine is sent to all members of the ATA, and is a great resource that we highly recommend. Also, you may want to read McCay’s first book, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, also a great read.

Speaking of the ATA, their annual conference is coming up soon in San Antonio, Texas. It’s one of the largest translation conferences by far — be sure to check it out!

Localization File Format Overview

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by Andrey Akselrod

For anyone beginning the process of translating their digital content, the question often becomes, “Which localization file format should I use?” There are a few things to consider:

  • Is there native (or third party) technology support for a particular format within my technology stack?
  • Does the file format need to support various plural forms?
  • Does the file format I choose need to support contextual variance?
  • Is the format easy for my developers to understand without needing extra training?
  • Can the format I choose be ingested easily by translation management software?

These questions are important to answer before beginning the process so that you find the format that’s right for you and your business.

To help you with your decision, here’s a quick overview of some common localization file formats and their capabilities.

Android XML

Android XML is a platform-specific solution. It supports plural forms but does not support contextual variance unless done through the resource key.

Read more here.

Gettext

Gettext is a format that has been around for a while now. It supports both plural forms as well as contextual variance and has libraries in many different programming languages. In fact, several javascript libraries use Gettext to transfer javascript strings into a translation management system. Overall, it’s a great and simple option for software localization.

Read more here.

Java Properties

Property files are a default, basic option for java localization. Java properties do not support plural forms and don’t have native support for contextual variance. However, it can be done through the resource key.

Read more here.

.NET RESEX
.RESX is an XML-based format developed for .NET. It does not support plural forms or contextual variance.

Read more here.

ObjectiveC/iOS strings

Strings files have excellent support as part of ObjectiveC libraries. There isn’t any support for plural forms or native support for contextual variance unless done through the resource key. However, Smartling has developed a library to add plural forms support for ObjectiveC.

Read more here.

XLIFF

XLIFF was created specifically to transfer data between translation management tools during the localization process but is not a true localization format. We don’t recommend using it as a localization file as it’s fairly complex and translation management tool support varies for its various bells and whistles.

Read more here.

YAML

The YAML format has many features including arrays, conditional formating, strong typing, plural forms, etc. One limitation however, is that it doesn’t have native support for contextual variance unless programmed through the resource key. It has wide programming language support but implementation options vary. Similarly, translation management software may or may not support particular YAML features. There are different forks of YAML implementation that are not fully compatible with one another.

Read more here.

Other structured file formats

Structured file formats like XML and JSON can also be used for localization. Like XLIFF, we do not typically recommend use of these formats as they lack plural form and contextual variance support. Interoperability with many translation management systems is also limited. However, we have implemented flexible support for these files in our Smartling TMS.

*To continue the conversation, tweet Andrey at @chelya