Placeholders and Messages

There are certain files that describe CLDR formats for translation. These files are also used for internal testing, and should be updated when new structure is added.

xmbPlaceholders.txt

A RegexLookup file that maps from a path to information about placeholders. For example:

^//ldml/dates/timeZoneNames/fallbackRegionFormat ; {1}=COUNTRY Argentina; {0}=CITY Buenos Aires

The values are separated by semicolons, and are one per possible placeholder. Each value is of the form

placeholder=entity[space]example

So for the case of {1}=COUNTRY Argentina

placeholder - {1} - the CLDR placeholder

entity - COUNTRY - a variable name that represents the kind of entity that will be substituted

example - Argentina - an example entity.

xmbHandling.txt

A RegexLookup file that maps from a path to a message about the path, for use in examples in ST and otherwise. For example:

^//ldml/localeDisplayNames/localeDisplayPattern/localeSeparator ; The separator used to compose modifiers in locale (language) names. Note: before translating, be sure to read http://cldr.org/translation/localepattern.

The value is a message which may contain placeholders, and should always have a pointer to the documentation for the type of path, in http://cldr.org/translation/XXX. The placeholders are extracted from the path. For example:

^//ldml/localeDisplayNames/types/type\[@type="([^"]*)"]\[@key="collation"] ; The name of "{1} collation" (sorting order). For more information, please see http://cldr.org/translation/key-names.

In this case, the {1} will be the type attribute value.

For some paths, there is a special initial parameter, such as ROOT metazone; [Description TBD].