Introduction

XTM Cloud incorporates a comprehensive terminology module, which is a database of multilingual terms. It includes mandatory and customized fields. In XTM Workbench, the system identifies and highlights terms in the source text that are in the terminology base. The approved term equivalent in the target language is then displayed in the docked panel. Once a particular term is hovered over, more details are displayed. In short, this feature makes it easier to use the agreed terminology consistently during translation.

Metadata

Metadata in XTM Cloud terminology includes all fields, mandatory and customized ones, such as:

Definition, Context, Images, Part of speech, Gender, Concept, Abbreviations, etc.

After project creation, this metadata, is displayed in rudimentary form. Once the user enters XTM Workbench in “Edit" mode, metadata is updated.

Concept

The concept is a pair of terms that translate to one another, which requires them to be semantically consistent with each other.

To explain this, imagine an example term, castle (English - UK). Under this concept, the translation zamek (Polish) and the definition "defensive building" can be added. You can also add more translations into other target languages to one concept and also provide alternative translations for the same target language:

So, under one source term, castle, you can have these translations: Burg (German) and zamek (Polish). When you look for the term castle, you will get all the language combinations that you added.

However, in the Polish language, the same word zamek also denotes "a mechanical device used to secure items of importance", which is translated as lock in the English language. In such a case, there will be a brand-new concept in the XTM Cloud terminology:

Custom fields

Custom fields are basically customized labels where you can add a flag or some sort of commentary field. Custom fields are set up by users with the Administrator role, and users with the Terminologist role can only use them in the form of a field whose type was specified when it was created.

For example, while adding a term for a car, a custom field can be called “Car type" and be dropdown:

XTM Cloud has a lot of customization features when it comes to custom fields. In Configuration → Settings → Data → Custom fields → Terminology custom fields, you can add your own customized terminology field, specify its field type and add values:

Each custom field has the following features:

Field name → name of the field in the XTM Cloud UI;
Values → random data entered by the user;
TBX name → attribute value of type with which the metadata will be stored in the TBX file
Show in → you can specify whether a particular custom field should apply for a concept or a term;
Type → metadata type.

You can create a custom field that can be shown in the Term section or Concept section. These fields can be filtered in Terminology so that, whenever you export or import terms, these custom fields will be visible in XTM Workbench.

How to include different custom fields in the terminology import

Remember that, to import a TBX or XLS(X) file which contains a specific custom field, you must first create a field with the same name in the XTM Cloud UI (Configuration → Settings → Data → Custom fields → Terminology custom fields).

If you do not create it, the TBX file will import without that custom field and it will not be displayed in the Terminology tab.

For instance, if Suggested notes and Translate custom fields are present in the Concept metadata, the file must have exactly the same field name, otherwise this particular metadata will fail to import.

If you have any problems importing terminology or importing a particular field:

Add a term manually, in the terminology module, and enter all the necessary metadata that you would like to include. If you do not see the custom field metadata, click on the rachet in the right upper corner.

Choose Concept or Term details to show a particular field or fields.

If you have added all metadata for the terms and their translations, export them (click here for help). We highly recommend searching for specific phrases and restricting the data exported to terms found in the search. Also, do not forget to export your fields by selecting them in the Term and/or Concept field, as you can specify which ones you would like to have in your file.

Open the exported file. The file will represent an example file used to show how and where to insert the field, so that it can be imported back.

Concept metadata vs. Term metadata

There are two kinds of metadata:

metadata in a concept,
metadata in a term.

They work differently.

Concept metadata

Concept metadata works as additional information for linguists and terminologists. It is visible in XTM Workbench in Source:

Concept metadata can be stored in TBX and XSL(X) files. Each metadata field describing the concept is placed in a descrip tag with the attribute type:

<descrip type="definition">Example definition</descrip>
<descrip type="externalRef">Reference example</descrip>
<descrip type="sourceLang">ak</descrip>
<descrip type="Subject">Applications, Drives</descrip>
<descrip type="Concept Note">Concept note example</descrip>

Term metadata

Term metadata is visible in the docked panel, in XTM Workbench. It includes Abbreviation, Gender, Part of speech, etc. If you click the highlighted term, the metadata is “whole" but in the docked panel, it is split.

