I can't convert files back to their native xliff format using Studio 2015's Generate Target Translations function

Question

Dear SDL Studio 2015 users, 
 I am about to deliver a project which contains multiple xliff files. When I used Generate Target Translations under Batch Tasks, Studio showed an error for each file with the following message: 
 Filter definition 'XLIFF 1.1-1.2 v 1.0.0.0 not found or could not be used to construct a generator'. 
 I asked the other translator whom I worked with on this project to run the same batch task in her Studio 2011, and the error message she got is "sequence contains no elements". 
 Can someone tell me how do I solve this issue? The client does not have Studio, so I think they need to have the files in xliff format. Would it work if I simply remove the .sdlxliff file extensions for these files? 
 Thank you big times for your suggestions or solutions!! 
 Chunyi

Chunyi Chen · Accepted Answer

Paul, I think I may have found the cause. I created the project in Studio 2015 and my colleague created the project using 2011. So when she sent me the files for editing, I just replaced the target files with her 2011 files. This may be the reason for having difficulty exporting the files.

Chunyi Chen · Answer

I confirmed that the issue was caused because my colleague and I used different versions of Studio to create the project and we mixed up the files during our translation-editing process. I just created a new project and imported the client's xliff files and was able to export back to xliff format.

Paul · Answer

Hi Chunyi, 
 There seems to be a little confusion here. So lets get things straight from the start. When you open a file for translation in Studio it becomes an SDLXLIFF. So if it's a DOCX it becomes ...DOCX.SDLXLIFF, Excel becomes ...XLSX.SDLXLIFF and if the source file was XLIFF it becomes XLIFF.SDLXLIFF. 
 XLIFF is treated no differently. If you rename the SDLXLIFF file to XLIFF it will not be the original XLIFF it will still be an SDLXLIFF which is a valid XLIFF format, but it has custom extensions inside that Studio knows how to use. 
 So when you save the target files for a customer you must always save the Target version to recreate the original source format from the SDLXLIFF. So saving target from ...XLIFF.SDLXLIFF will result in an XLIFF format based on the original source. 
 Now, if you use the Generate Target Translations batch task you will always get the appropriate source format containing the translated text, in your case the XLIFF. If you use the Export Files batch task then you have a few options: 
 
 Latest Bilingual and Current Version are essentially the same thing (I believe this was some forward thinking about version control that has not been implemented yet ;-)) and they will give you the SDLXLIFF. The target version will give you the source format with target translation, so in your case the XLIFF. 
 Now we have that straight let's think about your message: 
 Unknown said: Filter definition 'XLIFF 1.1-1.2 v 1.0.0.0 not found or could not be used to construct a generator'. 
 The current version in Studio 2015 is "XLIFF 1.1-1.2 v 2.0.0.0" which tells me that you are probably working with as Project Package that was created in an older version of Studio. This means you cannot save the target files, or generate target files, or export files as the target version! You can translate them and give them the SDLXLIFF back but they will need to recreate the XLIFF. If they have you the SDLXLIFF files and not a Package then the same thing applies. 
 Does this help? 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: I asked the other translator whom I worked with on this project to run the same batch task in her Studio 2011, and the error message she got is "sequence contains no elements". 
 This is a bug in Studio 2011. 
 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: but please don't give me the wrong impression by allowing me to open these xliff files and happily translate them in Studio, only to find out they can't be converted back to its original format the client requests. 
 Hi Chunyi 
 I think you know this as soon as you open them. There is a message in the window to tell you this. Studio is not MS Word, it's dealing with far more complexity than this in terms of filetype support so we do our best to always support SDLXLIFF but it's not always possible to maintain the ability to recreate the original file format from this. 
 Regards 
 Paul

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I can't convert files back to their native xliff format using Studio 2015's Generate Target Translations function