ISO/DTR 24633-1
(Main)Management of terminology resources — Companion to TermBase eXchange (TBX) — Part 1: General
Management of terminology resources — Companion to TermBase eXchange (TBX) — Part 1: General
Gestion des ressources terminologiques — Complément à TermBase eXchange (TBX) — Partie 1: Généralités
General Information
Standards Content (Sample)
FINAL DRAFT
Technical
Report
ISO/TC 37/SC 3
Management of terminology
Secretariat: DIN
resources — Companion to
Voting begins on:
TermBase eXchange (TBX) —
2025-10-08
Part 1:
Voting terminates on:
2025-12-03
General
Gestion des ressources terminologiques — Complément à
TermBase eXchange (TBX) —
Partie 1: Généralités
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT,
WITH THEIR COMMENTS, NOTIFICATION OF ANY
RELEVANT PATENT RIGHTS OF WHICH THEY ARE AWARE
AND TO PROVIDE SUPPOR TING DOCUMENTATION.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL, TECHNO-
LOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND USER PURPOSES, DRAFT
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MAY ON OCCASION HAVE
TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL
TO BECOME STAN DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE
MADE IN NATIONAL REGULATIONS.
Reference number
FINAL DRAFT
Technical
Report
ISO/TC 37/SC 3
Management of terminology
Secretariat: DIN
resources — Companion to
Voting begins on:
TermBase eXchange (TBX) —
Part 1:
Voting terminates on:
General
Gestion des ressources terminologiques — Complément à
TermBase eXchange (TBX) —
Partie 1: Généralités
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT,
WITH THEIR COMMENTS, NOTIFICATION OF ANY
RELEVANT PATENT RIGHTS OF WHICH THEY ARE AWARE
AND TO PROVIDE SUPPOR TING DOCUMENTATION.
© ISO 2025
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL, TECHNO-
LOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND USER PURPOSES, DRAFT
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MAY ON OCCASION HAVE
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
TO BECOME STAN DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE
MADE IN NATIONAL REGULATIONS.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland Reference number
ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 2
5 Relationship between the generic TBX core structure and TBX dialects . 3
6 Scope of TBX companions . 3
7 TBX namespace . 3
8 Inline formatting . 4
9 How to develop a TBX companion. 4
9.1 Define a validation schema .4
9.1.1 Define the scope .4
9.1.2 Describe the methodology for a schema .4
9.2 Define an alternate representation .5
9.2.1 Define the scope .5
9.2.2 Describe the methodology for a representation .5
Bibliography . 6
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through
ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee
has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations,
governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely
with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent
rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a)
patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that
this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at
www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and terminology, Subcommittee
SC 3, Management of terminology resources.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
iv
Introduction
This document is the first part of a series of companion standards to ISO 30042:2019, which defines a
framework for representing terminological data, referred to as TBX 3.0.
Although TBX 2019 (ISO 30042:2019) is only the second edition of the International Standard, an earlier
[11]
LISA version existed that has come to be designated TBX 1.0 . The third version of the TBX standard
(ISO 30042:2019) provides for a core data structure that is common to all TBX dialects, augmented by
additional modules designed to define the constraints associated with supplemental data categories used
in different terminology management environments. This structural principle provides users with the
flexibility to configure their own TBX-compliant data models by combining the TBX core structure with
other existing modules, such as TBX-Min and TBX-Basic, plus a final module containing any additional data
categories designed to meet their special needs.
NOTE TBX-Basic is a common TBX dialect that reflects industry best-practices for terminology databases that are
[11]
used for content production purposes such as authoring and translation.
End users of terminological data collections include technical writers, translators and information specialists.
They will benefit most from the implementation of the TBX framework if the computing tools used in their
work environments integrate procedures for the automatic validation of TBX document instances. Thus,
the ISO 24633 series of Technical Reports is directed primarily at tools developers who wish to implement
ISO 30042. It is assumed that the projected users of this document will possess the following skills:
— familiarity with basic principles of concept-oriented terminology management;
— familiarity with the TBX standard (ISO 30042);
— familiarity with the approach involved in a given schema or representation.
This document ensures commonality across multiple documents so that readers experience familiarity.
Subsequent parts of this series describe either a schema for validation, such as RNG, or an alternate
representation such as RDFS, JSON, DCT style (of TBX), TEI (or TEI friendly).
This document provides a general overview of how to develop schemas and representations for TBX. It
includes the following:
— Terminology: Representation-agnostic terminology.
— Scope: Clarification of the scope of companions to TBX.
— Methodology: How to approach the development and writing of new schemas or representations.
