Option to set the TextUnit id to be the same as the name in filters, especially the PropertiesFilter and XMLFilter

[Mike Bryant]

It would be really nice for XLIFF workflows if there was an option to set the TextUnit id to match the name in filters (at the point they create a TextUnit). This is especially important for the PropertiesFilter and XMLFilter that have the ability to extract a unique ID from the content. Many XLIFF editors and workflows use the ID and not the resname for identification. For projects that place XLIFFs under source control it would also reduce the differences between versions of the file (integer IDs get reordered on updates).

[Mike Bryant]

It would also be useful for the -macStrings option of the RegexFilter.

[Mike Bryant]

Issue #565 was marked as a duplicate of this issue.

[YvesS]

Issue #565 was marked as a duplicate of this issue.

[YvesS]

This would be doable as an option on the filter side.

But having property value as XLIFF id value has implication in one of our output format: XLIFF2. There the id values must be NMTOKEN and there is no such rule for the property keys. So one could end up with invalid XLIFF2 files. I suppose is something that could be caught when generating XLIFF2 files and leave alone other output.

[Chase Tingley]

Hi @mike_bryant - do you remember offhand which XLIFF editors you've seen which don't expose the name?

[YvesS]

I've added a new option in the Properties filter to use the property key as the text-unit id value.

Not for the XML Filter. There things are driven by ITS, so we would have to create a proprietary extension for the option.

[Mike Bryant]

One example of an XLIFF editor that shows IDs instead of resnames is the "Transolution Xliff Editor". It appears Microsoft's "Multilingual Editor" is also very ID centric, but it is a very poor general purpose XLIFF editor.

[Mike Bryant]

It appears the free web-based editor at http://xliff.brightec.co.uk/ shows IDs and ignores resnames too.

[Chase Tingley]

Thanks Mike. I've contacted the brightec people over email.

[Jim Hargrave (OLD)]

Be very careful with strings as id’s. Default for the xml processor is to normalize whitespace in attributes on output. The Apple tools generate xliff with string id’s and it causes issues when they are mangled by the xml processor/writer.