As you can see, the docked panel is split into two columns. The first one is the concept and the second is the translation.

The concept metadata is displayed in the term highlighted in the Source, and the term metadata is displayed in the Translation.

To see this kind of view in Terminology and so in XTM Workbench, e.g. Part of speech, Gender, or a term type, you can use filter options to specify which ones are to be displayed. You can do this directly in the Terminology module (Terminology → Manage) when you click on a cogwheel:

Furthermore, similarly to concept metadata, term metadata can be stored in both TBX and XLS(X) files. See the metadata example in the TBX file below:

Click here to expand.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE martif SYSTEM "TBXCoreStructV02.dtd">
<martif type="TBX-Basic" xml:lang="en">
	<martifHeader>
		<fileDesc>
			<sourceDesc>
				<p>Terms exported from XTM Term Manager.</p>
			</sourceDesc>
		</fileDesc>
	</martifHeader>
	<text>
		<body>
			<termEntry>
				<descrip type="definition">Example definition</descrip>
				<descrip type="externalRef">Reference example</descrip>
				<descrip type="sourceLang">ak</descrip>
				<descrip type="Subject">Applications, Drives</descrip>
				<descrip type="Concept Note">Concept note example</descrip>
				<langSet xml:lang="ak">
					<ntig>
						<termGrp>
							<term>TEST TERM</term>
							<termNote type="abbreviatedFormFor">abbr test</termNote>
							<termNote type="context">context example</termNote>
							<termNote type="remarks">remarks example</termNote>
							<termNote type="status">VALID</termNote>
							<termNote type="grammaticalGender">masculine</termNote>
							<termNote type="partOfSpeech">properNoun</termNote>
							<termNote type="termType">full form</termNote>
							<termNote type="usageNote">usage note example</termNote>
							<termCompList type="lemma">
								<termComp>test term</termComp>
							</termCompList>
						</termGrp>
						<transacGrp>
							<transac type="transactionType">modification</transac>
							<transacNote type="responsibility">JoannaADMIN</transacNote>
							<date>2022-01-03</date>
						</transacGrp>
						<transacGrp>
							<transac type="transactionType">creation</transac>
							<transacNote type="responsibility">JoannaADMIN</transacNote>
							<date>2022-01-03</date>
						</transacGrp>
					</ntig>
				</langSet>
				<langSet xml:lang="ar-AA">
					<ntig>
						<termGrp>
							<term>TEST TERM TRANSLATION</term>
							<termNote type="status">REJECTED</termNote>
							<termNote type="grammaticalGender">neuter</termNote>
							<termNote type="partOfSpeech">properNoun</termNote>
							<termNote type="termType">full form</termNote>
							<termNote type="usageNote">USAGE NOTE EXAMPLE</termNote>
							<termNote type="testField">test2, test3</termNote>
							<termCompList type="lemma">
								<termComp>test term translation</termComp>
							</termCompList>
						</termGrp>
						<transacGrp>
							<transac type="transactionType">modification</transac>
							<transacNote type="responsibility">JoannaADMIN</transacNote>
							<date>2022-01-03</date>
						</transacGrp>
						<transacGrp>
							<transac type="transactionType">creation</transac>
							<transacNote type="responsibility">JoannaADMIN</transacNote>
							<date>2022-01-03</date>
						</transacGrp>
					</ntig>
				</langSet>
			</termEntry>
		</body>
	</text>
</martif>

Each translation is placed in a langSet tag. Inside it, you can find relevant elements such as:

term → stores the translation of the term.
termNote → stores all term-related metadata. It always has a type attribute and an attribute value compatible with the fields present in:
- Configuration → Data → Custom fields → Terminology custom fields.
transacGrp → stores the term's creation and modification date information, and its author.