XML Elements - Variable Assignments

Variables are used to substitute text at the time of publishing. They can be used in many publishable fields such as Book or Topic descriptions, Topic text and Hypertext links. They work by looking for specific text (for example <customer>) and replacing it with a variable assignment (for example My Customer). A variable must exist be created within the AuthorIT Administrator for this to work and it may optionally have variable assignments on one or more objects.

Translators should be aware that text enclosed in <> may have special meaning and should be provided with rules to deal with each situation. Often, the variable assignment and the variable occur in different objects. For example, a Book may contain the variable assignment <customer> = "ACME" while a Topic contains the text "Prepared for <customer>".

Objects with variable assignments against them will have a VariableAssignments section which contains one or more VariableAssignment records. These records in turn contain two parts:

Data with the following elements should be translated:

Data with the following attributes should not be translated:

Example

<VariableAssignments>
<VariableAssignment>
<ID>17</ID>
<Name></Name>
<Value>Optical Systems Corporation Limited</Value>
<ValueObject>0</ValueObject>
<Style>-1</Style>
</VariableAssignment>
</VariableAssignments>

Variables will be handled in one of two ways:

• Variable assignment is translated. Within the object containing a variable (for example "The <my_product> help has been produced for <customer>") the variables themselves will remain untranslated. This is because the variable will be used to substitute in a variable assignment and the variable assignment is the part that requires translating.
• Variable is removed from text. Within the object containing a variable (for example "Select a <color> from the dialog") the variable should be removed and replaced with translated text. This is because the variable <color> is being used to substitute either the word "color" (for the US market) or "colour" (for the UK market).

Note: It is unlikely that it is appropriate for the variable name within a topic to be translated as this will just create a new (unresolved) variable. What to do with variables within the Topic text should be discussed with the Author-it administrator on a case by case basis.