A quick check shows that leading spaces that exist in the Passolo translation list will be exported into SDLXLIFF files. Can you please open the SDLXLIFF file before importing it into Studio and verify that the space is stored in the file? Then it will be a Studio issue.

Hi Achim, 

I have done as you suggested. My text editor of choice is Notepad++ 

The SDLXLIFF file is linearized and NOT pretty printed.

I use an Notepad++ XML plugin to "prettify" the file to make it easier to read.

If I open the linearized file in Notepad++, you are right, the leading spaces are present.

If I then apply the "prettify" using the Notepad++ XML plugin, the leading space is removed - making me think the problem was with Passolo! Looks like a bug in this plugin :-(

I can confirm the SDLXLIFF file I used in Trados DOES have the leading space. I will investigate the Trados settings.

Thanks Achim for a speedy response.

Best Regards

Mark

Hi Achim, 

I've been on the Trados forum and now think I know what's going on. 

I have created this file and added it to both a Trados and Passolo project

<Values>
<Value text="Test3"/>
<Value text=" Test4"/>
</Values>

When viewed normally in Trados, you cannot see the leading space - but it is still "there" but outside the segment. If I add a translation (without a leading space) and generate the target file, the leading space is re-inserted into the output document, just as I want.

The Passolo generated SDLXLIFF file has this content:

<source> Test4</source><seg-source><mrk mtype="seg" mid="2"> Test4</mrk></seg-source><target><mrk mtype="seg" mid="2"> Der test 4</mrk>

The Trados generated SDLXLIFF file has this content:

<source> Test4</source><seg-source> <mrk mtype="seg" mid="4">Test4</mrk></seg-source><target> <mrk mtype="seg" mid="4">Der test 4</mrk></target>

This is only a small difference, but it still stops me from successfully using these Passolo-generated SDLXLIFF files in a Trados project.

 Should the Passolo SDLXLIFF export process produce output files that are 100% compatible with Trados SDLXLIFF files?
Best Regards

Mark

Trados Studio is using the SDLXLIFF files as its persistence layer while Passolo is using SDLXLIFF as an export/import format to transfer data between Passolo and other translation tool. So for Passolo it never was a design goal to create SDLXLIFF files that are 100% compatible with Trados Studio. Passolo needs to ensure that it can properly roundtrip data and status information when Trados Studio is used as a translation tool.

This includes any leading or trailing spaces. It would be weird (and a bug) if characters that users can see and edit in Passolo would be lost after transferring them via SDLXLIFF into Studio. If you want to have a Studio like behavior you could potentially activate the function to mask spaces within the XML parsing rule of Passolo.

Hi

I think my mistake was thinking that a Passolo string list generated with the SDLXLIFF format was exclusively going to be used in Trados Studio.

Not unreasonable when the RWS website itself says "SDLXLIFF is an XML-based file format specially developed for use in Trados Studio."

The point about how Trados treats leading spaces is that under normal circumstances they are hidden from the translator when the source file is parsed into Trados, and re-inserted in the generated target document. This is exactly what I want. This feature seems to be "baked into" Trados as I have not seen a setting to disable it. 

In Passolo, these leading spaces are visible (using my settings) to the translator during translation and are visible (if the translator keeps them) in the generated target file. This is exactly what I want.

My issue is that the Passolo generated SDLXLIFF file does not treat these white space chars the same as the same Trados SDLXLIFF file, meaning I cannot take Passolo translations into Trados without fixing this issue myself.

I will check out  the "Mask space" feature of the XML parser to see if this makes a difference.

Regards

Mark