How to use the BWX QA Check Tool

How to use the BWX QA Check Tool


This article shows the main analysis points related to the QA Check functionality.



1. QA Check Tool Structure

QA Check is a tool that helps linguists verify possible inconsistencies in their translation. Through it, the linguist can quickly identify the main points of improvement and fixes suggested by BWX Editor.

  • To access the QA feature, go to the BWX Editor by clicking on the Work Unit you want to run a QA

  • Click Show/Hide Menu and the QA tab

In this tab, the suggestions for the linguist should appear, as in the image below:

  • Click Filters to configure the points you want the QA to point to. The analysis points that QA Check shows are as follows:

  • When selecting the QA settings you would like to run, click on Apply and then click on re-run QA to run the QA again with the new settings selected

  • To hide the ignored issues, click Hide ignored issues. This way, by clicking on it (as in the image below), the suggestion will be removed from the linguist's view

  • To be redirected to the analysis segment, click Go to segment

  • To re-load the QA Check Tool suggestions, click the Re-run QA button


2. Analysis Points

The following are brief explanations of the main quality points suggested by QA.

2.1. General

2.1.1. Warn on doubled words

Checks if there are duplicated words in the translation.

In the image above, the QA pointed out with a Suspect Pattern flag that the word "State" was repeated in the target.

 

2.1.2. Warn if a target segment is not empty when its source is empty

This option points to the segments whose target is not empty when the source is empty.

 

2.1.3. Warn if a target segment is empty when its source is not empty

Checks if the translated segments are empty when the corresponding source is not empty.

In the image above, the check issues an Empty Target flag indicating that the translated segment is empty, but the corresponding source is not empty.

 

2.1.4. Warn if a target entry has a difference in leading white spaces

Points out if there are leading white spaces that are different between the source and the target.

This check outputs an Extra or different leadingwhitespace flag indicating that there is an extra space to the left of the translation.

 

2.1.5. Warn if a target segment is the same as its source

Points out the segments in which the translation is identical to the source language.

This check is only performed if the source segment contains at least one word character, which is any Unicode letter or digit. QA issues a Target is same as source flag to indicate that the translation is equal to the source language.

 

2.1.6. Warn if a target entry has a difference in trailing white spaces

Signals the segments where the trailing white spaces are different between the source language and the target language.

This check issues an Extra or different trailingWHITESPACE flag to indicate that there is a whitespace in position 14.


2.2. Tags

2.2.1. Warn if there are tag differences between source and target segments

This option checks if the translation has the same tags as the source. The images below show some cases pointed out by the tool.

In the image above, the tool has issued a Missing tag flag to show that the linguist has not added a tag that should have been added to the target.

In this case, QA has issued an Extra tag flag indicating that there is a tag in the target that is not in the source language.

 

2.2.2. Try to guess opening/closing types for placeholder tags

Select this option to let the program try to detect if tags are opening or closing. If an opening/closing type is detected, it will be included in the translation.

 

2.2.3. Enforce strict order of the tags

This option checks if the tags are in the correct order.

In the example above, the QA has issued a Suspect tag flag pointing out that there is an atypical tag sequence in the target.


2.3. Characters

2.3.1. Warn if a character is not included in the ISO-8859-1 character set encoding

This option checks the text characters against the ISO-8859-1 character set encoding.

The tool has issued an Allowed Characters flag pointing out that there is an inconsistency regarding the encoding of the character set. This checkpoints to a special character (Ξ) entered in the target.

 

2.3.2. Warn if some possibly corrupted characters are found in the target entry

This option points out special patterns that usually indicate a file with corrupted characters. For example, a UTF-8 file opens as ISO-8859-1, etc.

This check issued a Suspect pattern flag to point to the presence of a special symbol (õ) entered in the target, indicating the possibility of corrupted characters.

This feature does not find all possible cases of corrupted characters, only some of the most frequent ones.


2.4. Length

2.4.1. Warn if a target is longer than 255

This option targets any segment longer than 255 characters. The length is based on the number of characters, not counting tags.

In the image above, the tool emitted the Target Length tag that indicates that the target has more than 255 characters.

 

2.4.2. Warn if a target is disproportionately longer than its source

This option points out any target segment that is disproportionately longer than its source text.

In the image above, the tool emitted the Target Length tag to point out that the target is much larger than the source.

 

2.4.3. Warn if a target is disproportionately shorter than its source

This option points out any target segment that is disproportionately shorter than its source text.

When the translation is much larger/smaller than the source language, the Target Length flag will be output by the tool.

 

2.4.4. Warn if a source or target text unit does not fit ITS storage size property

Set this option to check the byte length of the text units that have an ITS storage size property.

Example xliff with annotation its-storagesize="4" Source: abcXY Target: abcXYZ This check will fail because target have 5 characters it is crossing limit 4

Read more about storage size: https://www.w3.org/TR/its20/#storagesize


In case of any false warnings, the linguist can ignore these QA Checks. They are not mandatory to deliver or complete any workflow.

The QA Tool will not prevent the user from completing a task if the user decides to ignore any or all warnings. The QA Tool will only provide the user with some guidance on possible issues within the translated content so the user can make the required ammendments.