Additional schemas or representations are described in subsequent parts of this series.
v
FINAL DRAFT Technical Report ISO/DTR 24633-1:2025(en)
Management of terminology resources — Companion to
TermBase eXchange (TBX) —
Part 1:
General
1 Scope
TermBase eXchange (TBX) comprises a framework consisting of two interacting components: a core
structure and a formalism for defining data category modules. ISO 30042:2019, Clause 8 and Annex A,
describe the elements and attributes of the TBX core structure. This document provides an overview
of schemas and alternate representations that can be developed based on the information described in
ISO 30042.
Individual validation schemas and alternate representations are described in individual Technical Reports
in the ISO 24633 series.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 30042, Management of terminology resources — TermBase eXchange (TBX)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 30042 and the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
DCA
data category as attribute
style of representing TBX data whereby most data categories are expressed as the value of a type attribute
on an XML element declared in the corresponding schema (3.6)
EXAMPLE adjective
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.10]
3.2
DCT
data category as tag
style of representing TBX data whereby most data categories are expressed as XML generic identifiers
EXAMPLE adjective
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.11]
3.3
TBX dialect
dialect
markup language that validates according to the TBX core structure (3.5) and allows exactly those data
categories at those levels specified by a particular data category module or set of data category modules and
complies with all other relevant constraints
Note 1 to entry: “All other relevant constraints” refers to constraints that are necessary for the dialect in question
but that are not expressible in either the TBX core structure or the data category modules, such as date formats or
conditional constraints.
Note 2 to entry: In most applications, a TBX dialect is expressed in XML although other serializations are possible.
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.12, modified — “TBX dialect” added as preferred term; “XML markup” changed
to “markup” at the beginning of the definition; final sentence of Note 1 to entry deleted; Note 2 to entry added.]
3.4
TBX core structure schema
schema (3.6) that expresses the TBX core structure (3.5) for use in validating a TBX document instance
EXAMPLE Relax NG schema.
3.5
TBX core structure
common structure and data categories that are used in all TBX dialects (3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.6, modi
...
ISO/TC 37/SC 3/WG 3
Secretariat: DIN
Date: 2025-09-1124
Management of terminology resources — Companion to TermBase
eXchange (TBX) —
Part 1:
General
Gestion des ressources terminologiques — Complément à TermBase eXchange (TBX) —
Partie 1: Généralités
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO
at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: + 41 22 749 01 11
E-mail: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii
Contents
Foreword . iv
Introduction . v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 2
5 Relationship between the generic TBX core structure and TBX dialects . 3
6 Scope of TBX companions . 4
7 TBX namespace . 4
8 Inline formatting . 4
9 How to develop a TBX companion . 5
9.1 Define a validation schema . 5
9.2 Define an alternate representation . 5
Bibliography . 7
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through
ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been
established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and
non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of
ISO documentsdocument should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules
of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights
in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s)
which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not
represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at
www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and terminology, Subcommittee
SC 3, Management of terminology resources.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
iv
Introduction
This document is the first inpart of a series of companionscompanion standards to ISO 30042:2019,
Management of terminology resources – TermBase eXchange (TBX), which defines a framework for
representing terminological data, referred to as TBX 3.0.
Although TBX 2019 (ISO 30042:2019) is only the second edition of the ISO standardInternational Standard,
[11 [9]]
an earlier LISA version existed that has come to be designated TBX 1.0 . . The third version of the TBX
standard (ISO 30042:2019) provides for a core data structure that is common to all TBX dialects, augmented
by additional modules designed to define the constraints associated with supplemental data categories used
in different terminology management environments. This structural principle provides users with the
flexibility to configure their own TBX-compliant data models by combining the TBX core structure with other
existing modules, such as TBX-Min and TBX-Basic , plus a final module containing any additional data
categories designed to meet their special needs.
NOTE TBX-Basic is a common TBX dialect that reflects industry best-practices for terminology databases that are
[11]
used for content production purposes such as authoring and translation.
End users of terminological data collections include technical writers, translators, and information specialists.
They will benefit most from the implementation of the TBX framework if the computing tools used in their
work environments integrate procedures for the automatic validation of TBX document instances. Thus, the
ISO/TR 24633 -series of Technical Reports is directed primarily toat tools developers who wish to implement
the standardISO 30042. It is assumed that the projected users of Part 1 of this seriesdocument will possess
the following skills:
— Familiarityfamiliarity with basic principles of concept-oriented terminology management;
— Familiarityfamiliarity with the TBX standard (ISO 30042);
— Familiarityfamiliarity with the approach involved in a given schema or representation.
This document ensures commonality across multiple documents so that readers experience familiarity.
