Message Localization Inventory Vocabulary

Author: Dorian Taylor
Version: 0.1
Created: January 4, 2022
Issued: January 25, 2026
Namespace URI: https://vocab.methodandstructure.com/mliv#
Preferred Namespace Prefix: mliv

Many organizations produce software in multiple languages. Many organizations also release the same software product—at least to a first approximation—on more than one platform. While most modern software frameworks support internationalization and localization (I18N/L10N) out of the box, they seldom agree on a data format with which to represent the translated text.

To enable word-for-word consistency in the messaging across platforms, as well as to reduce wasted effort translating messages which are both redundant and inconsistent, there is value in creating an intermediate representation for the message content that subsumes the underlying semantics of the individual concrete localization formats. The idea is to maintain a single authoritative repository of localized messages for the entire organization. From there it is possible to write small scripts to transform the intermediate format to the platform-specific ones. This vocabulary provides just such a representation.

This vocabulary is a derivative of an unpublished one from several years prior. Its current scope is to identify individual messages and bundle together their translated equivalents, while attaching them to a context and target in a codebase.

Classes

This vocabulary only needs a handful of classes: the mliv:Message, an mliv:Context to relate a set of messages to a location that may be common to more than one codebase, and a general-purpose mliv:Collection. Everything else can be covered by other RDF vocabularies.

 .
@prefix dct:   .
@prefix foaf:  .
@prefix mliv:  .

 a mliv:Message ;
  mliv:target  ;
  mliv:context  ;
  dct:isReferencedBy  ;
  dct:description "This is a general-purpose call to action to start a trial account."@en ;
  rdf:value "Start your 14-day free trial"@en,
    "Commencez votre abonnement gratuite de 14 jours"@fr .]]>

This example depicts a localized message in English and French, with references back to the product, including the exact line of code where the message is referenced.

`Collection`

A mliv:Collection is an arbitrary bundle of mliv:Message entities.

Subclass of:: rdfs:Container
Properties: mliv:member

`Context`

A mliv:Context extends mliv:Collection by representing a state in an application, such as a screen or page, that uses a set of mliv:Message entities.

 a mliv:Context ;
  dct:description "This what new users see when prompted to create an account."@en ;
  foaf:depiction  .
]]>

This example depicts a mliv:Context, with a link to a screenshot showing where the message(s) are to be used.

Subclass of:: mliv:Collection
Properties:: mliv:context-of; mliv:target

`Message`

The essence of the Message Localization Inventory Vocabulary is the mliv:Message itself.

Properties:: mliv:context; mliv:target

Properties

`context`

This property relates a mliv:Message to a mliv:Context.

Inverse of:: mliv:context-of

`context-of`

This property relates a mliv:Context to a mliv:Message.

Sub-property of:: mliv:member
Inverse of:: mliv:context

`member`

This property relates a mliv:Collection to one or more mliv:Messages.

Sub-property of:: rdfs:member

`target`

This property relates a mliv:Message or mliv:Collection to a target address, like a repository root on GitHub. We can subsequently use this relation to inform the generation of platform-specific resource files.

Domain: mliv:Context ∪ mliv:Message

Classes

Collection

Context

Message

Properties

context

context-of

member

target

References