The Digital Calibration Certificate (DCC) supports multilingual data to meet the legal and practical requirements of countries with multiple official languages. This article outlines how multiple languages are handled within a DCC document, focusing on the elements dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1 and dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1, and their relationship to multilingual textual content (see also dcc:coreData)
The DCC uses two XML elements to manage language declarations:
This element defines the mandatory language codes that must be considered official in cases where the interpretation of the document content is unclear or ambiguous. It specifies the languages that are deemed authoritative and are used for disambiguation.
<dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1>en</dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1>
<dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1>de</dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1>
This element specifies all the language codes that are used within a particular DCC document. It defines the set of official languages in which content is provided.
dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1.<dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1>en</dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1>
<dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1>de</dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1>
<dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1>fr</dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1>
dcc:textTypeMultilingual support extends to the DCC’s dcc:textType, which is used to represent textual content in the DCC. This type is defined to support either:
content elements, each with an explicit lang attribute.content element without an lang attribute, indicating the content is valid for all usedLangCodeISO639_1 languages.dcc:textTypeWhen dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1 is declared:
The dcc:textType must contain:
content element without a language tag (implying that it applies to all used languages),content elements with lang attributes, only languages specified in dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1 are allowed to be used.If the latter structure is used (with language tags), we recommend to have at least one content element for every language listed in dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1.
<dcc:name> <!-- dcc:textType -->
<dcc:content lang="en">Force transducer</dcc:content>
<dcc:content lang="de">Kraftaufnehmer</dcc:content>
<dcc:content lang="fr">Transducteur de force</dcc:content>
</dcc:name>
<dcc:declaration>
<dcc:content lang="de">
Die DAkkS ist Unterzeichner der multilateralen Übereinkommen der European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) und der International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) zur gegenseitigen Anerkennung der Kalibrierscheine.
</dcc:content>
<dcc:content lang="en">
The DAkkS is signatory to the multilateral agreements of the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) and of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) for the mutual recognition of calibration certificates.
</dcc:content>
<dcc:content lang="de">
Alle Messergebnisse werden von einem dcc:valid-Element (oder dcc:validXMLList-Element) begleitet, das durch eine refId auf dieses dcc:statement-Element verweist. Einträge "true" innerhalb dieses dcc:valid-Elements (oder dcc:validXMLList-Elements) geben an, dass (a) die zugehörigen Ergebnisse innerhalb des akkreditierten (oder KCDB-abgedeckten) Bereichs liegen UND (b) dass die mit den Werten verbundene Unsicherheit größer oder gleich der CMC-Unsicherheit ist.
</dcc:content>
<dcc:content lang="en">
All measurement results are accompanied by a dcc:valid (or dcc:validXMLList) element with a refId pointing to this dcc:statement element. Entries "true" within this dcc:valid (or dcc:validXMLList) element denote that (a) the associated result(s) is/are within the accredited (or KCDB-covered) range AND (b) that the uncertainty associated with the value(s) is greater than or equal to the CMC uncertainty.
</dcc:content>
</dcc:declaration>
Example from DKD Expert Report for Temperature
<dcc:name> <!-- dcc:textType -->
<dcc:content>PTB</dcc:content>
</dcc:name>
In this case, the content is interpreted as being applicable in all languages defined in dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1.
dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1 to define the legal fallback languages for interpretation.dcc:usedLangCodeISO639_1 includes at least the languages listed in dcc:mandatoryLangCodeISO639_1.dcc:textType, prefer language-specific content if accurate, culturally appropriate, or translated terms are necessary.