Hi Sebastian,

First off, there are a few features in XML and XSLT that can assist you with
localization, e.g...

In XML there is a pre-defined attribute of xml:lang which can contain
language (and optionally, national dialect) values.  The useful thing about
utilising the xml:lang rather than defining your own 'lang' attribute is
that the xml:lang is decended down the tree for you until it is overridden.
In XSLT you have the lang() function - which can be used to query/test XML
based upon it's xml:lang attribute.  The lang() function also gives you a
certain amount of fallback functionality (see below) and also is one of the
few parts of XML that is not case-sensitive.

So given those features there are several ways in which you can go about
providing a localization system for use in XSLT.

As an example...

Say you had a single vocabulary XML document that defined all of your
'tokenized' words, e.g. something like...

== Vocabulary.xml ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vocab xml:lang="EN-GB"> <!-- this lang gives the default/fallback
language -->
  <language name="English (GB)">
    <token name="bin">Dustbin</token>
    <token name="trousers">Trousers</token>
    <token name="errtest">Something</token>
  </language>
  <language name="English (US)" xml:lang="en-us">
    <token name="bin">Trash can</token>
    <token name="trousers">Pants</token>
  </language>
  <language name="Deutsch" xml:lang="de">
    <token name="bin">Mülleimer</token>
    <token name="trousers">Hose</token>
  </language>
</vocab>
== end of Vocabulary.xml ========================

using the lang() function in XSLT if you did used the XPath selection...
        /vocab/language/token[@name = 'bin'][lang('en')]
it would give you the nodes...
       <token name="bin">Dustbin</token>
       <token name="bin">Trash can</token>
because both are defined under an element whose xml:lang is "en" (i.e.
"en-gb" and "en-us").
So if you do a more specific selection of...
        /vocab/language/token[@name = 'bin'][lang('en-gb')]
this would give just the node...
       <token name="bin">Dustbin</token>

So utilising that in XSLT could look something like...


== TestVocab.xsl ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:param name="lang-select" select="'en'"/>

<xsl:output method="text"/>
<!-- get the vocabulary document -->
<xsl:variable name="vocab-doc" select="document('Vocabulary.xml')/*"/>
<!-- pick the token words from the vocab document according to the selected
language -->
<!-- also providing fallback when the selected language does not exist -->
<xsl:variable name="vocab"
select="$vocab-doc/language[lang($lang-select)]/token |

$vocab-doc/language[lang(/vocab/@default-lang)][not(/vocab/language[lang($la
ng-select)])][1]/token"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:value-of select="$vocab[@name = 'bin']"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
== end of TestVocab.xsl ========================

NB.  Selecting the approriate tokens into the $vocab variable once saves you
keep specifying the language in later XPath expressions.

Also, some people like to keep each language in a seperate XML document - in
which case you could use system entities to accomplish this and still only
refer to one document() in your XSLT, e.g.

== Vocabulary.xml ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE includes [
  <!ENTITY en-gb SYSTEM "VocabEN-GB.xml">
  <!ENTITY en-us SYSTEM "VocabEN-US.xml">
  <!ENTITY de SYSTEM "VocabDE.xml">
]>
<vocab xml:lang="EN-GB"> <!-- this lang gives the default/fallback
language -->
  &en-gb;
  &en-us;
  &de;
</vocab>
== end of Vocabulary.xml ========================

and the the individual language XML documents...

== VocabEN-GB.xml ===============================
<language name="English (GB)" xml:lang="en-gb">
  <token name="bin">Dustbin</token>
  <token name="trousers">Trousers</token>
  <token name="errtest">Something</token>
</language>
== end of VocabEN-GB.xml ========================

== VocabEN-US.xml ===============================
<language name="English (US)" xml:lang="en-us">
  <token name="bin">Trash can</token>
  <token name="trousers">Pants</token>
</language>
== end of VocabEN-US.xml ========================

== VocabDE.xml ===============================
<language name="Deutsch" xml:lang="de">
  <token name="bin">Mülleimer</token>
  <token name="trousers">Hose</token>
</language>
== end of VocabDE.xml ========================


Using such a system it would then be fairly 'easy' to write a stylesheet
that
checked the existence of each token in the languages, e.g.

== CheckVocab.xsl ===============================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:variable name="vocab" select="/vocab/language[lang('invalid')]/token |

/vocab/language[lang(/vocab/@xml:lang)][not(/vocab/language[lang('invalid')]
)][1]/token"/>

<xsl:key name="kXMLLangAtts" match="@xml:lang" use="'x'"/>
<xsl:key name="kDistinctLanguages" match="@xml:lang"
use="translate(substring(.,1,2),'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ','abcdefghijklmn
opqrstuvwxyz')"/>
<xsl:key name="kDistinctLangDialect" match="@xml:lang"
use="translate(.,'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ','abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz')"
/>
<xsl:key name="kDistinctTokens" match="token" use="@name"/>
<xsl:variable name="ucase" select="'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'"/>
<xsl:variable name="lcase" select="'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'"/>