Subsequent parts of this series describe either a schema for validation, such as RNG, or an alternate
representation such as RDFS, JSON, DCT style (of TBX), TEI (or TEI friendly).
Part 1This document provides a general overview of how to develop schemas and representations for TBX. It
includes the following:
— Terminology: representationRepresentation-agnostic terminology;.
— Scope: clarificationClarification of the scope of companions to TBX;.
— Methodology: howHow to approach the development and writing of new schemas or representations.
Additional schemas or representations are described in subsequent parts of this series.
TBX-Basic is a common TBX dialect that reflects industry best-practices for terminology databases that are used for
[9]
content production purposes such as authoring and translation.
v
Management of terminology resources — Companion to TermBase
eXchange (TBX) —
Part 1:
General
1 Scope
TermBase eXchange (TBX) comprises a framework consisting of two interacting components: a core structure
and a formalism for defining data category modules. ISO 30042:2019, Clause 8 and Annex A of ISO
30042:2019, describe the elements and attributes of the TBX core structure. This document provides an
overview of schemas and alternate representations that can be developed based on the information described
in ISO 30042.
Individual validation schemas and alternate representations are described in individual Technical Reports in
the ISO/TR 24633 -series.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 30042, Management of terminology resources — TermBase eXchange (TBX)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 30042 and the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminologicalterminology databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1
DCA
data category as attribute
style of representing TBX data whereby most data categories are expressed as the value of a type attribute on
an XML element declared in the corresponding schema (3.6)
EXAMPLE adjective
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.10]
3.2
DCT
data category as tag
style of representing TBX data whereby most data categories are expressed as XML generic identifiers
EXAMPLE adjective
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.11]
3.3
TBX dialect
dialect
markup language that validates according to the TBX core structure (3.5) and allows exactly those data
categories at those levels specified by a particular data category module or set of data category modules and
complies with all other relevant constraints
Note 1 to entry: “All other relevant constraints” refers to constraints that are necessary for the dialect in question but
that are not expressible in either the TBX core structure or the data category modules, such as date formats or conditional
constraints.
Note 2 to entry: In most applications, a TBX dialect is expressed in XML although other serializations are possible.
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.12, modified — “TBX dialect” added as preferred term; “XML markup” changed
to “markup” at the beginning of the definition; final sentence of Note 1 to entry deleted; Note 2 to entry added.]
3.4
TBX core structure schema
schema (3.6) that expresses the TBX core structure (3.5) for use in validating a TBX document instance
EXAMPLE Relax NG schema.
3.5
TBX core structure
common structure and data categories that are used in all TBX dialects (3.3)
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019, 3.6, modified – Note 1 to entry removed; preferred— Preferred term “core
structure” changed to “TBX core structure”]”; Note 1 to entry deleted.]
3.6
schema
formal description of a model expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content acceptable by
the model
4 Abbreviated terms
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
ISO International Organization for Standardization
LISA/OSCAR Localization Industry Standards Association/Open Standards for Container/ Content
Allowing Re-use
OASIS Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
OWL Web Ontology Language
RDF Resource Description Framework
RNG, RELAX NG REgular LAnguage for XML Next Generation
TBX TermBase eXchange
TR Technical Report
UML Unified Modeling Language
URI Universal Resource Identifier
W3C Worldwide Web Consortium
WG Working Group
XLIFF XML Localization Interchange File Format
[10]
XML eXtensible Markup Language
[11]
XSD XML Schema Definition
JSON JavaScript Object Notation
LISA Localization Industry Standards Association
OSCAR Open Standards for Container/ Content Allowing Re-use
RDF Resource Description Framework
RDFS Resource Description Framework Schema
RNG, RELAX NG REgular LAnguage for XML Next Generation
TBX TermBase eXchange
TEI Text Encoding Initiative
UML Unified Modeling Language
XLIFF XML Localization Interchange File Format
[12]
XML eXtensible Markup Language
5 Relationship between the generic TBX core structure and TBX dialects
As outlined in the Scope, the TBX core structure schema reflects the generic markup environment upon which
all TBX dialects are built. All compliant TBX dialects validate against this core schema. The specific schema for
any individual dialect states the name of that dialect in the root element of the TBX document instance and
includes those data categories that are added to the core data model for that dialect, which means that the
specific schema for a given dialect can only validate files of that same dialect.
This restriction is primarily because of two constraints:
a) Matching dialect declaration: Any schema for a TBX dialect is based on the assumption that the value of
the dialect name in the respective TBX file matches the name of the dialect for that schema. This means,
for instance, that validating a TBX-Basic file with a schema for the T
...
Questions, Comments and Discussion
Ask us and Technical Secretary will try to provide an answer. You can facilitate discussion about the standard in here.