We would like to use the XLIFF format as base for translating certain texts from German into French and Italian. (The translations will be performed with SDL Trados.)
From the specification, there seems to be precisely one target language per XLIFF file, but additionally there can be specified further "alternate languages". Specifying two target languages would therefore be possible from the spec:
<xliff xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2" version="1.2">
<file source-language="de" target-language="it">
<body>
<trans-unit id="hi">
<source>Betrieb</source>
<target>Divisione</target>
<alt-trans>
<target xml:lang="fr">Site</target>
</alt-trans>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
</xliff>
Is this using XLIFF in the expected sense? Or would it be better to produce two documents, one with target language fr and another one with target language it? (I don't like the repetition)
I work for a translation agency. I have not seen multilingual xliff files yet. So to make your and your agency's life easier, I would build individual files. Also other tools like e.g. CenShare create individual files.
And it makes it easier to hand it over to different translators.