<xsl:variable name="vDistinctLanguages"
select="key('kXMLLangAtts','x')[generate-id() =
generate-id(key('kDistinctLanguages',translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcas
e)))]"/>
<xsl:variable name="vDistinctTokens"
select="/vocab/language/token[generate-id() =
generate-id(key('kDistinctTokens',@name))]"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
    <head>
      <title>
        <xsl:text>My Vocabulary Checks</xsl:text>
      </title>
    </head>
    <body>
      <h2>
        <xsl:text>Vocabulary Checks</xsl:text>
      </h2>
      <hr/>
      <table border="1">
        <tr>
          <th rowspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom">
            <xsl:text>Token</xsl:text>
          </th>
          <th rowspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom">
            <xsl:text>Default</xsl:text>
            <br/>
            <xsl:text>Value</xsl:text>
          </th>
          <xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctLanguages">
            <xsl:variable name="this-lang"
select="translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcase)"/>
            <xsl:variable name="no-dialects"
select="count(key('kDistinctLanguages',$this-lang)[contains(.,'-')][generate
-id() =
generate-id(key('kDistinctLangDialect',translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)))])+1"/>
            <th align="center" colspan="{$no-dialects}">
              <xsl:text>Language: </xsl:text>
              <xsl:value-of select="$this-lang"/>
            </th>
          </xsl:for-each>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctLanguages">
            <xsl:variable name="this-lang"
select="translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcase)"/>
            <th>
              <xsl:value-of select="$this-lang"/>
            </th>
            <xsl:variable name="dialects"
select="key('kDistinctLanguages',$this-lang)[contains(.,'-')][generate-id()
= generate-id(key('kDistinctLangDialect',translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)))]"/>
            <xsl:for-each select="$dialects">
              <th>
                <xsl:value-of select="translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)"/>
              </th>
            </xsl:for-each>
          </xsl:for-each>
        </tr>
        <xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctTokens">
          <xsl:sort/>
          <tr>
            <th align="left">
              <xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
            </th>
            <td>
              <xsl:value-of select="$vocab[@name = current()/@name]"/>
            </td>
            <xsl:variable name="this-name" select="@name"/>
            <xsl:for-each select="$vDistinctLanguages">
              <xsl:variable name="this-lang"
select="translate(substring(.,1,2),$ucase,$lcase)"/>
              <xsl:variable name="dialects"
select="key('kDistinctLanguages',$this-lang)[contains(.,'-')][generate-id()
= generate-id(key('kDistinctLangDialect',translate(.,$ucase,$lcase)))]"/>
              <td>
                <xsl:variable name="this-token"
select="/vocab/language[lang($this-lang)]/token[@name = $this-name]"/>
                <xsl:choose>
                  <xsl:when test="$this-token">
                    <xsl:value-of select="$this-token"/>
                  </xsl:when>
                  <xsl:otherwise>
                    <xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">
                      <xsl:text>Red</xsl:text>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <xsl:text>(undefined)</xsl:text>
                  </xsl:otherwise>
                </xsl:choose>
              </td>
              <xsl:for-each select="$dialects">
                <td>
                  <xsl:variable name="this-token"
select="/vocab/language[lang(current())]/token[@name = $this-name]"/>
                  <xsl:choose>
                    <xsl:when test="$this-token">
                      <xsl:value-of select="$this-token"/>
                    </xsl:when>
                    <xsl:otherwise>
                      <xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">
                        <xsl:text>Red</xsl:text>
                      </xsl:attribute>
                      <xsl:text>(undefined)</xsl:text>
                    </xsl:otherwise>
                  </xsl:choose>
                </td>
              </xsl:for-each>
            </xsl:for-each>
          </tr>
        </xsl:for-each>
      </table>
    </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
== end of CheckVocab.xsl ========================


HTH
Marrow
http://www.marrowsoft.com - home of Xselerator (XSLT IDE and debugger)
http://www.topxml.com/Xselerator


"Sebastian Kerekes" <sebastian.kerekes@g...> wrote in message
news:1094127960.327398@n......
> Marrow wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Using variables and including them?  That seems a long way to do things?
> >
> > Show a short example of what you are doing - perhaps there's a better
way of
> > achieving your goal. ;)
>
> Ok, here's a very simple and short example:
>
> Somewhere at the top of the document i have my variables. The variables
> need to have different content depending on the language I want to use.
> So my XSL is a JSP file that gets a "language" parameter and includes
> the file with the right language.
>
> When the JSP finishes processing, the result is a XSL with for the
> specific language passed with "language". For "en" the result is:
>
>
> <xsl:variable name="text.greetings" select="'Username'" />
> <b><xsl:value-of select="$text.greetings" /></b>
>
> for "de" it's:
>
> <xsl:variable name="text.greetings" select="'Benutzername'" />
> <b><xsl:value-of select="$text.greetings" /></b>
>
> and so on.
>
> I found this approach in a book, and it seems ok to me, but if you have
> any other (more common, more elegant) solutions, feel free to post them ;)
>
>  > To your original question...
>  > You could use XSLT itself to perform the checks to ensure that a word
is
>  > defined in each language.
>
> Uuuhm .. how? How would you solve this?
>
> Greetings, Sebastian